It's been quite a while since I updated the website and I've been keeping myself busy, so here's a bit of what's going on. The weather has been really beautiful for the most part lately. A few days that were TOO humid, and a few rainy, dreary days, but mostly it's been beautiful. It really changed from winter to spring in a blink of an eye, and of course that means that summer will be here just as fast.

The big news mostly regards my future. I am still waiting to hear an official offer of admission from Columbia, but they told me I was "recommended for admission", and as long as my grades and GRE scores are what I told them, then I'm in. But that was two weeks ago and I am still waiting to hear. If I get in, I will almost definitely go, but Yale needs to know for certain by May 15. So hopefully Columbia will get everything straightened out and I will be going back there.

The other thing regarding my future is my schedule for staying in Korea. After Vivi and I broke up, I considered getting out of here as soon as possible, but swung a deal with The Princeton Review by which I will only be teaching on Saturdays in July. Pretty sweet. So I'll have lots of time to travel around Korea and maybe Japan and/or China. My plan is to leave Korea around August 6. In my head I am already starting to count down, but I am trying not to do so. Part of me is excited to be returning to America, part of me is sad to be leaving Korea. I guess I just want to leave here with good memories and am trying to have lots of fun before I go.

March and April were both busy months for me teaching-wise, though April got pretty bearable towards the end. My classes are going to be a lot smaller this month so I will have time to relax and hang out with my friends. In fact, one of the classes is going to be videotaped so that Princeton Review can offer the class online. Tonight was the first taped class and it was a little awkward for me, but not too bad. I almost tripped over the wire for the microphone about two or three times, though. I am sure I'll end up busting ass at least once this month.

Now that Rob is gone and I don't see Vivi anymore, I find myself running short on friends. My buddy Mike also returned to America (after getting engaged... congratulations, Mike!) and so mostly I've been hanging out with people from work, some former students, and my good friend Caroline. She is my #1 drinking buddy and my little sister in Korea. We tend to meet mostly in the trendy upscale neighborhood of Apgujeong. Not because we're trendy or upscale, mind you, it just happens to be where our favorite bars are. Mostly we go to places where we can get Hoegaarden. One night, we each had six bottles (she was drinking Hoegaarden, I was drinking Sam Adams) and she felt compelled to preserve our accomplishment on film.

I also went to look at the cherry blossoms in a few different neighborhoods when they were in bloom right around Easter Sunday. I took a lot of pictures but here are my favorites.

I've been to a few baseball games, too, including both games on opening weekend. Unfortunately it's a bit hard to coordinate everyone's schedule but I am hoping to go to a few more this spring. I definitely want to go before it gets too hot. One funny story: I went with Caroline and some other friends to a game that featured the Doosan Bears. "Doosan" is not a place, it's a company that makes alcohol, one type of which is OB Lager. Anyway, there are guys walking around with tanks of beer on their back and when you order the beer, they fill you up right out of the tank. Caroline asked if the beer was free and we said "it is for YOU", meaning that we would pay for it. So in the 6th inning or so, she said "how come all of these other people aren't getting beer? Don't they know it's free?" After about five minutes of pissing ourselves, we broke it to Caroline that the beer was not, in fact, free. I'm glad she said something to us rather than embarassed herself by asking for her free beer.

By the way, we DID buy her a beer to make up for laughing at her.

Oh, I forgot to mention.... UConn won the national championship in both men's and women's hoops. Yay! No, I didn't go to UConn, but I did grow up in Connecticut and followed both programs since before they were "good". Unfortunately I missed UConn's game against Duke (though I'm sure I would have been hyperventilating, cf. the 1999 national championship), but I did catch the blowout of Georgia Tech. Not a bad start to New England's sports year (though the B's and C's both crashed out of the playoffs early).

And one last non-Korea related rant. I have been keeping up with "Friends" and am really shocked at how they are ending this. Rachel is going to Paris?? Why?? Um, doesn't she have an infant daughter? Has anyone established what they're going to do with Emma? Monica said "Rachel really needs this job"; what the hell is that? Aren't there fashion jobs in NY? And she was offered her old job back! I know it's just a plot device to get everyone out of NY at the end of the series, but is anyone buying this? Or are we all accepting the fact that she's being totally selfish?

Oh, and why do we never see Phoebe's husband? I mean, I don't really like the guy and having Phoebe get married seemed to be the most insignificant "event" of the series (everyone else's marriage was a season-ending cliffhanger... hers was almost an after-thought). But how come we never see him?

And who's taking care of Emma all the time?? No one ever seems to mention that!

Am I taking this too seriously? =)

Anyway, in May I don't have Saturday classes, so I will have ACTUAL weekends (two days off in a row! woo hoo!) and time to relax. It's hard to believe that The Princeton Review's summer program starts in just four weeks. Seems like the last one just ended...