South Korea: 7 weeks left!!!

AHHHHHHH!!! I ONLY HAVE 7 WEEKS LEFT IN KOREA!!!!! Just a quick FYI, if you don't want to read this whole post then click on my new youtube blog update to the right and you can just listen to me talk. Oh and here's your warning, I got a little emo writing this post so sorry for the drama at points haha Otherwise, here goes...
I seriously can't believe the year is almost over. I think I experienced every possible emotion this year because everything is just so intense being on the other side of the world. The good moments were very enjoyable and the bad moments maybe seemed a little worse then they actually were all things considered. But, I learned so much about myself this year and my career etc. etc. etc. So, I wouldn't trade my experiences for anything and I can't imagine being anywhere else this year, but let me tell you, it was NOT easy!!! However, like most things in life, when all is said and done all you remember are the good things, people, love, and the occasional low moment accompanied by the laughter of hindsight. Sitting here in my unfortunately messy apartment, I am filled with a lot of nostalgia. Since I grew up moving, I usually don't get that nostalgic about the actual houses/dorm rooms/apartments I have lived in but I think it's different with this apartment. After all, I spent every night in this random apartment in the middle of a very Korean neighborhood hours away from some of my other friend's apartments. Obviously I am used to living alone by now, but what is different about living alone here is that you have to travel at least 1 hour just to be in touch with a few friends. So, living alone in Seoul has been extremely interesting and there have been many "sleepless in seoul" nights as I have filled the night hours with skype conversations, late night gchating, thinking, lesson planning, laying in my bed trying to sleep but getting so excited about moving to Chicago, etc. I know this blog post is different from all my others but with such little time left I felt compelled to write a cliffnotes version of the (excuse my very lame pun) "Seoul Searching" I have done this year. And it was a success. I am ready to close this chapter of my life and move on to the next, and I honestly wouldn't change a thing...other than my extremely tiny apartment with no windows!!! I will definitely be ready to say goodbye to Korea in a few weeks, but will always appreciate this crazy city for the adventure that it was. And I will NEVER forget the smell of kimchi and soju on the subway, thick pollution, extremely jerky bus rides (I actually have fallen off my seat twice), my cute students, hours on the subway, great and amazing friends, fun travel vacations, lost in translation moments, and the countless hours I have spent on youtube trying to entertain myself in a compact apartment with no TV, radio, or telephone.

I guess the first thing I want to update you on in this post is that I am running the Chicago half marathon on September 13. While I have always played tennis, I honestly used to DREAD the days of college practice when coach said we had to run. I DO NOT LIKE RUNNING!!! But, I ran a 5k with a few girls a couple weeks back and I thought to myself, why not run the Chicago half marathon. So, after a little encouragement from my dad I signed up and have been training for about three weeks now. I never ever ever ever thought I would say this but I AM LOVING THE TRAINING PROCESS!! Granted it's extremely hard to get myself to put my running shoes on, but once I do it usually goes very well. So I'm averaging about 22 miles a week of running and my time and endurance is getting much better so yayyyyy. Hopefully my uncle will run the marathon with me too since he is currently training for one in August :)

The next notable thing to tell you about is a little project I'm doing with a friend of mine here. We are making a movie in which we try to capture the essence of Seoul so hopefully it will actually get finished before we leave.

Oh, the 5K that I mentioned was at Olympic Stadium so I actually got to cross the finish line that all the medal winners of 1988 crossed...super cool, even if it was only a 5k race haha

I have two more weeks of the actual school year left at Seoul Global and Jamsil Middle School. After that I will be teaching summer English camps at both schools and will head back to America on August 25 and start grad school the same day!!!

I am climbing Mt. Fuji in Japan this weekend. July 4th actually! I'm pretty pumped for that so I will definitely post pictures when I get back. We are climbing the mountain at night so we can catch the sunrise at the top, should be a super cool view :)

Patrick is off to start at the Naval academy this week!! I can't believe my baby bro is actually starting college!!! wow!!! I posted a few pictures of a camping trip him and his friends went on as a last bang before they all went on to school so I hope you enjoy those. Johnny is doing well too. He just took Step II of his boards yesterday and I'm sure he is relieved they are over. And my mom and dad are doing well also and I love our long conference call skype chats...they totally make my day!!!!

Also, if you wanna check out my youtube videos just click on the videos in the video bar on the right. Besides my most recent blog video update I made a fathers day video for my dad/mothers day etc. sooooooo family, check it out cause there are pics of all of you in them wooooo :)

So, wow that is LONGGGGG!!! Thanks again for reading and keeping me updated!! Your friendship and support is amazing and so wonderful and I can't thank you all enough!!! LOVE YOU ALL!!! GOODNIGHT!!! xoxox
REEN

My friend, Dan, took a few pics of me running in Olympic Park for our video project.

Johnny dressed up for Patrick's graduation. Of course he had to take a picture outside the Neenah tennis courts woooooo

My friend, Ashley, saw two cats being sold on the street and they were crammed into on hamster cage!!! HORRIBLE!! soooo, naturally she bought them haha and now I have cute kittens to play with but not take care of...excellent!!!

So, in Korea there are specific spots for women to park in because they believe women can't drive as well as men. Therefore, the women have to park in designated women parking spots that are much wider and longer (the picture below shows that and the icon of a woman marking the spot) Of course, I think this is ridiculous and very discriminatory. One day when I was walking I saw the women spots and took a picture. Well, literally one parking row over is this car in a men's spot taking up two spots. ridiculous, ohhhh korea!!!

Dan and I went to a children's park and I decided to play in the fountain with a bunch of cute kids but then got soaking wet but it was hot so it was actually very nice. This is just at a section of a park that was fairytale inspired I guess. But it was very Alice and Wonderland themed. fun!