Have you hugged your caffeine today? / 8th Day of Christmas

Coffee (especially in the recent present) has been like Homer Simpson's television to me, "teacher, mother, secret lover." Got out of a school-wide meeting today which resulted in me getting a lot done in order to block out what the other school departments were saying and trying to stick it out because the English department wasn't presenting until the dead finish. I must say I was able to get a lot done: Peggle, update my Facebook to continue the support for the missing Sarey campaign, Skype, play a round of Solitaire, Tweet, E-mail, and update my calendar. Maybe the only non-technological thing I did the whole time was refill my coffee cup.

But my energy has been fluctuating recently, given what went on this past weekend. On Friday night one of the local teachers, Lynn, was leaving SK so there was a celebration here in Songtan. This celebration involved me being the flip cup champion.

That was fun. And it happened twice where I "met" people I had never met in real life before, but they recognized me. "You're Oscar!" Yes, that happened back in LA before too. Social networking reels it's abundant head once again. After that Friday night, I had to help a friend out (cosmic karma for something I recently did I'm sure), and I got a whole 3 hours of sleep. I was a trooper and somehow managed to get my butt over the Pyeongtaek city tour bus with other teacher friends at 9 a.m. Other teachers were troopers too for being out at the same place the night before.

I must say I'm really glad I did the tour because it was really a lot of fun. Rode a horse, did two art projects, got to see some cool animals, spent time with really cool people, and got to know the area around me a whole lot better. Who knew so many great things were near me (and it was probably the most traditional Korean thing I've done in a while).

After that, a group of us headed out for some grub, then were Seoul bound (not before stopping at Starbucks of course) for Susanna's last Seoul weekend. I made it to dinner, but then my body was starting to give out. I made it to Itaewon, and that's as far as I got before I had to head back to Pyeongtaek and be in bed at a reasonable hour. Also, at the time I was walking with a bad knee that refused to bend without inflicting pain (it's better now though). I made out, but my old fart self got the best of me at some point. I spent Sunday hibernating, left the house for some ramyen and coffee with our same Pyeongtaek group.

This same group said goodbye to Susanna too, and although I recited random facts from a book my friend Nancy gave me instead of helping with the packing, I still felt like I helped. Bye Susanna, you will be missed buddy. We saw her off to the bus. First person from our usual close-knit clique to go off and back to the US. I wanted to tell her there something was wrong with the left phalange ("Friends" reference).

But alas, I will soon be in the US, with 3 more weeks to go. Your faces! I get to see your faces! My Sarey campaign has got me thinking about the good times I miss spending with my friends back home, there's no one quite like them.

Also, on a note my sister and my brother have brought to my attention recently, I believe that the things some people say about others as resentment or to poke fun at are the same things they hate about themselves. It's textbook.

Here's countdown to song #8 from a band who needs to have a new album I can purchase soon.

#8- No Doubt's "Oi to the World"