Summer Break

I've been back Stateside for summer break! Home for a month, doing absolutely nothing and loving every minute of it. It's gone by too fast. Summer break highlights:

• Shopping spree!!! Finding clothes that are actually my size and fit my body type
• Hanging with the family - sitting in the living room together, watching TV, and vegetating
• Waking up early and then taking long naps in the afternoon... and not feeling guilty about it
• Spending time with my best buddy and companion, Cooper, our golden retriever - can't believe he's almost ten years old already!
• Being a part of one of my very best friends' wedding! Bridal shower, bachelorette party, wedding fun... congrats Jane and Josh!!!!
• Eating mom's homemade cooking
• Eating out at my favorite restaurants
• Getting a fresh hairdo to beat the summer heat
• Taking way too many pictures of my dog 
• Road trip to Alabama with my mom and visiting her side of the family, which I haven't seen in 12 years
• Hanging out with my favorite high school teacher and sharing professional development
• Celebrating grandma's 75th birthday
• Four-wheeling and learning how to shoot multiple types of guns on my uncle's 20-acre property
• Enjoying Alabama's beauty
• Enjoying Illinois' beauty
• Seeing my best friend from Mahomet (in Nashville) after 4 years!!
• Visiting 16th Street Baptist Church in downtown Birmingham and learning more about the civil rights movements during the 60s
• Watching movies and playing Pokemon Go with my brother
• Catching as many Pokemon as possible while I'm home because Pokemon Go is blocked in Korea
• Chilling out and catching up with my friends
• Visiting my physician and actually feeling comfortable about healthcare (lol sad but true)
• Eating at my favorite pizza joint with my aunt and uncle in BloNo
• Dancing at C Street with my brother and friends
• Sleeping in my queen sized bed
• Catching up on my reading
• Watching the Olympics
• Driving my car
• Everything else that I forgot to write about...

As you all know, I will be living and teaching in Seoul for my third year with the Fulbright Program. I am looking forward to another exciting year, hopefully without the "excitement" of extreme medical issues, though. Haha! Catch you all on the other side of the world :)

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Goodbye Gwangyang~

ToastMasters Club Suncheon

It was my second-to-last day living and teaching in Gwangyang. All my boxes and suitcases for moving to Seoul have officially been sent off, and I was left with a bare bed, a TV, and a suitcase full of stuff to get rid of once I arrived back in Illinois for the summer vacation. For two nights I was sleeping with no sheets and a measly travel pillow, but it doesn't really matter because it's hot at night nowadays anyway and I slept just fine. Besides, I kept thinking, 'I'll be back in my own bed in less than 48 hours...'

Polaroids w/ Friends <3

It's been a hell of a month so far - having to tell literally everyone I know in Gwangyang that I'm leaving - coworkers, friends, home stay family, and the once unfamiliar faces I pass every morning while jogging along the river. I even broke down and started bawling in front of every faculty member in the middle of my goodbye speech at my farewell dinner... but that was a one-time deal. Since then, my emotions have been stable and I've been too busy to feel anything else. And I know that I'll be back in Korea in just a short month, albeit four hours north in the country's capital city, Seoul.

One of my classes <3

Aside from all the nostalgia, I was busy preparing for the next Fulbright teacher to take over my place. I had the students write letters and create questions to ask the new teacher, and I wrote a handy "guide" to navigating Gwangyang. When I told the boys I was leaving, their reactions were half, "TEACHER NOOOOOOO WE LOVE YOU" and the other half, "Is the next teacher going to be a pretty girl!?" Hah.

English Teachers at GHS

We also had our Fulbright Final Dinner event in Seoul, and as promised, HillaVanillaThrilla made a comeback with another parody about life in Korea. I'm working on getting the video uploaded to YouTube for public viewing. It was a fun ending to the grant year, and was my last time seeing many of the close friends I've made in the program.

GY buddies <3

The last two weeks were spent packing up my apartment, pushing through the end of the school year, and reminiscing on the two years that flew by in Gwangyang. On paper (and majority of my blog posts...), this past year was disappointing. I was plagued by a severe bacterial infection that took 6 months to fully treat, hindering my capability to fulfill some of my work and personal goals. But, being the optimist that I am, I somehow found the light at the end of the tunnel and turned things around and decided that my time in Korea isn't over.

GeunBu and I making a heart

Reflecting on my second grant year, I feel relieved that it is over. I need my month at home to relax, regain strength, and go into my third and final year feeling refreshed and ready for change. Seoul is going to be an awesome experience -- my first time living in a metropolitan city. I've made Gwangyang my comfortable home for the past two years - quite easily at that. My coworkers and students always brightened my day and made me excited to go to work in the mornings. The friends I made introduced me to all that Gwangyang and its surroundings have to offer, and we took advantage of every opportunity we had. I learned so much about Korea, its culture, the people, by living in this small city that I now call my Korean hometown. I'm looking forward to returning there during my third year in Korea, even if it is across the country from Seoul.

Thank you, Gwangyang, for taking me in and embracing me over the past two years. You'll always have a special place in my heart <3

Our office cleaners! <3

Gwangyang Friends <3

My friend GoUn <3

Krystale and SaeMin <3

The principal and I! <3

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