Mustard

Hi everyone, so I just want to start off with an "I'm sorry". i know I have been MIA... or Korea MIK hahaha.... ehhem, this week was VERY busy and a lot of tough decisions had to be made. I am no longer staying at Eliminu. The house and the family were / are great but I think this was / is one of those times, I need to be worrying about only me; not about the host family and whether i will hurt their feelings or say something wrong. I KNOW I KNOW, but those of you who are very close to me, KNOW that this is just a part of who I am, sweating every small thing, making bigger than it may be. :-/. I started taking with Sung-Min Aunni (UN-NIE = older sister in korean) about my anxiety at the beginning of the week and she went through probably what any of you would have said, there's no need to be stressed, please don't worry about us, etc etc. We talked about whether living with a family was a good match for me or not; I also went to the Homestay Korea office and talked with the staff there about my situation / feelings. Jamie (a young woman there who's been helping me a lot) even went ov er a pros and cons list with me, which was really helpful.
A bunch of a people I have met from Yonsei are staying in Ha-Suks (ha-sook); like a boarding house and the closest thing to what we consider "normal" rent in the states. ****when you get an apartment in korea, you are essentially buying a house, you put down a deposit like you would with any apartment or house but then you don't pay month to month; b/c the deposit was GIGANTO!!!*** I think I got that pretty right. But you can stay in ha-suk as along as you pay (rently month) and some are better than others just like an apartment in the states or anywhere else for that matter. So i talked with my friend b/c he had there may be a room opening up the ha-suk he lives in. There wasn't but the adjuma (older woman) who runs / owns the place new someone else who runs / owns a ha-suk a short walk away. So my friends went with me to check it out. The woman seemed very nice (despite the language barrier) and the room was very cute, a single with a bathroom in it, decent sized lots of little end tables / drawer sets to put my things in. Washer machine, breakfast and dinner And my friends talked her down from 500 to 450 a month, which was so Awesome of them!!!
So I talked things over with Aunni and I just think this is much better for me. I really like the kids so I'm going to still them English lessons (Mon and Friday evenings) I really like Sung-Min Aunni so we're going to still get together, which is nice. She loves art, so she's going to show me all the great art museums around the area. We went and saw the movie "broken english" yesterday, O-M-G! It was SOOOOOO good!!!! I don't know if it's out in the states but I highly recommend it.
Paker Posey was in it, and i kept thinking she looks so familiar but I still think of from where I know her face....hmmm.
So, now I am 15 min walk from campus and I live near some new friends, and in a college area so that's good and fun.
i got switched down a section. from B to A. Which I wasn't too thrilled about at first! Peer Pressure.... FROM TEACHERS??? what??? Yeah..... but I REALLY like the class now and the teacher is SOOOOO FUNNY!!!! O-M-G, O-M-G no, really she is, I love it. And she's REALLY NICE too!!!!!!! okay, well I have Mucho studying to do. There's a test coming up soon.
But i am Very happy and intent in my "new place". oh p.s. The homestay organization is giving me a 90% refund, which is perfect for the ha-suk. I just feel really happy right now, and curious to know what's for dinner!!!! Hmmm.....
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
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