Superior Weekend

Last weekend was AWESOME!!!!!!!

Well, most of it. The only downer was that I had to work tirelessly on my paper to finish it up and got very sleep.
But, finishing the paper was one of the reasons why this weekend was awesome!
It came to 38 pages. Plus 52 pages of appendices and references. Total: 90 pages! Death paper. I was in tears over it all weekend. Like seriously crying at times.
Corey was also paper writing until 3:30 AM both nights. So we didn't get to see each other much. I can't wait until Christmas break where we can do things that are not academic.
So here is my list breakdown of why last weekend was awesome:

1. Paper done. Now 50% finished with my Master's classes! 20 credits down, 20 to go!

2. Body massage. I had scheduled this thinking my paper would be finished but it wasn't so I was kicking myself for going. But, it was wonderful. She was able to put my left shoulder back in place! No more pain! And I got a lemon oil foot treatment.

3. The family Christmas tree was chopped down from the farm. :) And I got to go along with the family to help pick it out.


4. My sister graduated magna cum laude from Millersville Sunday.

5. Despite missing the Eagles game, they won and it was so amazing that in the restaurant parking lot after graduation I screamed and jumped up and down and people were staring. I also cried. 4 touchdowns in 8 minutes. Jackson is my hero.

6. I had a wonderful dinner with my parents, sisters, grandparents, and Aunt Nance to celebrate Julie's graduation. I had delicious pork barbecue and fries and cinnamon baked apples and corn bread. So yummy!



7. Sunday night I played Santa Clause and went over to two of my students delivered presents to them. They are going through some terrible times. The 4 children were smiling so big and it was beautiful.

Fashion Help

I love getting new clothes. And I love constantly changing my style. I think my style lately has been a mix of Far East- Asian style and Western. Weird. It used to be way more Bohemian. I always hated colored jeans. YUCK. Well last night I got my first pair of black jeans. They were only 25.00- my rule is never pay more than 45.00 for jeans. I really like them. They do not look punk or rock or whatever and I will be able to wear them to work I think because they are almost dressy-ish. So my problem- as with everything I want to wear- is that I don't know what to wear with them.

I know what pieces of clothing and accessories I like but cannot put anything- shoes, tops, bottoms, etc. together. So I need a personal outfit coordinator for me. Someone to tell me what to wear.

So what do you wear with black jeans? Ideas?

Fair Warning...

This is your fair warning that at any moment I could have a nervous breakdown caused by extreme stress.

Life is SO busy this time of year. And during this time of year who has time to sit down and write a 30 page research paper that is worth 80% of a course grade.
NOT I!

:(

NYC

After seeing my beau only once in a 6 week time span, we decided to take a nice day trip and get away. We were planning on Cape Cod (would have been the whole weekend) but that fell through because he had a job interview so it would have been too late to leave, etc. So we picked NYC.
It turns out that you pay a lot to get there (if you don't drive) and then you just walk around. There is so much to "do" that there is nothing to do...I know that sounds like it doesn't make sense but it does. You don't have time to do everything so you end up just walking around and seeing things. But, it's fun all the same.
Our weather was AMAZING for a mid-November day. It was so warm that I was too hot in my coat and had to carry it all day. And it was warm enough that we could eat dinner outside!! With no coat on at 7:30 PM!

Our agenda/highlights:
-We started at Fordham because Corey wanted to visit his alma mater. We walked around the beautiful campus and then ate lunch in the caf. It was cool being a college kid for the day. Being Saturday around noon, they were still serving hot breakfast and everyone walks in in their sweats hungover and looking like freaks from the night before. It was supposed to be 11.00 per person if you were not a student, but Corey asked about an alumni deal and the lady let us in for 5.00 a piece. NICE! So we had an endless buffet for 5 bucks. They have pretty good food. Their oatmeal cookies are to die for. I used to have Corey bring them home for me on breaks when he was there. This time, since you can't carry food out, he got me a "to-go" cup of coffee, but the coffee cup was filled with cookies. ;) It was sweet.


-Then we went to Columbus Circle and looked at all of the stores that we can't afford to shop in. I tried on 100.00 leather gloves and we pretended to be rich as we shopped with people that brought their dressed-up puppies with them. Weird. Corey took me to Williams Sonoma, but wouldn't let me make a wedding registry. Whatever. I say "it's never too early to plan ahead." Apparently, it is.

-Then we sat outside of Central Park and met up with my cousin, Jim, who is awesome, BTW. :)
With Jim, we walked thru Times Square, saw Rock. Center and the tree (not lit up yet), and the ice skaters. It was nice that we got the cool "Christmas-y" feel but it was like 65 degrees!
Then we saw a wedding at St. Patrick's Cathedral.


-We went to Jim's place and saw the Statue of Liberty.

- I saw a movie being filmed. Very neat.

-Then we went back to Times Square and Corey and I ate dinner at Junior's Cheesecake Place, which I had been wanting to try. Super healthy meal. 10 oz. cheeseburgers, fries, 2 onion rings that were like donuts, and a ridiculously amazing piece of strawberry shortcake cheesecake. All for less than 40 bucks!!!! In Times Square! We definitely did New York on a budget! Getting there was the most expensive part. Then we went into Toys R Us so I could check on dad's store. It looked busy! :) That's good!


It was a great day and it was so nice to see Corey for a whole day.

Faith in Humanity

There are still nice people in the world! People that will take time out of their day to help a random person...ahh, how refreshing. Also a good reminder of how important it is that you try to do at least one nice random act of kindness each day.

I was running late for work today- but at least I looked good ;-)- and was running out the door with my baggy of banana bread and my cold Starbucks mocha drink to indulge in at work, so my hands were full. I get down to my car and notice it is covered in stupid ice. Grrrr. So I start scraping the ice furiously so I can get on the road and this man that works at the law office next to my building gets out of his car and (in his suit) offers to use his icescraper to help me get the job done faster. How sweet is that!?!?! So he scraped the back and I did the front and he did the left side and I did the right and then we both went to work. :)

This made me happy. Help someone out today!! It feels good!

Connected Again

I haven't had the Internet at my apartment since April. It's a long story but anyway- not having the internet means having to pay my online bills at work, wait to go to my parents house on the weekend to post pictures, and let's say it makes it hard to do your school work and research. So I am back now! It feels so good!!
I had my iPhone so that I could keep up with e-mail and FB but now everything will be easier. That tiny phone screen gets old.

So first- a Seoul update:
I put my pictures (most of them) up on Facebook.
Here are some of the things I did/saw:

-When I first got to Korea I hated it. HATED it. Partially because I was on a cramped plane ride for 18 hours next to some girl who was sobbing because she was leaving home for the military for a year, I bought a ridiculously expensive egg sandwich (which was so small) and then dropped it on the plane floor; I stepped on my glasses because I fell asleep and they came off; I got on the wrong bus at the airport to go to my house for the week; I couldn't find the guy I was supposed to meet up with....yeah, everything sucked. On Monday I just got on the metro alone and wandered the streets lost and scared. BUT THEN...

- I met amazing people. The people on this trip were so fun to be around. And once the conference started I was surrounded by people that do what I do- teach ESL or EFL. That was SO nice, since where I work I am the ONLY one and I am isolated like a little island. :(
Monday night I ended up meeting up with a girl from PA over there- Sara- and this guy from Alabama who is living in Tokyo teaching English-Josh. We met up at this HUGE mall and then went exploring together. Josh had lived in Seoul for a year, so he knew where to go and a bit of the language. So I spent the first couple days touring with them.

-I toured palaces, secret gardens, temples, went up in the tower and saw the changing of the guards. I went shopping and tried new foods. The food was not my favorite and it made it difficult that I am allergic to shellfish since they put that in everything. But the good thing was that Josh was craving American cuisine since in Tokyo it is too expensive, so we got to eat Western food a few times. And once we ate Mexican! :) Yum!

-Once Thursday rolled around and I knew I had to get up early for "school" I was bummed. BUT it turned out that "school" was awesome. Apparently people came from all over to hear my professors speak. They are the top in the field and I was so happy to be able to meet them. The first 2 days of the conference it was only my University classmates, then they opened it up to the public. I met people from all over the world and the sessions were informative and interactive. NOT BORING! :) There was this panel discussion and we had to submit questions to be answered and they selected the questions for the next day and mine was one of the 5 questions they chose and there were like 60 people there! So I was so thrilled they picked my question!

-Every night after "class" we went out- there was about 40 of us? But we usually split into 2/3/ or 4 groups. We went out for dinner and drinks and had a great time. Friday night we went to this rooftop bar where they had music playing and a bonfire. We thought the place was going to burn down, but we had a great time. And a great view of the city at night!

-Saturday night we had a big farewell party at a pub and we surprised our Prof. with a birthday cake. He was the President of TESOL and awesome! He kissed me on the cheek! :) haha. Then since it was our last night, everyone went off to do something and I headed off with a group of 6 to go to a dance club. Best. time. ever. Seriously, I felt so far removed from my work life and I could just relax and have fun and dance!!! Since there were 6 of us, 3 guys/3 girls, we all had a dance partner. We stayed out til about 3 and then I took a cab home. I got in at about 4 AM and then had to pack for the airport and be up at 6 for class. HAH. What a joke. No amount of coffee could have helped.

-Despite being sleep deprived, the trip was worth it. Getting back was rough- flights delayed and got in at about 3 AM and was at work by 7. Also a joke- I was a zombie all week.

I felt so independent on this trip. I had to navigate subways and walked all around this huge city every night (after I left my friends) alone so I felt free and adventurous. I cried on the plane coming home. I didn't want to leave my friends. Since we are all spread out, I don't know if I will ever see them again. :(

There is something incredibly freeing and eye-opening when you experience a trip alone like this. I was able to think about so much and really have a time of self-discovery, as cheesy as that sounds.
So here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip:
Sorry that I don't know how to format the pictures so they look nice on a blog. These are some of my favorites, but you can check out facebook for more!

Also, I hope everyone went out to vote today! I made sure I voted to cancel out my boyfriend's vote. ;) Haha.

Hope to be blogging more now that I have all-access to the web!

Seoul

I have been absent from the blog world. I apologize. I am planning on doing a catch up post soon. But I am just popping in to say that my week/8 days in Seoul, Korea, was most likely the best week of my entire life up to this point. I felt amazing and enjoyed it to the fullest. I will update with pictures this weekend. :)
Let's just say...it is rough to be back. Responsibility- what's that?