Tuesday, August 27, 2013

A Few More Friends to See

After my whirlwind tour of Washington DC was over I hopped on a plane and made my way to Minnesota. Lucky me, another experience with the domestic airports I enjoyed so much the first time around. This time I was even luckier because I got to connect through Atlanta, which a few of my Korean friends were greatly confused by as it's nowhere close to being on the way.  On top of that, after I politely traded seats so a brother and sister could sit together, I ound myself next to a talker. Getting any reading or napping done on this flight was not an option, oh well, at least he shared his lovely joke about TSA: "Thousands standing around", now that I could agree with.

Welcome to the mid-west 

Thursday, August 22, 2013

You Impulsively Buy Shoes? I Opt for Plane Tickets...

When I told my co-workers that I would be returning home for two weeks the first reaction I generally received was "oh so short!"  Which, considering how long and expensive the flight was going to be I tended to agree with.  I also had a lot of people I wanted to see and wasn't sure if time would permit to see them all. That's why when my friend Jared asked if there was any possibility that I'd make a side trip to DC I said most likely no.  But then a few weeks later, around 3 am (my normal high-thought process time) I reconsidered this decision, I mean why not?  So the next morning I searched, found and bought a ticket to DC, probably the best decision regarding my trip home I could have made. 


Monday, August 19, 2013

I'm One Lucky Girl

Although I'm pretty terrible at keeping in touch while I've been living in Korea (i.e. skyping, phone calls, emails, etc don't really happen) the best part of going home was being able to see so many friends that i'd gone far too long without.  After buying my ticket the excitement only continued to build as I found out more and more of my friends would actually be in Wisconsin, some coincidentally and some because well, they just love me that much :) 

If it were possible I'd marry this boy 

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Lessons Learned ~ a Visit Home

It's summer which only means one thing: summer break aka Stephanie goes on on vacation while her poor students only have to go to school until 5 ~~ seriously that's not a vacation, but more on that later.  This year instead of using my precious vacation time to jet off on another adventure through SE Asia I decided to spend some time with my loved ones.  I was lucky enough to find a cheap airline ticket and the dates worked out wonderfully for seeing lots of friends, so I figured why not.  Also, Milwaukee summer’s aren’t too terrible: baseball, lake Michigan, festivals, beer, outdoor dining, ice cream, need I say more?  

 21 hours of airports and airplanes, bring it. 

Friday, August 9, 2013

Grinning from Ear to Ear

You know those moments when you just start smiling for no reason, or even better when you sneak out a small giggle while those around you wonder if you might be crazy.  You know what i'm talking about, your mind takes you someplace awesome and you can't help but to break out a grin.  Yeah, well I had a lot of those the last few days - and no i'm not crazy,  I'm just in love...with my life.  



Monday, August 5, 2013

School's Out for Summer

Last week we had our annual, end of summer faculty “workshop” which was once again, a success.  I remember last year when I was asked if I would join the workshop I wasn’t really sure what my response should be. Umm workshop? Well that sounds like, work.  I soon came to learn that’s just another term for ‘field trip’, I soon came to discover they have many of these such names: college students go on “MT’s”, students go on ‘picnics’ and staff/businessmen ‘workshops’.  All are considered to be a good bonding experience but none of which require work, if you know Korean culture at all you’ll know what’s coming next – the bonding that happens is, of course, over soju and beer. 

Hands down favorite picture from the trip