Seoul’s been getting a lot of visits from Jack Frost lately. The last time it snowed so much to the point of having a work and school cancelled was in February 2006. Back then, I had no idea it snowed, so to hear my employer tell me to not come in to work was surprising.

Today, the same thing sort of happened. I knew it had snow a little last night, but I didn’t expect it to snow this much and still remain snowing. Here’s a good reason why I should never talk on the phone upon waking up:

Supervisor: Tara, don’t come to work today because the road conditions are red.
TC: Huh? Why?
S: Have you looked outside?
TC: No. *climbs out of bed and stumbles to the window* HOLY SHIT.
S: *laughs*

So yay for an extension on my three-day weekend, which is now four-day! Good thing, too. I had horrible insomnia last night.

ETA: Today’s snow is the largest snowfall since 1937.

ETA 2: Snow day has extended for another day. Now it’s a five-day weekend. Yippee!

Okay, it was over a week, but whatever. It counts. I’ve been occupied with a lot of activities, so that’s my excuse for disappearing from this blog for a while. Now, I am going to present my adventures in a list format because lists are cool!

KTX Trip to Gwangju

• Six months ago, I visited Gwangju (on the same day of former President Roh’s death). On November 6, 2009 (Friday), I decided to visit my grandmother again.
• Gave my mother $100 and my grandmother $100 each.
• KTX tickets are expensive ~_~;; $75 for round-trip.
• Spent six hours (three hours one-way) riding it where I slept through most of the ride.
• I surprised my grandmother, my aunt, and even my mother, who knew I was coming!
• Brought my grandmother some more fuzzy socks and snacks for her.
• Spent over $50 on taxi money for one day. In fact, this whole trip cost me $350 more or less.
• But it was worth making my grandmother happy.

Greek Cuisine Excursion

• I found a Greek restaurant, called “Santorini”, behind Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon, and I was curious to try it out with my friend.
• We made it during lunch time, so we got to try their pork gyros and chicken gyros set menu for 13,000 won ($12) which included fries and drinks.
• Also, we ordered this yoghurt, garlic, cucumber dip thingie, which came in handy for our fries and the free bread.
• Their fries, which were sliced up potatoes (like thick potato chips), were bloody fantastic!
• Their baklava (which I’ve been dying to try because I read it in one of The Baby-Sitters Club books) was good but so sweet. Wow. I have a high tolerance for sweet, but that was overdone.
• All together, our meal came to cost about 42,000 won ($40), and it was well worth it.

NaNoWriMo “FanficWriMo”

• Finished editing my 30K-words long fic for Harry Holidays.
• Betad a 30K-words fic for someone else.
• Signed up for two fanfic “challenges”.
• One fic I’m working on will be a Hogwarts University fic.
• Finished the fanmix for that fic, including coming up with the song list, renaming the songs, and designing the cover and the tracklist.
• Need to plan an outline for the other fic!

Osan Air Force Base Escapades

• I went there on November 13, 2009 (Friday the 13th!).
• After running an errand for work, I visited Osan to see a friend and hang out with him all day.
• I slept on the bus going there.
• Had brunch at awesome, wonderful, amazing Checkertails!
• Went to the BX and bought a wallet, two gloves, a Santa bear, Skittles, chocolate covered sunflower seeds, and a new bag for Portie. How all that came to $94 is beyond me.
• Headed to the shopping district area outside the base.
• There’s an Obama’s Realty, a club called Badabing, a GameStop rip-off that only accepts USD and sell Korean version of the games, and a bunch of other weirdly named places.
• Could not find a decent cafe there, so spent time at Baskin-Robbins. FAIL.
• Discovered they had ice cream fondue set for 12,000. It really enticed us, but we refrained from getting it.
• Had dinner at Checkertails again.
• Came back to Seoul by sleeping on the bus again!

An Ode to My Slytherin Scarf

• It keeps me warm.
• It saved me from freezing in one of the cold spells on a 0 degree Celsius day.
• It is very thick!
• It also makes a wonderful pillow when folded up! Especially on a bus ride!

Conclusion
I was very busy. Yay. Now to be even more busier with a four-day training from Monday to Thursday! The training starts at the most ungodly hour of eight in the morning and lasts until two in the afternoon. Then I have to work on some of those days until 8pm. I am so looking forward to a ten-hour work day!

From October 15 to 21, I am on leave from work. I’m so happy my leave got approved. Originally, I had planned on going to Tokyo this week, but that didn’t work out, so I decided to just still take a shorter leave and enjoy some staycation time. I’m excited since I haven’t had such a long break like this since I think January. Time to start partying! I already have tentative plans jotted down in my planner. I hope to not just be a bum at home for the entire week. I want to go out and do stuff. Anyway, here’s a list of my plans so far.

October 15 — Thursday
* Go to Commissary to run some errands.
* Go to SAHS and talk to Jostens representative and stop by Coach’s room.
* Meet “Gina” at Huam-dong area at 2:00 pm and go to my neighbourhood for kebabs and coffee.

October 16 — Friday
* Go down to Osan Air Force Base to check out the BX, eat at Checkertales, and have fun with my friend “Alan”.

October 17 — Saturday
* Meet Gina and go visit one of the palaces — either Changdeokgung or Gyeongbokgung.
Believe it or not, I have never been to the two famous palaces of Seoul. At least I can say that I have been to Deoksugung.

October 18 — Sunday
* Meet a co-worker and go to Insa-dong.
If that doesn’t happen, then it’s going to be a day of relaxing for me.

October 19 — Monday
* Have to go to the Immigration Office to renew my visa. FUN, NOT.
* Since I’ll be in the area, I may as well check out the newly renovated Gwanghwamun Plaza.

October 20 — Tuesday
* Go to commissary and SAHS to do some errands.
* Anything goes here. Maybe I can get Gina to go somewhere with me that day.

October 21 — Wednesday
* Relax and try to get back into the mentality of returning to work. Ugh. T_T.

Dun, dun, dun! Those are my tentative plans. Better get my camera and the money ready for all this. Time to have some fun!

. . . But first, time to survive tomorrow. Another long day awaits me.

So last night I discovered that my monthly — no, irregularly — bodily obligation started on me. Thinking nothing of it, I went to my pads stash, only to be left in a panic. I ran out of the overnight-sized ones. I mean, I had three left, but after that, there will be none! Normally I am good about keeping my stash well-stocked, but since I’ve been so irregular, I haven’t really accounted for them as well as I should. Anyway, bottom line, I needed these pads. What did I end up doing? I ended up doing the following at 1:30 in the morning:

1. I grabbed the empty package and dashed to the computer room.
2. I grabbed a sheet of paper and started writing a message to Daddy about buying two of these and mentioned that Grumpy’s (my rabbit) food is running out.
3. I taped the empty package to the message. This needs to be done because I learned early on that men like my daddy needs a visual example on what you request to buy. Then again I shop with a male mentality, too, so I do it to make it easier on him and to ensure I get the right thing!
4. I taped the message to the front door so Daddy would not miss it.

Okay, okay. I know I can easily go out and buy those evil necessity. However, it’s easier to ask Daddy to do it. Why? He has a car, so if one store doesn’t have that exact product, he can check the other store. Plus, since he has a car, he can stash it in the car and hide it there. Me? I have to carry that damn thing around in a white, transparent plastic bag, and I have to go to work where I will be around teenage boys, with no locker to hide those things. Uh, no. I think not. I am not going to suffer from that kind of embarrassment.

I’m just glad I have a Daddy who’s willing to put up with so much from me and Mum. I’ll never forget his comment he made when I started requesting him to buy these evil necessity.

For years I had to go buy pads for your mother! Now that she’s on menopause, you have to start! What an endless cycle.

I’m grateful for all that he does for us, though. Even if they are errands he’d rather not do. I’ll just have to keep a better eye on my stash from now on.

Long day, but it ended up being a mixture of crap and candy. Here’s what happened to me, in bullets for easier reading.

Work-Related

• Almost was late for work today because of miscommunication with parents.
• At work, we had this small block party, filled with a dunk tank, couple inflatable games, and free BBQ. It was called “Inflatapalooza”.
• Ran around here there, bringing the necessary supplies, set up tables, chairs, and the inflatables: bungee run, boxing ring, and a giant basketball hoop.
• Had to monitor the boxing ring at one point, and a kid jumped out between the bars and crashed into me, bending my glasses. That pissed me off for a good hour or so.
• Went around picking up garbage.
• Helped put the chairs and tables away.
• Stomped on the damned inflatables to let the air out.
• Was outside for 5.5 hours. Will most definitely turn brown over the next few days. UGH. Next outdoor event, I am investing in a parasol, a visor, and a long-sleeve shirt.
• My poor feet hurts!

After Work and Emart-Related

• Went to Dragon to get my glasses fixed, which ended up being free.
• Met up with Dan and hung out in the band room at the high school for a while.
• Both of us met up with David at Electronics Market.
• Showed them where I had my computer built.
• Went to Hooters and had an interesting dinner that consisted of Sweet Garlicky (or was it Garlicky Sweet?) chicken strips, fish and chips, and orange-ade.
• Went to IPark for some yummy crepes for desserts.
• Headed over to the arcade, where I played one round of Pump It Up.
• Was introduced to Final Fantasy Dissidia by David.
• Tried to catch the bus home, but the first bus, even though I was right in front of it, closed the damn doors on me and drove off. !@#$!@#$
• Caught the next bus home.
• My poor feet hurts!

That’s it. Some parts were good and some parts were piss awful. Time to end this.

Finite Incantatem.