Packing, Part I

I had my first Peace Corps related packing nightmare this morning. I never used to have any packing related anxiety (and I still don't once I actually start packing), but before I left Korea, I kept dreaming that I got home and realized that I had forgotten to pack half my apartment. I would wake up in the middle of frantically trying to reach Siobhain and asking her to save my yarn/books/clothes/super awesome SNSD coffee mug before my replacement threw them out, see the familiar walls of my apartment and think Oh thank God, I still have time to pack everything. (Incidentally, the dreams stopped the moment I started actually packing.)

Today, I dreamt that I arrived in Morocco without any shoes or my Arabic workbook/flashcards/notebook, saw the familiar walls of my room and thought Oh, thank God. I still have six more week to deal with that.

I think this is a sign that I should at least start reading packing lists.

No Longer Friday Five

Remember when I use to post here regularly? Yeah, me neither. Friday round up, posted on Saturday because I got tired and went to bed.

1. My grandmother turned 84 in June and to celebrate we hiked up to Big Rock in Dupont State Forest for a picnic dinner and views of the full moon. I made a spring quinoa salad and a broccoli pesto with orzo, Mom made sauteed leeks with goat cheese, Leah made chocolate chip cookies and we hiked up just before sunset. It rained briefly and part of the meal was eaten huddled under a tarp, but then the clouds cleared after a short shower. We found out after we arrived that the moon wouldn't rise until close to midnight, but there was a lovely sunset, and we played cards by the light of the many headlamps I still have floating around in my purse and no one tripped on the hike back to the car in the pitch dark.
   
   


2. We also celebrated the 4th of July with my grandmother. I had my traditional Independence Day meal (Indian food and non-American beer), we played more cards and then watched the fireworks from her backyard.
   
   


3. I've started going to trivia night at a local bar with my brother and some friends. We do okay (one win, a couple of second places and we would have won last night if I could have remembered that the '92 summer Olympic games were in Barcelona), but mostly I just enjoy the chance fix my hair, wear something besides yoga pants and a t-shirt, have a drink and made sarcastic comments about Chuck Norris with friends. (So far, there have been two Korea related questions [which city was chosen to host the 2018 Winter Olympics and who is the Secretary General of the UN] and both times, I insisted on writing the answer in Korean [평창 and 반기문] because (a) I'm TOTALLY that person and (b) I spent a whole two hours teaching myself Hangul by reading subway signs and, so help me God, I will use those skills whenever possible.) (Trivia caller: Man, someone is a dork. Me: YES, WHAT'S YOUR POINT?!) (I bet you thought I would stop writing in Hangul know that I'm no longer in Korea. THINK AGAIN!)


4. Speaking of Korea, people following me on Twitter or Google+ (or, you know, real life) know that I can't freaking shut up about how much I want some kimchi jjigae, because (a) kimchi jjigae is really 맛있어요 (which, even after five months back in the US, is still my default way of saying delicious) and (b) I really miss Korea, guys. It snuck up on me; at first I was busy enjoying being back in the US and seeing my family and friends, and then weeks turned into months and I realized how much I miss it. I miss laughing with Audrey about the name of the stations on the Bundang line and I miss the 4th grade cleaning crew who kept giving me Korean homework. I miss Seoul and SnB and seeing the cherry blossoms with Siobhain. I miss my apartment and my neighborhood and, God help me, I was looking through photos from Pru's visit in January and I got nostalgic because omg, that was my Paris Baguette, the one where 친의 convinced me to buy her a kimchi pastry in exchange for a terrible ugly pillow she had made in home ec which I will cherish forever. I miss Nicole teasing me about my terrible Korean while I refrained from mocking her ridiculous ridiculous shoes. I miss having co-workers I didn't actively want to stab in the eyeballs.
   
   Moving to Korea was one of the best decisions I've ever made for myself.
   
   


5. And hey, look, I'm on Google+. I'm unclear how well I'll use it, since I routinely forget I have a Facebook, but I am a big fan of all things Google, so there's hope.
   

Testy

So, there's this cardinal that lives at my parent's house. This is not a bird over endowed with brains, and he is convinced that his reflection in the windows of the house is a rival bird. Whenever he sees himself in the window, the bird (nicknamed Testy, short for Testosterone) repeatedly flings himself into the offending reflection in a testosterone fueled attempt to become the alpha cardinal in the area. From sunrise to sunset, the house echos with the thoinks! of the cardinal ricocheting off the house and the swears of my dad threatening to go outside and backhand the thing with a tennis racquet. It's particularly bad in the kitchen and my parents bedroom (both are surrounded by trees and shrubs for him to perch on while contemplating an attack), and my parents have had to drape the windows of their bedroom with sheets and towels in an attempt to hid the reflections, lest Testy wake them up at sunrise by headbutting the house. It looks like someone ineffectually tried to mummify the house.

This has been going on for a month and Dad has cracked. He came into the living room today with a gun in one hand and murder in his eyes. I'm praying for poor aim, but I think Testy's days might be numbered.

April is for Avocados

April was a pretty awesome month. It started with white-water rafting and jungle hiking in northern Costa Rica, plus some really awesome news that made me jump up and down on the side of a Costa Rican highway. (Hopefully May will be the month that I feel certain enough about the news to talk about it.) I spent the next thirteen days bouncing around Costa Rica: Sarapiquí, Sarah's village, San Jose (twice) and Manuel Antonio National Park to see some monkeys.


After Costa Rica, I spent a week at home and my oldest youngest brother came home. He been building a log cabin in the woods of Arkansas since January, so this was the first time I had seen him since February of last year. Then, the next day, my other brother came home for Easter break and for the first time since Christmas 2009, the whole family was together under the same roof. It was... loud and my little sister, who was briefly an only child for the first time in February, informed us that she liked the idea of having siblings more than the reality.

The next day, my parents, sister and I set off for Mexico. For years, my parents' church has supported two orphanage (one in Colima and one outside of Puebla), but this was the first time I wasn't working or in school during the annual mission trip. This year we went to the orphanage outside of Puebla (about three hours southeast of Mexico City) and it was so lovely. I can't say I was thrilled with traveling in a group, but the orphanage was amazing and the kids were precious and hilarious and endlessly forgiving about my butchering of their language. Also, the food was amazing. (I ate everything put in front of me, including every bit of sketchy chili-doused roadside fruit and had no problems. Almost everyone else in the group, the people who avoided anything that could have possible come in contact with the water and totally missed out that time we went to a market in Acatzingo and I tried to eat everything in sight, was ill at least once, which just goes to show that chili powder and lime cures everything.)


While April is now over and I'm probably going to stop getting fresh avocados every time I turn around, my travels aren't quite done yet. I'm heading to Washington DC on Thursday to spend a week with Riah, one of my closest friends from Korea. I've only been gone from Korea for two months and I've already lost touch with so many people, and I'm really glad Riah and I have managed to keep in touch.

Friday Five, or March in Review

1) I left Korea on February 28th and the culture shock of returning to the US was both easier and harder than last time (i.e. the time I ended up with my hands over my ears in line for security at San Fransisco because I'd lost the ability to tune out other people's conversations and was going into sensory overload). It was easier because I knew what to expect and harder because Korean habits had had two full years to form. It took me a few weeks to stop bowing at people and I'm still muttering in Korean. The one thing that I didn't have trouble adjusting to was having a car again. I still make sure to hand cashiers my money with both hands and slip my shoes off before entering a house, but I'm loving being able to drive again.

2) No sooner had I made it home than I left again. I got home Monday night and left Wednesday morning for Chapel Hill to go to a wedding and see friends from college. Unfortunately I didn't get to see much of my university friends, but the wedding was lovely and I got to meet my senior year roommate's new baby. I also bought a new computer. (In my first 48 hours in the country, I went to the bakery, the library and the Apple store. I have my priorities in order.) My old computer had been slowly dying for the past eight months and I'm loving having a computer with a working mouse again.

3) Being home has been really nice. I've spent a lot of time with my family, specially my little sister, who is now 16, holy crap, when did that happen? I've also been cooking a lot, taking advantage of my mom's kitchen, which has all sorts of fancy utensils I didn't have access to in Korea, like a blender, measuring spoons and an oven.

4) I've also been to the library at least a dozen times. I have a Kindle, which was easily the best purchase of 2010 and is great if you live in a country where English isn't spoken, but not so good if you want to build a fort out of books. I also have a new library card for the first time since high school. I've never been good at returning library books on time and by senior year, my fine had reached an amount so large that I stopped using my card and started using my mom's instead. For years, I've been convinced that the fine was eighty or a hundred dollars, but when I finally checked, it turned out I only owned twenty four dollars, which might have seemed huge to me ten years ago, but is easily payable now.

5) Being home has been nice, but also a tad boring, since I don't know anyone in Brevard anymore, so at the end of March, I left for two weeks of vacation in Costa Rica. I spent the first week with a friend who lives here, and now I'm on my own, trying to remember to speak Spanish instead of Korean.

The Trip Home

Musings on my trip home, AKA, no I wouldn't like to talk about it, but I'd sure as hell like to yell about it.

• Dear people who asked me how my trip was,
  Think of Monday. Think how fun Monday usually is.  Now imagine a Monday that lasts for THIRTY FOUR HOURS. THAT was how my trip was.
  Love,
  Cait


• Things started so well. I allotted myself so much time to get from my apartment to the airport bus stop that I was actually able to catch an earlier bus than planned. I was at the airport three hours before my flight, check it only took fifteen minutes, neither of my bags were overweight AND since my school didn't force me to overstay my visa this year, I didn't end up in a small room filling out reams of paperwork while being yelled at by immigration officers. I was sitting at my gate two hours before my flight.


• Incheon has free wireless for the entire airport! This is the last time on this trip I can say that, and one of the reasons why I love love love Incheon, my all time favorite airport. I sent my mom an email saying, "Already at the gate, two hours in advance. Totally going to make my flight!"


• On the flight to Narita, I discovered that the downside to having a Kindle is that your book is an electronic device that must be turned off during take-off. I read a lot of SkyMall and was cranky. Next flight, I'll make sure I bring a paper book too.


• Also speaking of books, I bought The Hunger Games for the flight and it was omg, so awesome. I was told that it would be hard to put down, that I would end up finishing it at 4:00 in the morning, tired and exhausted, but too caught up in the story to stop, so I bought the book to read on my 24 hour trip from Korea to the US and ended up being the furiously cranky girl in line at customs because she had to stop reading briefly. My full review at Goodreads is here.


• My flight to Narita was uneventful. I didn't have yen, didn't want to deal my card being flagged if I used it in Japan and also, my carry-on bags were really heavy, so I didn't buy lunch during my layover. My flight out of Narita was delayed an hour, but I got a seat at the gate, so all was well. Man, this trip is going well.


• We board the airplane, buckle ourselves in and sit. And then sit some more. Finally, the pilot announced that we were waiting for a delayed flight from Taipei with several passengers who were making a connection to our flight. The Taipei flight was suppose to arrive "soon" and folks, we're just going to wait a short bit for them to arrive, but we'll be gettin' on our way real soon. You could tell it was an Atlanta based flight crew. We finally left an hour and a half later, bringing our total delay to two and a half hours which, consequentially, was about how long my layover in Atlanta was.


• The flight, omg, the flight. The flight from Narita to Atlanta was terrible. There were turbulence THE ENTIRE WAY. ALL TWELVE HOURS OF IT. Some were mild, some were more serious, but the fasten seat belt sign was never taken off. I don't mind turbulence, they're like a mild roller coaster which is welcome entertainment on a long flight, but eventually you need to use the restroom and stretch your legs. Luckily, the flight crew was understanding of people ignoring the fasten seat belt sign and the pilot warned for mild turbulence vs. severe turbulence.


• Somewhere over Colorado, the pilot came over the intercom and asked that anyone on the plane with medical experience please go to the back of the plane, there was a passenger of need of aid. I'm a little disappointed he didn't ask if there was a doctor on the plane (Hollywood, you lied to me), but relieved to see several people responded and even more relieved that the passenger wasn't ill enough to necessitate an emergency landing.


• We finally reached Atlanta, several hours late, and were put in an holding pattern. Luckily we only circled Atlanta for thirty or forty minutes, but the weather was terrible and the landing was even worse. I've flown on a lot of planes in a lot of different weather and I have virtually no fear of flying, but this landing was rough enough that my stomach turned over and clutched my armrest a little tighter.


• I reached Atlanta, cleared customs and immigration (filling out my customs form was a delight after having lived in Korea for two years; I have acquired a lot of stuff) without problem and rushed off to the gate for my connection to Asheville, only to get bowled over my exhaustion (I didn't sleep at all on the flight to Atlanta), hunger (turbulence interfered with food service on the flight from Narita and plus, it was airplane food) and the weight of my carry-ons (I was worried my checked bags would be overweight, so I crammed as much as I possible could into the bags on my back). I staggered up to the nearest eatery (a Burger King), was stunned by the idea of ordering food in English, took two tries to find the correct currency to pay with, carefully handed my money over with both hands and then bowed to the cashier. Culture shock, I has it.


• I arrive at my gate, ten minutes before my plane was suppose to depart. Lucky for me, the flight was delayed an hour and I didn't have to go running to the gate, shouting and waving my arms, to catch my plane. (You laugh, but it's happened to me before.) I borrowed a cell phone to let my parents know I was delayed and they told me the delay was because of the torrential rains and a tornado watch in Asheville. I looked at a weather map and the forecast of the weather front in Asheville making its way south to Atlanta and swore. A lot. And not under my breath (I'm still adjusting to the idea that people around me can understand me). All in all, I was only stuck in Atlanta for four and a half hours, which could have been so much worse, but I had been away from home for a year and traveling for over twenty four hours and I just wanted to get home, hug my mom and go to bed.


• I made it home! Eventually. It took 30 hours from leaving my apartment in Korea to pulling up at my parents house in America, but I made it and I'm home.

ROK In

I'm back in Korea! I left Brevard Friday afternoon after a super hectic week that including getting violently ill on Saturday afternoon and discovering an hour before I was suppose to leave to spend the night in Charlotte so I could catch my very early plane the next day that due to the CIAA basketball tournament, there were no more hotel rooms left in the entire city. (That's not actually true. I did eventually find a single, very expensive room, but only after half an hour of increasingly frantic searching.) Not to mention doctor visits I couldn't afford (when I have to wait until I move to Korea to get tests run because I can't afford them in my own country, it's a sign that we need health care reform), packing and completely failing to say goodbye to people properly. (Psst, people I know in real life - probably won't be able to do anything this weekend, on account of now living in Asia. Psst, people in Korea, hi, I'm back.)

I actually left the US Saturday morning and arrived in Korea Sunday evening. My flights were uneventful (I knit a whole lot of a sock) and I made it to my new apartment by 6:30. I was met by my co-teacher, Nicole, who seems really nice and speaks amazing English. She showed me where the school (we totally got lost) and the market were and pointed the direction to the subway station, and I was asleep by 9:00. (This is actually a big deal in my quest for not being a walking zombie for the next month. Last year, I didn't make it to my apartment until nearly 1:00 in the morning, woke up at 3:30 and then fell asleep in the middle of the afternoon the next day, which is a bad bad thing to do when trying to adjust to jetlag and ushered in nearly two months of exhaustion and horrible sleep patterns.)

Monday was Independence Day, so I had the day off. I spent it unpacking (almost done), wandering around my new neighborhood and catching up with people. I made sure I could find my school. Now it's Tuesday morning. My alarm will go off in ten minutes, but I've been awake for two hours, waiting for the day and and my new job to begin. And also dancing around my apartment to Queen, because everybody needs a little Freddie Mercury in their life.

Finally, Some News!

I've been worrying about my visa for weeks now. I interviewed with a school in December and sent off all my paperwork in January and then, radio silence for weeks. There was an issue with some missing paperwork from my old school, but my recruiter told me it wouldn't slow the visa process down, but as the beginning of the semester crept closer and still no word, I began to worry. Tuesday night I was helping my mom cook dinner and updating her on the total lack of progress on my visa, and I started to freak out. What if this job feel through? What would I do? What can I tell my recruiter to make her give me a straight answer? Holy crap, I'm suppose to be leaving the country in twelve days and I'm COMPLETELY unprepared!

After dinner, I went upstairs and checked my email. There was an email from my recruiter with all the necessary paperwork to apply for my visa. I spent yesterday running around town, trying to get everything ready, and I mailed off my paperwork to the Korean Consulate yesterday afternoon. Then today, I woke up to an email from my former co-teacher telling me she had mailed the last of my paperwork to my recruiter. I booked a plane ticket today and, God and Korean Consulate willing, I'm heading back to Korea on February 27th, next Saturday.

Of course, this means that all of a sudden, I'm very very busy and I only have days to do all those things I said I needed to do before I left the country. It also means I need to pack, and I hate packing. You'd think that after a year in Korea, I would have a pretty good idea of what I need to bring with me and what I can get, but I'm still obsessively reading packing lists online, even if I do disagree with what most of them say. What can I say, I like making lists. The only thing I've started to pack is my yarn and I haven't even started to shop yet. Then there's this compulsion that I remember from last year, when I attempt to read several dozen books before I leave because AHH, I can't take them all with me, so I must commit them to memory RIGHT NOW!

It's going to be a fun week and a half.

Friday Five

- I'm suppose to be heading back to Korea in two weeks. (More about that later.) I have neither a signed contract (needed for a visa), a visa nor a plane ticket, which is making me a tad bit nervous. I've emailed my recruiter who assured me that everything is in the works and I'll get the necessary paperwork in time, but I'm wishing I had kept better (any) notes about the application process last time so I could compare timelines.

- I've been taking an online course to get my TEFL certificate. It's a 100 hour course, and for the first few weeks I was quite diligent about studying everyday, but in between having friends in town and being sick, I've fallen so far behind schedule that I doubt I'll be able to finish it before I go back. It's hardly the end of the world and I can finish the course in Korea, but I'm annoyed at myself for procrastinating.

- It's snowing again, our fourth winter storm of the season. Like a lot of southerners who have chosen to leave the south, I have a complex relationship with my heritage, but I realize that at least when it comes to snow (and cornbread, although that doesn't pertain here), I am very, very southern. As soon as the flurries started coming down, I'm all, "OMG, THE END IS NIGH!" and I have to fight the part of me that wants to rush out and stock up on milk, eggs and bread. And I don't even drink milk. I'm housesitting this weekend and was packing for the night when it started to snow. It's only suppose to snow an inch or two and I'm just staying across town, but I ended up with a half dozen changes of underwear and three books, plus a Kindle, so clearly I'm anticipating being snowed in for the next month. Logically I know I'm being ridiculous, but I just can't stop myself.

- Speaking of housesitting, I'm watching the house, pets and mother on Hospice of a lady from church this weekend. The mother on Hospice is suppose to have actual medical type people stop by to take care of her all weekend, but given how hard it is snowing and how dicey the back roads where when I got here two hours ago, I don't know if anyone will be able to come tonight. I'm sure everything will be fine, but this has the potential of being a lot worse than forgetting to feed someone's fish and I'm a touch neurotic, which is not a good combination for my sanity.

- The Winter Olympics start tonight and I'm looking forwards to watching the opening ceremonies tonight. Mostly I'm excited about it marking the start of the Ravelympics, but I'm also looking forwards to watching Kim Yu-na skate. Kim Yu-na is a nineteen-year old South Korea figure skating prodigy who grew up just minutes from where I taught last year, making her sports hero number one for a lot of my students. I hope she wins, if only for their sake.

[finally for this one night // I'm about to have a fun night]

I finally saw Wicked and it was wonderful, if a bit of an adventure. The tickets were a Christmas present, bought long before we realized this was to be Our Winter of the Snows and that buying tickets in advance for a show an hour and a half away was a dicey proposition. The show was on Friday. It started to snow Thursday afternoon. My mom, sister and I spent the evening glaring out the window and frantically checking the weather report. Many of the websites we checked told us there was a 30% chance of snow that very day, to which we looked out at the snow sleeting down outside and shouted, "OH REALLY! YOU THINK? PULL THE OTHER ONE, IT HAS BELLS!" Needless to say, we were all a bit high strung that evening. However, we awoke Friday morning to rain instead of snow and we decided to risk the drive.

The show was in Greenville, SC, nearly two hours down the mountain. There was weather predicted for that evening, so we packed a change of clothes, just in case we were stranded for the night. My mother, in a vote of confidence, insisted that her winter coat be in the back of the car instead of the trunk, just in case of an accident. I contended myself with the prayer my dad taught me the first time we ventured out on icy roads, back in December: Holy Mother, full of grace/Don't let Dad smash my faces. Turns out, the worse road of the trip was the one we live on. We drove through a spectacularly beautiful forest of ice covered trees, but the interstate was clear.

We ate at a Lowcountry restaurant for dinner (verdict: YUM and also, I would like to be having more Hoppin' John & she-crab anything forever), then crossed the street to the Peace Center. The show was amazing! I've been a huge fan of the soundtrack since college, but never had the chance (or the funds) to actually see the play until now. There was a bit of a disconnect at first; I was so use to the Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel version I had trouble accepting different voices, no matter how good the performers were. I got over it after the first few songs though, and throughly enjoyed the rest of the show!

We hightailed it out of town after the show, calling my brother at home to check on the conditions of the road. (Long-Suffering Little Brother: The internet says nothing until after midnight. Can I go now? Dad: Have you actually looked outside? Me: The internet is like the ditzy blonde in Mean Girls. There's a 30% chance that it's already raining!) We made it home, safe and sound, around one in the morning, only to learn that the winter storm advisory had turned into a flood warning. WTF, weather.

Winter Storm vSo Not Amused

It's snowing. Again. Yesterday (incidentally, the first day I wasn't snowed in from last week's snow storm) I told the second graders I tutor that it was suppose to snow this weekend. They groaned and said they were tired of snow. My brother and sister were hissing at the snow this evening since each snow day means a day of Saturday school to make it up. As for me, all I have to say is that if I miss seeing Wicked tomorrow night because I'm snowed in, I will *not* be amused.

Sledding!

Winter Storm v2.0 blew through town Friday afternoon and I awoke on Saturday morning to eight and a half inches of snow. Then it sleeted for a while, giving the snow a crunchy layer of ice on top and creating the perfect sledding conditions. My parents' house is on a hill, and at the bottom of the hill runs a creek, which makes this a tad bit more chancy that your average sledding hill.

The sledding was excellent yesterday and I spent the afternoon chanting, "Creek, creek, creek!" whenever someone else was sledding and frantically bailing out of the sled when it was my turn to go. We had several near misses (I spent a lot of time yelling at the sledders "Look, all I want in this world is to see a loved one sled into a creek. WHY MUST YOU DENY ME!"), but at the end of a long afternoon, my younger brother finally got an impromptu bath. I'll be honest; I was too busy laughing and shouting, "YES!" while pumping my fist in the air to really help him out, although I did almost fall in myself trying to rescue our sled.


Later that afternoon, we lit the burn pile (covered with a tarp before the snow started for just this purpose) and made s'mores, and then went back inside to drink hot chocolate and watch the Ocean movies. I walked the road today and we're still snowed in, but we never lost power and our neighbor plowed the driveway with his tractor, so we can skip the hour of shoveling snow once we can get out. Not a bad way to spend the weekend. The pictures are here.

25!

I am a quarter of a century old today! Wait, that sound super old. Twenty-five sounds much younger. Today I am 25!

A bunch of college friends came into town this weekend, and I started celebrating early with copious amounts of Bones marathons, Mario Kart and midnight trips to the grocery store. For my actual birthday, I'm going out to dinner and a movie with Sarah and tomorrow I get the birthday meal of my choice from my mom. (Thai squash soup! Suck on that, brother who won't eat vegetables.)

From my friends I got lots and lots of yarn, from my family I got money for a pre-Korea shopping trip next month, from myself I got a Kindle (not quite as extravagant as what I gave myself last year) and from the god of bad birthday presents, I got an nasty upper repository infection and have spent the day coughing like I've had a pack a day habit for longer than I've been alive.

[see I was born and raised in Texas // and it means so much to me]

It's been eleven years since I lived in Texas, but for some things time doesn't matter. Even though I know nothing about football* I am deeply invested in the 'Bama Longhorns game currently playing, as are my staunchly pro-Texas siblings. The only holdout is our father, who is supporting 'Bama just to be contrary. We kept interrupting dinner to point at him and shout, "Hook 'em! HOOK 'EM!" He would respond with something about slaughtering cattle. I finally told him, "That's right (you're not from Texas)."

No one got the reference, so I guess I'm the only Lyle Lovett fan in the family.

*True conversation I just had with my sister.
Baby sister: We have three sacks!
Me: I would be more impressed if I knew what a sack was.
Baby sister: I'm pretty sure it's a good thing.
Me: I'm pretty sure it's a type of bag. I think maybe you carry groceries in it?

Christmas Update

Merry Christmas, one and all! I got a trip to the dentist because being responsible is sometimes no fun and a ticket to see Wicked because musicals are always fun. Also, the baby sister and I have been bursting into Wicked duets at the drop of the hat for the past month.

SCENE: AT THE DINNER TABLE
Brother: Don't make me laugh!
Baby sister: ♫ Think of celebrated heads of state, or specially great communicators! Did they have brains or knowledge ♫
Me: ♫ Don't make me laugh! They were POPULAR! Please! It's all about popular. ♫
Father: I was reading an analysis in the Wall Street Jounral...
Me: ♫ Don't be offended by my frank analysis! ♫
Baby Sister: ♫ Think of it as personality dialysis! ♫
Entire family: No seriously, we will kill you.
Me: Elphaba - why couldn't you have stayed calm for once, instead of flying off the handle!
Baby sister: ♫I hope you're happy! I hope you're happy now. I hope you're happy how you've hurt your cause forever. ♫
Me: ♫ I hope you think you're clever! ♫

We also made and decorated approximately seven million sugar cookies to give out as Christmas gifts. After the third hour of decorating cookies, my brothers and I tried to storm out, but we were snowed in and there was nothing but sugar cookies. Endless sugar cookies. I will admit, however, that the end results were pretty cool looking.


There are stores about the individual cookies here. (Scroll over the picture for the notes.) I made a Kirk and Spock cookies, because I'm a giant dork. Later that evening, I was reading while my parents were talking about the cookies and I heard my dad say, "...those two gay guys that Cait made." And then I fell out of my chair laughing. Oh Dad, if only you knew.

Life in a Norman Rockwell Painting

The storm has pasted, leaving us blanketed in a scene straight out of a Boy's Life cover. Saturday morning my sister and I built a snowman and hiked down the road to see how snowed in we were before returning home for fresh baked banana bread. We made hot cocoa in a pot on the stove and baked sugar cooked. Mom and I played card games, while my dad and sister made a Brio train track around the Christmas tree, then the whole family headed back out into the snow to go sledding. We had a roast chicken for dinner. And then Norman Rockwell came and threw up all over us because the scene was to picturesque even for him. (Granted, a Norman Rockwell painting never featured my brothers shouting about how I had to take pictures of them sledding down their snow ramp so they could have awesome Facebook photos of them catching air, but you have to allow adjustments for new technology.)

Today the whole family partook in the age old tradition of shoveling snow so we could get the car out of the driveway. The verdict: we are no longer officially snowed in, but I'm not sure I'm brave enough to drive on our one lane snow and ice covered dirt road, especially not since my dad fish tailed the entire way to the main road. At least we have power again. It still looks like this outside, so I guess I'm okay with being a homebody for the next few days:

Appalachian Snowfall

Good News: It snowed today!

Bad News: It snowed *a lot* today and down here in the Land of Cornbread and Dixie, we are not exactly equipped to handle lots of snow, even in the mountains.

Good News: At the last measurement, we had six inches of snow. I've never seen this much snow in my life!

Bad News: Snow on trees means trees on power lines. We lost power around noon.

Good News: We have a generator!

Bad News: Of course, the generator can't power the entire house. We don't have lights in half the house and the oven, washer/dryer and microwave don't work. We also don't have heat in the upstairs (where the bedrooms are), but that matters less since we're going to turn off the generator at midnight to save power. It's going to be cold tonight.

Good News: At least we have enough power to have a Star Wars marathon this evening. (Oh Han Solo, BE MINE!)

Bad News: While we still have some power, the nearby jail does not.

Good News: This might mean our power will be fixed in the next few days, instead of the current wait time, which is "indeterminate".

Bad News: The JAIL has NO power. I guess those people in orange jumpsuits aren't from the power company?

Good News: The weather is perfect for playing outside. It's not too cold and the snow is light and fluffy, which means we could stay outside for hours without getting frozen.

Bad News: A game of snow football gone awry resulted in my brother and I colliding and banging heads.

Good News: There were lots of cold things to press against the instant goose egg that appeared.

Bad News: My head still aches, bad enough that I can't chew and can only eat soup, and I'm not allowed to go to bed due to a possible concussion.

Good News: It looks like this outside:




The full set of photos are here, with more to come tomorrow once it stops snowing.

Mini East Coast Tour: Washington DC (Part 1)

I'm home from my mini-vacation. I actually got home a week ago, but considering it took me a MONTH to write about getting home from Korea, I think I'm doing pretty good. Ages and ages ago, back when I was still in Rocky Mount, Pru told me that if I ever wanted to visit New York, I could crash on her couch. I always meant to take her up on the offer, but first I was working, then unemployed and broke and then I moved to Korea, which effectively ruled out weekend trips to New York, but I'm back in the US and after living at home for a month, I was ready for an adventure on my own.


Train tracks through Rocky Mount, North Carolina. I took this picture a year and a half ago when I lived there.
I spent the first half of the trip in Washington DC. I took Amtrak from High Point (with a quick stop in Winston Salem to see my brother which, because it was my family, ended with him caressing his ass in front of a Baptist minister from my mother's family's home town, OMG my life). The train wound its way east, stopping in little towns as it went, including Rocky Mount. Every time I was in downtown Rocky Mount (which, admittedly, wasn't often) I would go down to the train station and wish like hell I was on the next train out of town, so there was something fitting about finally leaving town on a train, albeit over a year after I moved away. Also, I was able to see the library and the YMCA, the two places I went most often. The train also past by Halifax and I looked up from my book long enough to make a rude gesture as we barreled past. I also read a book and a half on the train ride alone. Sure, I'd read the books before and I read fast, but that's still 600 pages in one sitting. And that, my friends, is why I always run out of books on vacation, no matter how many I take with me. It's also the reason I've read the 1,000 page Lonely Planet Southeast Asia On A Shoestring travel guide cover to cover.

I love Washington DC, mostly because of the Smithsonian Institute. A lot of people say they like museums, to which I always respond, "No, I *really* like museums." I spent almost my entire four days in Washington at various museums, part because I'm a GIANT NERD and part nostalgia from working in museums for a year. I was staying in a hostel near the Mall and every morning I would walk past the Natural History Museum and duck in because hey, what the hell, I might as well take in the Hall of Paleobiology since I'm in the area. And then hours would past and I would stumble down the steps and realize I'd just waste four hours in the Natural History Museum. AGAIN!

I did, however, take time out of my busy schedule of attempting to visit the entire Smithsonian in four days and accidentally went on a date with a married man AND got kicked out of my hostel. See, I'm not completely lame. In my defense, I didn't know he was married until the middle of the date. I met the guy at my hostel one morning and he invited me to lunch later that day. We met that afternoon and while we were walking to the restaurant, he asked if I was married. I thought it was a strange question, but I told him no and, casting about for something to say, asked if he was married. He responded, "Yes, but my wife is back home in India," and suggested we eat at a restaurant that was so fancy they probably wouldn't have let my jean-clad self in the front door. He continued to court me for the rest of my stay, mostly trying to get me drunk in the evenings, despite my increasingly strong refusals.

Married Dude: Tonight I will take you to a club. Do you like to drink?
Me: Go away.
Married Dude: Don't worry, I will pay for your drinks.
Me: I find you creepy and unattractive.
Married Dude: I will pick you up at 9:00.
Me: GO AWAY!

I also had a chance to meet up with while I was in Washington. Siobhain is one of my closest friends from Korea and I hadn't seen her since September. We met for lunch, ended up spending three hours at a burrito joint catching up and then went in search of a yarn store, which is pretty much par for the course with us. Then we went out to dinner and a bar with her friend Julie, who lives in Washington. Julie offered to let me spend my last night in Washington at her apartment, which turned out to be a helpful offer since my hostel screwed up my reservation, gave away my bed and left me with no where else to spend the night. Of course, I was in such a snit packing that I left my cell phone charger and a pair of shoes and had to stop by the next morning and go all angry southern woman on the front desk so I could pick them up.

Part II: New York City coming soon soonish. Maybe.

Back in the US(S)A

So, hi! I'm back in the States. I've been back in the States for a month now, but first I was jetlagged and busy seeing family and friend, and now so much time has passed that I'm not really sure what to say other than, yeah, I'm back in the US. The first week back was surreal and I kept pointing out mundane things like not being given a wet napkin at a restaurant or people speaking English and going, "That's so weeeeeird!" When I first got back to the US, still in the airport at San Fransisco waiting for my connection to Charlotte, I got so flustered by the rampant use of English around me that I had to retreat behind my headphones, but for the most part I've re-acclimated to life in America.

I haven't done too much since I got home. I've been exercising like a fiend (I'm trying to run a few miles five days a week), playing tennis (for the first time in nearly a decade) and playing an obscene amount of Wii Mario Kart (my new goal in life in to beat the snot out of my brother at least once before I die). I've visited friends in Chapel Hill and Knoxville over weekends and seen my brother in Winston Salem a few times. I'm also constantly reading everything in sight. After a year of not having a library and having to methodically plan how fast and how much I could read so I wouldn't overshoot my book budget, I'm reveling in the ability to read a book a day and be able to get more, for FREE, whenever I want.

I also got to watch the leaves change (including one veeeeery long road trip through the mountains during the peek weekend), which I missed last year.


I'm currently in on a proper vacation to visit a friend in New York. I took the Amtrak to Washington DC yesterday and I leave for New York on November 4th. I will say traveling is substantially easier when you can understand the language.


It's good to be home!