Maria is awesome 'cuz she masterminded that freakin' sweet care package

How was that for a shout-out? I hope it suffices. Another normal week without much to report, so no heavy reading this week.

The weekend was a smashing success in putting the past week far, far behind me and gathering energy for the week ahead of me, so I can't complain. After several weeks apart, we were finally almost all reunited. The heavens did surely quake in respect to the might of our group once again reconvening. There were hugs and tears all around....okay so maybe it was just me. But then again, I was in one of those moods. You know, where you just feel like being a dumbass and seeing how absurd you can be in a massive public (in this instance Korea's biggest mall, I think) place without being kicked out. At least I wasn't alone, as Chris decided to join in as well. There was juvenile conversations about topics not suited for public places (it's okay, nobody understands English over here, trust me), juvenile insults about female bodily functions and then the results of said comments, namely running away to avoid being hit. Chris kicked it up a notch by pretending to have a joint made from rolled up cardboard from a coffee cup and leaves from some random plant. And yes, he did actually light it and inhale it at some point. And yes it was horrible. And yes he does now have cancer. Too bad. From there on, we moved to Jamsil Baseball Stadium to watch a Doosan Bears vs. Lotte Giants game. We got there 30 minutes early, but tickets were already sold out. We had forgotten that Saturday was a national holiday, the Korean Memorial Day for fallen soldiers, so naturally everyone went to the game. Didn't feel much different than a Brewers game, cept there was no tailgating, as nobody came to the game in cars, and all the vendors were selling dried squid with the beers and soju. We instead grabbed some brews and peanuts and headed across the street to chillax in a park for a couple of hours. Since the park didn't allow people to go on the grass, we settled down at one of the little mini marts nestled within and commenced to drinking and relaxing. It felt like we were back in Madison on the terrace, except the view wasn't as good, the people sitting around us were sometimes loud and kinda obnoxious ajosshis (middle aged men), the mart owner was whining about us and our cigarettes in Korean to her husband, and of course, the beer sucked. God, I miss good beer. I've actually stopped drinking the Korean stuff, and thus beer in general as thats the only stuff available, as a result. But, exactly like on the terrace, we did sit around and do absolutely nothing for several hours. And it was wonderful. God, I miss just shooting the shit about whatever. Moments like that are kinda rare when you can't communicate with the overwhelming majority of the population and you can only get together two days a week max with your friends.

School is much the same. Don't know if there will be much school this week, as my after school classes are cancelled for Tuesday and Wednesday due to teacher meetings and the volleyball tourney, respectively. That leaves Thursday as my last remaining day of actually teaching unti the semester ends on my b-day in July. Happy birthday to me! Semester's over...ohhhh wait, summer camp starts tomorrow. Ohhh you shouldn't have, its what I always wanted. This means I'll be spending the next couple of weeks putting together the open class lesson plan, even though open classes mean nothing to me and everything to the co-teacher and she will inevitably take credit for all of it, if it goes well. I'm just excited to see her try and speak English for the entirety of the class. That shit is gonna be hi-larious. This volleyball thing could be interesting on Wednesday. My school isn't taking it that seriously, as Amy's school has been training for the past week and they even have uniforms....I wanna uniform.

The Korean news frustrating me at present is said story:

http://thegrandnarrative.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/choi-jin-sil/

So the woman was beaten and abused by her lousy husband back in August, then committed suicide from shame and societal pressures in October. Not saying I condone the decision to go out the way she did, as I'm staunchly against suicide, but I do acknowledge the immense strain she was under that led to her decision. Now the ex-pres just recently killed himself and out of respect to him, the authorities dropped the corruption charges and investigations of his family, which also frustrates me, but that's a completely different matter. I just don't like people dodging justice, that's all. So one would think that this actress would have been thrown the same bone, right? Wrong, cuz she's a woman. Some construction company, who had hired her as their spokesperson, sued her for tarnishing the company's image with her actions. Yes, the lawsuit was initiated well before she killed herself, but the company continued with the suit and this week was rewarded as the Supreme Court overturned an earlier ruling and awarded the damages asked by the company to be paid by the actress's estate. Yep. "That's too bad your husband beat you and made you feel powerless, but here's your walking papers...ohhh and we are suing you for making our company look bad, what with those unattractive bruises and cuts. Have a nice day". Disgusting.