mommy told me to

my mom is not subtle. during our Christmas day conversation she "hints" that she would like another blog entry. the "hint" went like this. "...and I'm still waiting for another blog." Like a brick in the head, but in a good way. message received mom, here's your blog.

I suppose my blog neglect is due to Facebook, which I won't describe because I think anyone who is reading my blog is firmly aware of what it is. If you're not, check it out, but only if you've got lots of time to spare. I resisted joining facebook, but kept getting invited by people and then one day got really bored. Now it keeps me somewhat sane as I'm whiling away my final hours of this school year. Yep, in t-minus 4 hours 4 minutes, I'm on vacation. w00t.

Christmas has come and gone quite quickly. This was my 3rd Christmas in Korea and the amount of hype leading up to it has grown exponentially, but Korea has yet to pick up on the commercial fervour of post-Christmas retail. That's right, no boxing day. It's good because there's enough push to consume here. It's bad because I had to go to work when every ounce of my white middle class Catholic upbringing told me I should be on vacation eating left over turkey. Thankfully, for the first time in Korea, I have leftover turkey, but only to be enjoyed after work *sigh*

Thanks to everyone who contributed to my Christmas Spirit:
Mom, Dad, Bern, Sam - thanks for the gifties
Uncle Steve, Aunt Donna, Jess and John - thanks for the card and gifties (Jess, I hope your thesis defense went well)
Aunt Kathy - Thanks for the card (And Heather for the endless Scrabulous games)
Matt, Vanessa, John and Emily (and other guests) - for a delicious Christmas dinner and fun Christmas get-together

a long overdue photo show!

Hang Bin's Brother's Wedding!

HyeYeon (older sister), Dad, Mom, HangBin
What a good lookin' family!

The Happy Couple, gettin' ready to seal the deal!

Group photo with all their friends. I got to stand in the "family" photo. Kinda freaky.

Don't you wish you had an all white tailcoat tux?

My man all decked out. *rawr*

HALLOWE'EN HIGHLIGHTS (for those of you who don't ever visit my flickr page)

Funky Disco Man!

Disco man's Disco Ball!

no! no! too sexy!

the best part

My City Apartment

view from the window

view from the door.
It's technically about 7 pyeong (1 pyeong = 3.3 m3). That equals SMALL.

My pink bathroom.
Korean style - the shower is attached to the sink.

a pretty fall view of the uni campus near my place.

A Recent Visit to the Dog Cafe

the afghan

yes. this dog is wearing both a diaper and a tail coat.

this guy's all decked out Mozart-style!

this cutie was all over me and I loved every minute of it!

Last but not least, this little guy who practically followed me out the door. I love this place. I felt so much more relaxed after some doggie therapy.

eyebwallz update

i went in for a check-up yesterday. it's been about 2 months since the surgery, and sadly, my distance vision is not what it should be. I'm not all that worried because vision can fluctuate up to 6 months after the surgery. Anyway, here's the rundown of what the good doc told me:

When I got my eyes tested about a week after the surgery, they were almost perfect (-0.25 in both, I think. Note: my prescription was around -4.5 for both eyes before). YEsterday, my left eye was -0.75 and my right was -1.25! Shocking! Not that I didn't already know know this, as I'd been looking through these eyebwallz all day. Interestingly, my eyesight is significantly better in the morning than at night.

Anyway, the doc gave be two possibilities for what's going on.
1) Dry eyes (one of the stated side effects) can last up to 6 months and slightly affect vision. Keep going on the eye drops.
2) Corneal regeneration. Whenever they do the surgery, they adapt the laser for the average amount of corneal regeneration, but naturally, some people have more and some people have less. Doc says that I may have "very active corneas" (aren't you proud, mama?) but since it's only 2 months after, he can't know for sure. If this is the case, then he'll re-laser my eyes for free.

My theories about my eyes are that my left one is just dry, but my right one will need a second surgery. It hasn't been as good as the left one since the surgery. Such an underachiever.
*sigh*

Either way I'm not all that worried. This guy is the first doctor in Korea that I've actually fully trusted and it has a lot to do with the fact that I can talk to him without a translator.