♦ i can be addictive at times. last weekend, i started lovers in paris (파리의 연인) to counterbalance the stress from work. i got totally hooked, which explains the lack of posting this past week (finished all 20 episodes in six days—review to come). apologies. i promise i’ll be more consistent with the entries.

♦ attended a meeting for native english teachers planning to renew their contract. rediscovered my reasons for avoiding foreigners in general because of the way they behave. there was this older gentleman at the meeting who kept heckling the speaker; the jerk lacked the ability to understand, well, anything that was written explicitly on the contract. i signed my contract; another year in korea.

♦ this past week, we finished all of the stargirl project presentations and all of the theatre project performances. am pretty much done with teaching this semester, even if it officially ends in mid-july. final exams are next week. smooth sailing from here on out.

♦ am planning to get a new cell phone this weekend. my current phone plan is under ms. seo’s name (co-teacher from my previous place of work) and i think it’s a bit of a burden on her sometimes. she’s meeting me saturday afternoon so that we can cancel the phone plan and have it be put under my significant other’s name.

♦ met ros wednesday evening for a long dinner at maya, an indian restaurant near kyungpook national university. the food was great, as usual, and i had a good talk with ros. she’s very calm and together, so i like that. she’ll be in australia for two months and she’s decided to come back to korea (albeit in another city) to teach. yay!

♦ tristan, who left korea ‘for good’ last year, returned this week. she’s working in seoul, but we’re in the same country now. my text-messaging buddy is back!

♦ ms. shin and i watched a couple of episodes of lovers in paris at my house thursday evening and gorged ourselves on pizza from mr. pizza. i should’ve taken a picture of the pie; there were crab meat and baked shrimp on top and sweet potato filling stuffed in the crusts. completely divine, yet completely decadent. i don’t have houseguests that often, so that was refreshing.

♦ called my dad sunday night for father’s day. we did not have one of our forced, awkward conversations. he thanked me for the sun hat i purchased online for him. i mostly talked to my mother, who, at the time, seemed to be in a good mood. i hope to spend lots of time at home during my vacation. sure, i’d like to see friends as well (nelda is visiting me all the way from new york city!), but mostly, i’d like to stay at home.