chilllll...

everyone at school seems tired, miserable, and stressed on this surprisingly sunny monday. i know we are all busy, but why be so miserable? all of the students whined and complained about every little thing that i asked them to do. i danced around a lot and tried to encourage them, faking much happiness.

the strange thing about faking happiness is that it actually tends to make you happy. i'm not miserable and stressed in the way that the korean teacher are (or at least appear to be), but i'm still a bit tired from a busy weekend and a morning at the gym. even though i'm frustrated with my classes from the day, i'm content that i put the effort in and again made a fool of myself being the overly energetic, crazy foreign teacher. i guess that role is one that i play well after a million years of being a summer camp counselor and the smiling divemaster. it was fun to be the life of the boat, even when you felt like you might keel over the side of it after too many days of little sleep.

the sleep question is something i am fixing here. it's not as tempting to go out during the week, since, well, most people don't except for the usual ladies' night at the frog and toad. the gym is good motivation as well. working out is so much easier when i'm not downing a couple cups of coffee to get myself going.

i complain about it as much as anyone else, but life in korea is pretty ok. i have fantastic weekends. on friday night, my friends all came over to my place and then we had a good local night. on saturday, i went shopping in myeong-dong to find the perfect shorts for my jersey shore costume. they are black hot pants that lace up in the front. if i even decide to dress as lady gaga from the poker face video, i'm already set. (i'll put photos up after my birthday party on saturday night.) saturday night, we tried to go to our friends play in itaewan but couldn't find it since we had the name of the place a little wrong. instead, we went out for thai food (i miss street food!!) and then to meet some other friends at the loft, our usual hang out in itaewan. from there, we went to mansion in hongdae to see dj klever, who i'd heard at some point while at vassar. i hope that one day my friends will learn to like house music. i've learned to like it since i've been traveling, but i just think it's a lofty and illogical goal for my friends. too bad. a good weekend overall though.

yes, being intensely happy (and happy-go-lucky) is very much a conscious decision. and it's one that i made with brandy last week. i'm sticking to it.