you know what? i really love soy. i love the things that are made from soy. i get excited when i see soy beans on lists of ingredients. i bought some "i can't believe it's not butter!" and i was reading the label and it's mostly made from various soybean oils, and i was like, "SWEET."

my sister julia came and visited me for about a week, around christmas-time. apparently i forgot to mention anything about it here beforehand, because she told me so. she said dawn had been a little concerned i never said anything about it (she reads my diary aloud to dawn, you know. hi, dawn.). but it's not like i had forgotten or wasn't excited or anything. i just had nothing interesting to say about it, is all.

you know what makes me happy? when the city bus drivers here salute each other when they pass another bus. so adorable.

right. so i pretty much enjoyed having my sister here. about two days before she arrived, i had to move to another dorm. the "nice" dorm. which means the expensive dorm, and i have to pay for it since the winter semester isn't covered by the program. but whatEV. point is, moving kind of sucked. i'm not sure how it happened, but the amount of possessions i have here seems to have doubled. i think it's mostly notebooks and pens, too. i have a problem.

the nice thing about moving is that it IS a better dorm. each room is for only two people, and i have no roommate. so julia just stayed in here with me. AND i have my own bathroom. which i had to scrub down something fierce right after moving in, but it's cool. i get to shower alone.

julia told me i had to wait a while before writing about her visit, because i got a little bit agitated (it's kind of hard having a guest) some days and she wanted me to look back on it fondly and without that agitation getting in the way. but now i don't really remember most of what we did. dag.

christmas was cool. a couple of my guy friends took us out for dinner. and drinking (with more food). at the bar, they ordered this platter of various chicken parts on skewers. i think i ate a gallbladder. and feet. it wasn't bad. then when julia went to the bathroom, brian was like, "quick, let's have a cigarette!" because julia doesn't smoke (and is a girl) and he didn't want to be rude and smoke in front of her. it was super cute.

one day, i took her to seoul and we went to my favourite market. unfortunately, it was also the coldest day she was here, and very very few of the street-vendor-types were there, just the regular shops were open. but we still shopped some. i bought a messenger-bag-type-purse and got to demonstrate my not-so-great haggling skills. my strategy is to be adorable and hope they like giving discounts to adorable people.

another day, we took a train to a random city. i wanted to go to busan, but there were only two trains there from wonju, and the times were all crazy, so we got a train that was leaving soon and hoped it went somewhere nice. we ended up in andong, which is a pretty big tourist town. not so much in winter, but at least there were plenty of motels and some cultural-type things to do. we hung out there for a day and a night and then came back. it was pretty fun watching television in the motel room. i got to watch an episode of boston legal! i was so excited. and we got to go to a museum the next day, so that was good, too.

our new year's eve was pretty quiet. we just went to that bar downtown i sometimes go to. where the english teachers hang out. the basement (my ramones cover band) played that night. so julia got to meet them. they're pretty great guys. and anton (the drummer) promoted me! i am now groupie/assistant director of the band. just one more thing to add to my resume.

we left the bar around 11:30, on account of curfew. plus julia's flight home was the next day, and she didn't feel much like staying out all night. it would have been cool to stay out, but i would have just gotten tired around 1 and complained the rest of the night.

new year's day traffic in korea is pretty much horrible. it took us like 4 hours to get to the airport, when it should take only about 2. towards the end julia was worrying about missing her flight and i was like, "ack. don't say that." but we made it fine. she got on the plane and i bought a banana smoothie and found my bus back. it's been kind of lonely since then. i've gone out a few times with friends who stuck around for winter. one day, i had dinner with brian and youngjin and then we went to the library and took practice toeic tests. and i've been hanging out with this economics professor and his wife who own a kindergarten in town. but mostly i just sit in my room, not wearing pants.

maybe tomorrow i'll call someone and, like, go outside this building for a while.