i got an email from my dad wishing me a happy birthday. he sent it from an email address i'm assuming belongs to his new girlfriend (because i don't remember his name being lori). that's not really something i wanted to wake up to today, but i guess that's just how today is gonna go.

i have no idea how i'm supposed to register for classes next fall. i don't think my advisor knows i'm in korea.

i went to seoul this weekend. i didn't really want to so much, but i had to. we had a field trip for a class early saturday morning, and the only way to get there in time was to go on friday night and find a place to stay. i stayed in a pretty nice sauna with a couple other kids. and we went drinking for a bit. just a few beers. i was tired and in a bad mood so it was just kind of depressing, but we can't go to seoul and NOT go out. it's impossible.

had to wake up around 6 in the morning. after going to bed around 2. our trip was to the dmz, but we went with a fucking uso tour, so we were stuck with about 80 other people. mostly obnoxious american tourists. plus some slightly less obnoxious tourists from other countries. there were two VERY annoying girls from ireland. i can't even describe my level of irritation when i found out i had to spend the whole fucking day with these people, plus our annoying tour guide who wouldn't SHUT UP the entire 40-minute bus ride there. he didn't even have anything to say! "if you will look to your right, you will see a big pile of trash. i will tell you about the history of this pile of garbage for the next 10 minutes."

seriously.

we went to the jsa, or joint security area. it's a really neat place, and there was this awesome korean movie filmed there (of the same title: jsa). our tour was taken over by a very unfunny u.s. army man who kept trying to tell jokes and who got a little pissed off by the end because stupid american tourists kept asking him stupid questions. the place is kind of this compound where north korea and south korea coexist. on separate sides of a border line. we actually spent a few minutes in north korea, as the border kind of cuts through some buildings and we went in one. everyone was like, "oooooh." the thing i found most fascinating about that particular room was that there were footprints on one of the tables, like someone had been walking on it barefoot. i imagine one of the ultra-cool south korean guards (they are masters of tae-kwon-do and they wear sunglasses because it is intimidating) jumping up there when no one is around and dancing.

i would have been fine if things ended there, but there were still HOURS left, of piling onto and off of buses, watching 15 minute films/presentations on the history of the dmz that were almost exactly the same every time, looking at the same exact spot in north korea from different angles and locations, and being told not to take pictures. the last stop was ALMOST cool. it was a tunnel that north korea started digging to seoul in the 70's. apparently there were a lot of them, and south korea found 4. we walked 400 meters down a maybe 30 degree slope, then about another 400 meters down this tunnel blasted through rock until we got to a bunch of barbed wire and a door and were told to turn around and go all the way back up. that was a nice workout.

after the tour, i stayed in seoul with khalid to do some shopping to make up for the day of crap. i bought some cute shirts on sale and then some illegal dvd's from this really nice guy in the subway. four for ten dollars!

i don't want to go back to uws. i want to go home, but fuck my crappy school. most of the offices don't even know i'm studying abroad and i can't even figure out how to let them know i'm still actually an enrolled student. it's too much effort for a school i don't even care about.