FedEx!

I got a phone call on Tuesday from St. John's that my diploma was ready, after weeks of waiting! It was the last document I needed to be 100% ready to mail off my visa application.

I'd graduated in September of 2009, and never received a diploma. I'd been fairly blasé about the whole situation, and put off requesting a new one until I absolutely absolutely needed it for this process. When I initially inquired, I found out that the diploma had been mailed to my old address (I was still living there at the time), but apparently was lost in the mail. Or, someone in Bushwick has a Masters of Education hanging on their wall. When I'd called originally, the woman in the registrar's office explained that it was graduation "season" and that the thousands of diplomas being printed took priority over mine. So, I waited...waited some more, and was sure to harass the registrar's office on a weekly basis until its arrival.

I trekked to Queens to pick up my diploma on Tueday, and was off to FedEx after work on Monday.

In the park near Borough Hall, as we made our way over to FedEx.




I can't stop checking and double checking the contents of the envelope.



Yay!




Spring & Alex, who were kind enough to indulge me on this ridiculous adventure to the FedEx store.



Handing the envelope over to the startled attendant, who seemed confused but entertained at the fact that the entire process was being documented.

After FedEx, I had my THIRD congratulatory Korea dinner with Spring & Alex...we celebrated with high quality American bar food -- burgers & fries! We also shared a peculiar combination of taquitos, wings, and mozzarella sticks...not recommended)

Madangsui with Stef & Alex

To officially celebrate my employment with the Republic of Korea, Stef, Alex and I went out for lunch and soju at Madangsui.















We ordered savory pancakes, bolgogi, and some questionable pork dish (both were grilled in front of us, which is always cool). We shared a bottle of soju, which tasted great at first but became harder to drink as the bottle dwindled. I really liked that they served it cold. As usual, about ten tiny dishes of various pickled items and other oddities were brought to our table. I really liked the cucumbers, radishes and kim chi...the recognizable foods are always fun. I steered away from the seaweed, something my sister told me was eggplant, and the macaroni salad...and I'm still pretty confused as to why a Korean restaurant would even serve this.


After we finished eating our server brought out Biofeel...foil wrapped bottles of a super sour milky liquid. The main ingredients were water and corn syrup...with "skim milk powder" being listed as the fourth. I'm pretty sure they are fermented, since they contained acidophilus cultures. I was way too creeped out to partake in the tiny bottles at first, but after listening to Stef & Alex go on about how delicious they were "sour patch kids flavored milk?", I decided to take a tiny sip of Stef's Biofeel. It was actually pretty gross.















When we left the restaurant, we started walking south towards Union Square, with intentions of seeing a movie, stopping in at Housing Works, and procuring a Korean phrasebook so I could start learning the language. When we passed through the Flatiron district, Stef pointed out one of Antony Gormley's iron sculptures, which are perched atop various roofs around the park. We eventually found 10 or 12 of the 27(!) that are scattered around. I'm pretty interested in going back to try to find them all at some point. Some of them were pretty well hidden and it seems like it would be a lot of fun to find them all. There's also the added benefit of looking like a tourist as you stumble down the sidewalk with your face in the air.

We wound up going our separate ways around Union Square. I bought a phrasebook and a sweet journal I'd been lusting after for a while. After I stopped at Barnes & Noble, I headed into Chinatown to start looking at luggage for the trip to Korea. I need two jumbo suitcases. I found a place in Chinatown that had what I needed for $40 each. Provided they're structurally sound, this is a great deal since anything comparable at Century 21 was at LEAST $80...some of the fancy Samsonite's were $200, which I find unbelievable.

Yangju Countdown: 96 days!

Brooklyn to Seoul

I've been teaching middle school math in Brooklyn for the past three years. Last Sunday, I was offered a position teaching English to elementary school students in South Korea. I promptly accepted (who wouldn't?).

I start teaching on September 4th, and will leave for Korea one week before that. This blog is a collection of pictures and memories of my last summer in NYC.