If you're here on Alex and Vera's suggestion...

Let me guide you to my experiences in Bulgaria!

Our tour around Sofia

Walking around Pravets and Botevgrad

My (rather long) reflections on the goings-on at the orphanage

Photos of the school kids

A repost of something from Alex's blog

My suggestions of travel arrangements and other attempts at a non-emotional reflection (as if that's actually possible... haha)


If you are NOT here because of Alex and Vera's suggestion, let me recommend that you go visit their blogs on my suggestion.  They are two amazing missionaries, living in Bulgaria and working with an astonishing number of children, as they try to supplement the amount of love and care they receive each day, while exposing them to the Love of G-d through their actions and daily lives.

You can hear from Alex here.

You can hear from Vera here.

추석 Traveling: Overall Feelings

Overall, I loved my Bulgaria travels.  I loved seeing Alex and Vera.  I loved the break from continual business.  I loved a visit back to Western culture and the Western idea of the proper way to relate to each other.  I loved the stories of Bulgaria in World War II, how it protected its Jewish people and took advantage of Hitler's blind hate.  I loved the peace between religions and how they existed without fighting between themselves.

On a bit of the negative side, I am sorry to report that my experiences with the airlines left the trip with a bit of discomforted color.  While I've enjoyed my travels with Turkish Airlines, I've learned that that's only if you don't need to talk to any of the people who work for it, whether for compliment or complaint, and Heaven help you if you lose something.  As for the Sofia airport, I think I may like it the least of any airport in which I'd ever spent time.  In fact, I like it even less than I like the Bangor, Maine airport.  If it wasn't for the fact that the Sofia airport is the only way I can see Alex and Vera, I would avoid the country entirely in order to avoid the Sofia airport, which is much the same way I feel about the Bangor airport.  Somehow, it is always the tiny airports that feel the need to have the stringent security.  In Sofia, I was mocked for not having my Korean VISA up to date, even though it was updated electronically, as noted on my green card, which I pointed out to the woman, but she was unable to read the handwriting, I guess.  At any rate, she felt the need to hold up the line and bring others in on the joke, only one of whom managed to point out the legitimacy of my claim.  I could go on about the tardiness of the flight, causing the running of almost every passenger at our layover.  I could go on about the lack of hep within the airport.  I could go on about the lack of employees of the airport and the tardiness of the opening of the gates.  I could.  But I'm not one to write a long post of complaints.  I will merely suggest that you fly Singapore Airlines as much as possible while in Asia, and bring your patience with you when visiting the Sofia airport.

In spite of that, I still thoroughly enjoyed my trip, and I would still visit the country as long as I had a friend there to welcome me.  Without there presences, I don't know if I would return.  There's not much by way of tourism, there, and it's not a country to visit as a single woman traveler, for sure (as it is a major hub for human trafficking), so you see the need for a welcoming party, I trust.  Nonetheless, as long as Alex and Vera are there, I know the country will hold a draw for me, and maybe even after, as my heart is still tied to those little faces and hugging arms.

Soon, I'll start updating you on more recent goings-on.  Be sure to keep me appraised of yours! :)

I didn't write this.

Today, I read an update post from my dear, sweet Alex in Bulgaria.  I, of course, was thrilled, since an update blog post from Alex meant an update on life in Bulgaria.  What I saw, however, quenched my emotions a little, but, at the same time, made me incredibly grateful that G-d opened all the doors to put her where she is.  I called her today and asked if I could share it with you. I'm glad to say that she agreed.

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Blood, Tears, and Hope

I have special powers.
Or at least I think I do.
I have this insane ability to take on the feelings of another person.
Even a complete stranger.
... not exactly what one wished for as a kid.

Yesterday, I arrived at the school where I volunteer at about mid-afternoon..
I hadn't had my lunch yet. I was eating it on my walk there.
And the first body I see is this little shirtless boy.
I recognize him at once.
My violent little troublemaker.
My sweetheart
My baby.

Why isn't he wearing a shirt?

He was all alone. So of course, I was going to go over there and check up on him. After all, he's pretty much my son. And my baby looked cold.

He was seated on a faded wooden bench, bending down low, and working on something. As I got closer to him, I saw what he was working on.

In his right hand, he gripped a quarter-sized shard of glass.
And his "work" was a 2 inch bloody gash carved into his ankle.
My baby was cutting himself.

I'd say he's about 12. Maybe.
All alone.
And forcing his body to visibly show the pain he was feeling.
Most likely the humiliation he endures from a certain heinous teacher at his school.
My poor little guy.
I just stared and the blood, and then at his face.. carved out in anger. 
My lungs stopped accepting oxygen.
And my heart was trying to make up for it by pumping out my blood too fast for my body to handle.
And my eyes began to burn as I fought the tears from showing themselves in front of my boy.

And I sat down beside him, not even thinking about what the "right" thing was for me to do.
I knew I had to get him to give me that piece of glass, but I knew I couldn't force him.

Because I know that force will lead to retaliation, just as oppression leads to revolt. I couldn't take away his freedom of choice, but I also couldn't let him hurt-- not on his own like that.

My voice took on a single form. A quiet form. A gentle form. A form that presents itself when I'm about to cry. And I said, "эащо?" -- "why?"
And he furrowed his eyebrows in his anger.. in his hurt. And he dug harder. And the blood dripped slowly down his ankle. And the only thing he would say was, "така..." which basically means "because." And I tried to give him a piece of toilet paper to wipe up some of the blood. Of course.. he refused it.

And then he got up and began to walk away from me.
I followed him.
I had to get that glass from him.
and he hated that he couldn't lose me.
I didn't chase him. I never made him run. But I wasn't going to let him suffer alone.

Finally he stopped. He turned around and looked me straight in the eyes. He held up the piece of glass. And he threw it as hard as he could. And he held up his empty hands in surrender. A bell began to ring, telling the kids on the other side of the school that it was time to come back inside. I looked toward the sound of the ringing, and then back to where he was standing, but he wasn't there anymore. He was already heading back inside. I stood there, looking around frantically for the piece of glass in the grass. I began to allow the tears to flow down. I had to find it. I had to bury it deep in the dirt. I didn't care if the blood got on my hands. His hurt is my hurt. And I didn't want it to be found ever again. But I never got the chance-- not 2 minutes after being called inside, he was being sent outside by one of the teachers. I wiped my eyes on my sleeves and walked toward him. He saw me, and kept walking away. He crossed the basketball court and I stopped following him. I dropped my jacket, my bags and my lunch on the ground, followed by my body. He was sitting directly on the opposite side of the courts. And I looked down at my lunch and began to eat. My thought process was if he wants my company, at least I'll be around where he can find me.  

And he did.

He crossed the expansive cement and sat down beside me. And he showed me his most recent "work."
 And then the evidence of his other works.
They were many.

I asked him "why" again. And this time, his face was downcast. And he just shrugged his shoulders. 
And I decided that since I didn't have the vocabulary to discuss it, that my best bet was to distract him, and cheer him up. So I showed him my homework. He was impressed that I was learning Bulgarian.
And I began to practice with him. Mostly my numbers. We had a lot of fun with that. I purposely messed up to show him that even "grown ups" mess up on their school work. Then I took out my new phone and handed it to him to see. Kids love technology these days. He asked me, "музика?" --"music?" Sadly, I shook my head, "No." But! I had my I-pod. And God bless that little thing. I made his day by letting him listen to it. I showed him some songs I thought he might like. And you wouldn't believe how his sweet little face shines when he smiles. His eyes! Oh his eyes. So vivid, so piercing, so expressive. They soften when he smiles. My heart began to swell. I slowly convinced him to share my lunch with me. He was very hesitant. I know this boy doesn't eat except at school. But he was so worried he would be taking away my lunch. He kept saying, "No, you eat it!" So I ate some, and left out some crackers for him to eat if he wanted, which progressed to some lunch meat and cheese And something happened in this moment. We sort of bonded. And suddenly, all day long, he went out of his way to protect me. I mean ALL DAY LONG. When it came time for snack time, he tried to give me his snack. I wasn't hungry, so I smiled and said "no thank you." He insisted, so I took a tiny piece. But still... it meant so much to me that he wanted to share what little he had. I know what it's like to be hungry. And hunger does something dreadful to you. It makes you angry. It keeps you from thinking rationally. And when you have food, you become sort of.. greedy with it. 

But he wasn't greedy. He was generous. It wasn't just that he didn't want to be "indebted" to me, but it was more like we were taking care of each other. He was just more insistent with me. My little sweetheart. 

I used to regret my so called "special powers." 
I thought I was overly sensitive...
overemotional... 
I thought I was weak.

But I'm not weak.
If it weren't for this anomaly in me that allows me to feel what another person feels.. I mean to truly feel it,

none of this would have happened. The blood would still be flowing. And he would still have been hungry. And that hunger would have kept him angry. And deep down, my baby would still be hurting.


I'm not so naive as to believe that I took away his pain. I know I don't have that power.  
But, if he was distracted from his hurt, even for just a little bit, then maybe that was just enough time for a little bit of healing to take place.. just enough time for a tiny flicker of light to shine in the darkness... just enough time for something to rise up inside him.... just enough time for Hope, to make her appearance.

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You can read more from Alex here, and her missionary partner, Vera, here.

추석 Traveling: Recess

Part of my Bulgarian adventure was entertaining some kids during recess so their teachers could get a meeting in.  This was a lot of fun, although I don't think it would have been, had I not been teaching for a year already in Korea.  I especially enjoyed the name that every child in the place called me, quite excitedly, I might add:  Anna Banana.  See, Anne is a rather unusual name for them, so they had started to side with Annie, but I nipped that in the bud and switch them over to Anna.  Anna Banana just naturally had to follow.  Of course.  

In Korea, I am 앤, sometimes 앤나.  In Bulgaria, I am Анна Банана.  I'm beginning to think my high school Spanish teacher was mistaken when she said that you keep your name wherever you go in the world.

Since I realize how long my post was yesterday, I'm going to shut up now and let these pictures do the rest of my speaking for me.  They're really quite good, if I do say so myself, so, please take your time on them!

추석 Traveling: At the Orphanage

Alex and Vera spend a lot of time volunteering at an orphanage for people with special needs.  I purposefully say "people" and not "children, because there are many fully grown adults in this orphanage.  I don't have photos of this adventure to share with you, so as to protect those who live at the orphanage, but I hope I can evoke images vividly enough with my words so as to be satisfying.

This is the post that I've been thinking about the most.  This is the post that is probably not going to satisfy me when I'm done.  This is the post that really isn't going to do its job.  What happened to me while I was at the orphanage was not so much what I saw, said, or did; what happened to me there was much more about what I felt.

Upon arriving at the orphanage, we dropped off our things in the director's office, and we trooped outside to take some of the more immobile people on a walk.  The more volunteers that are there, the better, since there will be more people to push wheelchairs, meaning that more of the residents can go on the walk, which is so good for them - the change of scenery, the sunshine, the fresh air, the movement.  I generally preferred to stay in the back of the parade, enjoying the sun as it woke up and warmed up, the steadily rolling mountains, and the general air of peace that radiated from the people who walked in front of me.

There's one moment etched in my mind that features a backdrop of blue-green mountains, back-lit by a still-cold sun, against which I watched as three of our fully-grown walkers joined hands and continued on their walk that way, simply enjoying each other's reaffirmed presence and love.  As I saw that, my heart melted and a year and a half of stress washed off me.  I couldn't help thinking, "This is what we're supposed to be.  This is, as Phil from KiA (Mainz, Germany) would say, Heaven breaking into our world.  This is what makes G-d smile."

It may not be incredibly politically correct of me to say this, but I've frequently found myself envying people with special needs, especially people with Down's Syndrome.  I envy some of my Autistic friends, but Down's Syndrome takes the cake.  I can tell that there is something going on in their perspective of the world that I, by missing out on an "extra" chromosome, am sorely lacking and should regret it.  Having never even lived closely with this type of person, I can't say my observations for anything near certain, and I know that everyone has their bad days, but I rarely ever see me friends with Down's with anything less than a smile on their faces.  They have a special way of communicating, a special way of seeing people that I regret not having.  I am desperately envious of their world-view.  So, to throw me into a large group of people in possession of this world view was nothing short of the most relaxing thing I can ever remember doing in my life.  This from the girl who once swore she would never be able to handle people with special needs.  (A side-note from me to you: Don't test G-d with those kind of statements.  I look back on that memory now, and can almost audibly hear the "Oh really?" that He shot in response to me.)

After the morning walk, we sat for a while in the sun, playing with some of the "immobile" people there, although that's not really a good term for it, because they certainly could move when they want to, it's just not in a bi-pedal sort of way.  Sitting amongst these people was an experience.  In fact, sitting anywhere in the orphanage was an experience - usually one that ended with me finding myself with a pile of children on top of me.  This probably contributed to my sense of relaxation.  Although I suffer terribly from oversensitive skin due to Sensory Integration Dysfunction that leaves me feeling like I'm literally burning alive, my love language is still touch.  I could always tell, when I taught elementary school, when I haven't had enough of it by the overwhelming desire to let my students all pile on top of me, like I knew they wanted to do.  G-d is so good; He found a way to answer even that prayer that my soul had been crying out to Him.

After the piling, I followed Vera upstairs to the bedrooms and nurseries of the younger children.  It was approaching lunchtime, and we were going to help feed the kids.  Again, we came in and sat on the floor, where I was immediately bombarded by two little people, Bobbie and Addie.  They're brother and sister: twins, I think.  Bobbie, entirely uninhibited, plopped himself in my lap, while Addie, who was much more reserved, preferred to stay a bit further away and assess the situation.  I never heard either one of them speak a word, or eve make a noise, come to think of it, but they were quite communicative with me.  Bobbie and I played for a while, and I noted that fact that I would soon be inheriting his cold, as he wiped his snot on my arm.  I had a gnawing feeling that I needed to be paying attention to Addie, too, though, especially if they were twins.  I, being reserved upon meeting new people myself, know the strong desire to bond with people, and the pain of being crippled by your natural inclinations, so I broke the ice and stuck my tongue out at her.  She lit up like a Christmas tree, getting off her chair and crawling over to me to return my greeting.  I responded by rolling my tongue at her, which she spent the next half hour trying to learn to do.  Now worried about Bobbie's need for attention, I started full-palmedly stroking his face, an action that thoroughly amused him, and continued slowly rolling my tongue in on itself over and over for Addie.  I must say, I was relieved when lunch arrived, in spite of its gruel-like texture and Bobbie's gaping front teeth.  That boy... I think I ended up with more of his lunch on me than on him.  At least he was amused.

After lunch, we had to leave for the day, but we returned the next.  I thought about Bobbie and Addie all through the walk and ran up to pop in on them as soon as I could.  By that time, though, lunch was already over, but the kids weren't phased.  By way of greeting, Addie stuck her tongue out at me (she never did learn how to roll it; I think there's a genetic factor involved, poor kid), before beeing hauled off for a nap by her nurse.  The other nurses were busily trying to get Bobbie to take some medicine for his cold, something my presence did not help at all.  When I walked in, he threw his arms wide and started trembling from head to foot in a way that reminded me so strongly of my brother in his single-digit days that I had to laugh.  I eventually figured out that if I stood behind the nurses in just the right way, he would look the correct direction for them to get the medicine in his mouth.  Then, I could give him the hug he was looking for and send him off to bed.

If I were in a different circumstance, not having to work and being supported by someone else (a husband, donations, etc.), I would be looking into adopting Bobbie and Addie.  Not only have I been unable to stop thinking about them since the moment I met them, but Bulgaria is getting ready to disband its orphanages.  It has another program it will implement that I don't fully understand, so it's not like it's abandoning the kids, but it doesn't seem like the kind of thing that is good for the particular people in this specific orphanage.  They are going to be assessed according to functionality levels and divvied up to different "homes" (I'm not sure what all that term entails).  There's some good in that, since they'll, in theory, be receiving more specialized care, but anyone who thinks this entire group isn't a functioning family unit is kidding themselves.  I hate that they're all going to be split up, BUT, if they have to be, I'd rather know that Bobbie and Addie are going to people who are going to love them and care for them according to their very specific needs.  Believe it or not, I half-seriously contemplated finding a man to marry me before D-Day (Dissolving-Day... my term, no one else's).  But I was only half-serious, so, now I'm just praying, and trying to put the whole situation in G-d's hands.  I don't kid myself into thinking that I am the best possible solution for Bobbie and Addie's situation; heck, I'm not even sure I belong on the "best" list at all, but I know I care deeply about them, and I want what's best for them.  So I pray, and I pray often, and more often still.

For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.  Amen.

추석 Traveling: Правец & Ботевград (Pravets & Botevgrad)

Sunday morning brought with it the prospect of traveling a ways away for church.  Luckily, the service was later, so I had the opportunity to attempt to catch up on sleep.  I've never been one to get hit hard by jet-lag my first day back in a place.  I usually feel it at night, anyway, but I mostly attribute that to my preference for late night flights, meaning that I don't get very much sleep.  For some reason, I'd rather get only one or two hours of sleep than have to wake up even an hour early.  Maybe that will change in time.  Any way that you look at it, though, my bleary mind was quite content to attempt to sleep all day.  Thankfully, Alex was of the mind to not even entertain that idea, and I wasn't going to ask it of her, since I knew I would regret it if I didn't get out and see the country I was visiting.

Zhana, Alex's boss, stopped by in the morning to warn us against going to church.  Apparently, there was a sinus-infection-inducing cold and the flu going around in the community, and, since my defenses were down (being in a new country, jet-lagged, and all), her doctor had recommended that I didn't go to church.  I was touched.  This woman had talked to her doctor about me!  She didn't know me from Eve, yet she had prepared in advance to make sure that I would be able to stay healthy, rather than just advising me to "be careful for my health," as to which I've grown accustomed here. (Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that the people in Korea warn me against situations that I might not have thought to take precaution, but it's amazing to have someone actually help with it.)  So, instead of church, Alex and I wandered around Правец and its neighboring town Ботевград.

Ботевград was pretty, and reminded me a lot of most college towns that I've seen.  It's the kind of place that feels somewhat large, but you also get the sense that everyone knows everyone.  Meanwhile, the whole area is shrouded in a type of 1960's communistic architecture.  Since Правец is still locally communistic, this rather makes sense.  (Mind-blowing, I know.)  However, my photography doesn't really reflect this feeling, because I like to take photos of pretty things, and I didn't find most of the architecture all that pretty... So, take my representation with a grain of salt.

Ботевград town square 

I was fascinated with the straight-metal swings, rather than chained ones.  Plus, the children on them made the place look so homey.

Alex needed an ATM, and I liked how the signs didn't clash with nature too much.

I'm not normally one for roses, but the obscure coloring more than makes up for it.

Waiting at the bus stop.

Our late-night wanderings through Правец ran us into a man who remembered Правец before it was Правец.  He was out on a stroll with his cow, Gala.  Immediately, I took a liking to this man.  Really?  On a walk with your cow, you say?  Yes, I can tell that I'll like you already.  As Alex and her friend Yony admired, Gala, I came up next to the man and said, in my rather sarcastic way, "Nice cow," assuming he couldn't understand me and would ignore me, like I'm used to here in Korea.  Not so much, though.  He started talking to me in German, which I understood some of, but, eventually, Yony stepped in and translated.  She was incredibly uncomfortable, but I was in Seventh Heaven.  His history lesson was fascinating, although I don't remember much of it.  He did say, however, that he though Bulgarian men would me more likely to marry if the women looked more like Alex and myself. Scarlet faced, we thanked him and wrapped the conversation up.  Yony really didn't like translating such comments for us.

I think when I grow up, I'd like a pet cow to take for walks, so I'd have an excuse to make young people incredibly uncomfortable with my ramblings.

I hope my lack of words doesn't belittle my conviction of how important this event was for my trip.  I think it put me in the right frame of mind for the rest of the days that followed - simple; beautiful; and, overall, loving.

추석 Traveling: Sofia, Bulgaria

So, I'm back from my travels for now, and I come bearing pictures.  Posting them has been slow going, as I've been sick and unbelievably busy.  I've got piles of things I don't want to do, and I'm forgetting to do the things I want to do, but that all gets shoved aside, as I come home from work and all but collapse into bed that very moment.  Still, I'm trying to knock out at least one heavy-weighing thing a day.  As you can tell, today, I'm trying to get caught up on the blog.  I have in mind to write about my trip in four separate posts.

Sofia and her poor wardrobe choices.  Call me uncultured, but I still feel that the way women are portrayed in art has little to nothing to do with celebrating the beauty of the female form and everything to do with the way it makes the artist feel to make it as such.

An absolutely beautiful old church. 

A mosque in the foreground with a vast synagogue in the background.  Apparently, Bulgaria originally sided with Nazi Germany in World War II, because Hitler promised them a good deal of land, but, when he came calling for the Jews, the Bulgarian leader said that they were still needed to do labor in the country.  He continued in this habit until Bulgaria switched and sided with the Allies, thus saving all the Jews within Bulgarian borders.

A Russian Orthodox church, with an unpictured Catholic church near it.  These two buildings and the aforementioned two were all quite close to each other.  Bulgaria apparently prides itself on the fact that these four are "within a stone's throw of each other, but never has a stone been thrown between them."

Alex and Vera drinking from the hot springs water that was fixed into fountains.  It was supposed to cure you of diseases, however, I know that Alex and I at least got a cold after drinking it, I'm not sure about Vera.  I think I'd say that it seems rather counter-productive, unless it's a "You've got to get worse to get better" mentality.

Two beautiful shots of Alexander Nevsky, yet another Cathedral in Sofia.  It rekindled my deep-rooted desire to find a way to spend the night or nights inside one of these grand old Cathedrals, although, I'm not sure I could hold my own against the other squatters, and I'm sure the darkest dark that would come with night would frighten me to death.  Nonetheless, I think, as would Miss Anne of Green Gables, that it would be terribly romantic and an adventure worth having.

In spite of the ghastly way I chose to treat my feet while walking around that day, I think it was a wonderful adventure. Jet lag screamed at me from about noon on, which was interesting, since noon in Bulgaria is only 6pm in Korea, but I suppose my midnight departure contributed.  In spite of all that, my biggest regret may have been leaving behind a beautiful violin with a carved scroll that I found in a market.  It was in atrocious condition, having been used instead of paper for someone to track numbers, with cracks around the end peg, so I knew there would be a heart-stopping cost to refurbish it, but I fell in love with it.  Sadly, the woman was asking a bit too much for it, compared to the repair costs, and I couldn't justify it at this juncture in life.  I would have haggled, but she seems entirely non-haggle friendly.  Perhaps it was my clear non-Bulgarian-ness, or because she didn't know that I would have happily gone and withdrawn the money from my bank account if a number came up that seemed more reasonable.  My biggest hangup was that I didn't feel confident in my appraisal abilities.  Perhaps I should study up on that, so that this won't happen again.

Look for more posts about my trip soon!

Just so you know...

I'm in Bulgaria! Happy Chuseok!

Getting there

Today was wonderfully what I needed.  I think the most relaxing part of the whole day was knowing that I'm obligated to do nothing tomorrow.  I have two, commitment-free days in a row.  Sundays don't count, because I feel obligated to go to church, and I often am teaching on Saturdays.  But not this week.  This week I've got Friday and Saturday to actually refresh.

Furthermore, the stresses are sorting themselves out.  I got two lovely emails today: One told me that my revised Maryland taxes had been accepted, and another told me that I'd been approved to go to Bulgaria, since Alex worked out the insurance issue.  Now, all I need it to wait for some information from my school and I'm off to celebrate Chuseok, American-style.

Tonight, I went to a Jambalaya party, thrown by a couple of my friends downtown, followed by a little calm down time with Cameron and Lisa.  Both were wonderful and drastically different in setting/mood, but, again, helping me regain a grip on my mental health.

Here's to another day of relaxing tomorrow.  Hooray!

Today is apparently NOT a mental health day.

Today might be more like a mental breakdown day.  In fact, my world pretty much looks like this:

I'm on the right.  The rest of the world is on the left.

Growing up, I was famous for my encouragement of the "mental health day."  I still fully support them.  I worked my butt off and, as a result, had some days where I just couldn't mentally function anymore.  I would stay home from life on those days, and I feel I was a much more productive human being for it.  Sadly, Korea doesn't seem to believe in those days, so I've had to figure out how to make due without.  I didn't allow myself too many of them in college - the only ones I did take were on the occasional Saturday (instead of going to synagogue), and maybe, because of that, I'll be able to figure it out here.

However, and thank G-d for it, tomorrow I have a built-in mental health day.  Tomorrow is the school's "foundation day," which means that, because the school was built on that day however many years ago, we don't have to attend.  Lovely.  After today, I need it.

This morning, I woke up to the email on the left, and just about had a conniption.  Filing my taxes has been a long and painful process, especially since I've had 3 different paying jobs this year, all needing to be filing in entirely different ways.  The sad part is that I needed to pay state taxes on a grand total of ZERO of them, and yet, my state tax return was still rejected.  Why?  Because I tried to file in Maryland as a part-time resident (since I've spent maybe 2 whole weeks there this tax year).  Unofortunately, in order to do that, you have to file state taxes for the other state you're claiming as a part-time residency at the same time, leaving me with two choices: Tennessee or Korea.  Korea, clearly, was not an option, and Tennessee got smart and only requires you to pay state taxes in extreme circumstances.  As a result, I had no second state to file in, and got rejected.  Yes, I had to sort that out this morning.  I ended up filing as a full-time Maryland resident.  Here's hoping that that was the correct choice.

I got to school, where I thought everything was going to be better, but Sam, my wonderful deskmate, told me that I needed to change the lesson plan for the class I would be teaching at 2:45 today from chapter 6 to chapter 7.  Oh yeah, I had 3 non-contiguous hours in which to make the plan, find a working lesson CD, and make photocopies.  In spite of the daunting nature of the beast, I managed it.  I was ready.

Then, I get a message from my lovely Alex, telling me that her boss had approved my request to visit her over Chuseok, all I needed to do was send her a copy of my traveler's insurance so they could send it to the even higher-ups to approve my request.  Traveler's insurance?  Oh yeah... I remember that now... that thing that I used the one time I lived in Germany through the church of the Nazarene.  That thing I've never used before or since.  That thing that I have NO idea how to get or pay for.  Right.  That thing.  I have both Korean and American insurance and am entirely willing to sign a waiver.  Does that count for anything?

But wait, there's more.  It's now 2:15, and do you know what both Brenda (my deskmate on the other side) and Sam both just told me?  The class that it was so important to change my plans for isn't actually until next week.  In fact, I'm done teaching for the day.  Brenda at least softened the blow with some chocolate milk (which I don't really like at all, but it was a sweet thought) and Sam clearly felt awful (he'd also given me half a chocolate bar earlier).  I know it's not their faults.  This is how Korea works.  It doesn't diminish my stress any, though.

So, assuming I'm still going out with my friends Cam and Lisa tonight (remember them?), I'm going to beg them to give me some time to run by the travel agency on campus right after school and see if I can work something out.  Not that I'm going to BUY traveler's insurance before I'm approved to go visit Alex.  

Yeah.  It's been that kind of day.