job/cousin

Yeah, yeah, I haven't posted in a while, but it doesn't sound like I'm doing much if I say that I meet friends for dinner/go to get a drink somewhere. I have been working part-time, but also looking for more permanent work.

In the last 5 days, I have had two interviews and one informal one for different jobs such as recruiter, English consultant, and one-on-one English teacher. The last one is with division of Pagoda, my old company, so interview was informal. The other two, I don't know how good my chances are. Obviously, a job is a main concern, but speaking Korean seems to be a forced second concern.

People don't realize that I can speak some basic necessary things to get around the city and to order at restaurants. With this, I am able to do enough, so I don't have total hardship. But, it would be nice to communicate more since I will need it in the future. Unfortunately, I am feeling that people are trying to shove it down my mouth, so it doesn't seem to enjoyable or interesting to study. Hopefully, I will find a greater interest and take more initiative, but for now I will keep looking for a job and be happy with what I have.

I met my cousin today. She has been one of my main communication lines with my mother. She just recently returned from a study abroad to UK, so it was nice to see her again. Also, she had a message from my mom and asked if I had any questions. She knows that it is very difficult for both of us, but hopes that we can have a chance to improve the relationship even with communication problems.

Medicine/other

Yesterday, I met a friend and her boyfriend. She is a half Korean/American. She grew up in Korea during her elem/middle school years, so her Korean is pretty fluent. She had mentioned that she bought allergy medication at the pharmacy in Korea. I asked her if she could help me get some. She said that she takes Zyrtec and that it is available over the counter. We checked a few pharmacies before we found one that had Allegra-D, which is the one that I previously took and like. She found out that Allegra-D and Zyrtec are available OTC, but regular Allegra without a decongestant is only available by prescription. I purchased a month's worth of Allegra-D, but since it's OTC, there is no insurance coverage. A month's supply cost about $50, but if it helps my allergies than it will be well worth it, especially since I don't have to see a doctor to get it.

I worked out again. Yeah, yeah, my workouts are spread out and not too often. My allergies haven't been treating me great, so that hasn't helped. I going with the slowly, but surely route and hope that I can get into a more regular schedule of exercise. I need to lose a lot of weight, but it isn't going to come off over night. I am writing these updates so hopefully, it will keep me motivated.

Just recently I was reminded that when people quit asking, "what you are doing?" or "why are you doing that?" or "have you found a job?", it isn't because they want to make your life difficult, it's because they still care about your life (kinda like when athletic coaches work you hard because you haven't reached your potential). In the last couple of years, this has happened to me a lot, maybe, because I have chosen a very unique career path that isn't normal and I have received a lot of questions. I am starting to realize I should appreciate all of the people that care, but it has been very difficult to let all of those people know that I love them and appreciate their love, generosity, and friendship, even when my life has lots of obstacles that I have encountered or made for myself. One of these days, my life will move from Search/Nomad Mode (job, home, relationship) to normal life mode, but for now, I am just trying to be "happy" with what I am doing.

Gas prices still going up? Currently, prices are probably just under $8/gallon, which make me happy that I take public transportation everywhere.