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{homeward bound}
Ahhhhh America. I’ve been back in the states for about a week now, steadily gaining back all the weight I lost by indulging on all of my favorite american treats. MMMMmm. No regrets there!
My trip started out in Ann Arbor, switched it up in Detroit, involved a combo greyhound+plane flight to get to my bro in Tallahassee, and now is kicking down a few gears as I board a private bus bound down the FL coast for Miami in just a few hours.
My trip has been defined by food and friends, but grad school is weighing top in my mind. Since I was visiting two university towns, I met with the graduate programs admissions representatives and fleshed out some of my post-grad goals while hearing about different programs.
Basically, I’m planning on going to library school to get my MLIS and a certificate as a school media specialist (ie, a school librarian). I could work in a school in in a public library as a YA/children’s librarian. After a few year of tossing around different ideas for grad school (MSW, MA in Jewish women’s studies, the omnipresent MFA), library school has stuck out. Do I have any experience working in libraries? No… And yet, it’s something that I’ve been kicking around for a long time. In both of the admissions meetings that I had, I got uncontrollably (yes! uncontrollably!) excited when talking about library space, information usage and youth education. Seriously! I’ve read a lot of peoples’ day-to-day librarian experiences on Library Day in the Life and it looks like what I want from a job: social, challenging, technology and youth based, and ever changing.
And yet, I still have some… slight doubts. I talked to my brother about it a lot. See, I always expected that I would do something art related with my life. I’m a couple of years out if art school, and that hasn’t been the case. My day jobs have been about education, not art. I keep wondering if I should be getting a degree in art education instead. Which will give me satisfaction and happiness? Which would let me grow and develop as an artist? Which will lend itself to a stable work environment?
As it stands, I’m looking at applying to four iSchools for the fall of ’11. Utexas-Austin, Umich, Simmons in Boston and Umaryland – college park. These schools might be some of the harder iSchools to get into… I might also have some of the lowest GRE scores to ever fall out of a fairly intelligent persons skull. I’m looking at it as an experiment. If I don’t get in, I’m not going to stress about it. If I do get in, I’ll take it from there.
Librarians in training. I can see myself doing that.
Jews of Korea (?! really)
@ Yongsan Army Base
With shabboes starting later and later, Chaplain Shulman finally got around to taking a group picture of the Friday night crew. This is pretty much the Jewish community of Korea that I know – English teachers, Korean natives, US army, reform to orthodox. People come for an hour or two outside of Seoul to get together at the US YongSang Army Base for services and dinner. It’s not Ann Arbor, but it’s not bad.
8 or so of my friends are in the picture, including Linda (to my right), who’s not jewish and was suckered by me into going. This week was Sheva Brachot for Neil and Tobi, who just got married, and a huge going away party for everyone leaving Seoul in the next month. I thought there would be some serious partying, and dragged her along…. well, at least I think she enjoyed the food.
🙂 Anyway, it’s a good time – I’m happy to be part of it.
Be sure to click for larger picture!
Today starts my Chusok vacation!! Yay!! Chusok is somewhat equivalent to Thanksgiving, without the indigenous bloodshed. People gather with their families and give thanks to their elders. It also falls on a Jewish holiday this year – Sukkot. I’ll be celebrating Chusok with Anna and Yoonji’s families, and I’m super excited! There’s supposed to be tons and tons of good food. Today was also the last day of midterms for my girls, and they left school looking so much happier than they’ve looked over the past three days. At Hyewon (and maybe at other schools?) students only have two tests – midterm and final exam. That’s a lotta pressure for a middle schooler.
Haha. Waiting for the train!
I think these videos are kind of mundane, but I wanted to share them anyway. Â Life in Seoul is glamourous!
Seoul Grand Park was ridic! So big~~ And the landscape was beautiful.
I did a bunch of videos about the Yogurt Lady (Ajjuma). She plays a pretty important role in my life, hahah. There where more video’s about her, but I don’t want to seem too enthralled with probiotic goodness.
(THIS IS THE BEST YOGURT VIDEO!)
I made a really long video about  Urim Market, an open air marketplace near my house. It’s super busy and you can get some great deals there – though I keep on forgetting to bargain down, so I’m probably getting ripped off. But! I bet other people get great deals; and I feel like I’m getting good deals, and that’s what counts. Right?! Of course right.
There’s a part two… but It’s sound isn’t working. I’ll upload it later! o_o
Old Photos
Over Chanukah, right before the new year of 2009, Kirti, Nate and I traveled to Mexico to visit a close friend, Carmina. Carmina is a strong, fantastic crazy girl that we missed so much.
Today I was able to scan some of the film I shot while there.
loud loud loud 