milestone

on sunday, june 30, i was scheduled to be packing ALL my stuff, saying my 안녕히 가세요 's , hugging and kissing my closest friends, and hoping on a plane bound for canada.

then the ETERNAL HEX placed on me kicked in, and i fell extremely ill.

so i left korea a lot sooner than i expected,
and didn't get to do any of those things...


but

there are so many things that i have been able to experience here in canada that i would have missed out on if i was in korea.

~~ i've been able to celebrate easter, 2 long weekends, and canada day with my friends and family


~~ i have been involved in the process of selling and redecorating my aunt's house.


~~ discovered who my true friends are


~~ had an amazing opportunity to work in a lawyer's office - money & experience !!


~~ AND we sold our old trailer for a new one. it sounds cheesy, but being there when it left was so important to me. 10 years of growing and memories is too special to give up without saying goodbye. It was a special moment i was so happy to share with my family.


~and there have been many more things that have happened as well. little moments that have made me grateful.~

 sometimes, when something bad happens to a you, it is so easy to focus on the negative. i was (and still am) like this, but i am slowly starting to realize it takes a bigger, stronger person to accept it, let it be, and move on. it has been so difficult for me to accept the fact that my exchange was not perfect - it had it's ups and downs- and that is was cut short because of illness. When we have a timeline in our head of how we want things to unfold, it's difficult to accept the change- especially when it comes out of the blue so suddenly. 
But it happened..


And that's okay.

being back home has put such a perspective on life, my home country, and the things that really matter. i feel so blessed to have come from such an amazing and free country; and i hope that one day, others will realize how lucky we are to be canadian.

i'm patriotic, i am proud,
and korea has helped me to be become the person i am today.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

while in camping in wingham with my family for canada day, we went to the LCBO. we bought our usual order, but before we left, a little voice inside of me said

"ASK ABOUT SOJU"

so i did.

and it just so happened that they had 1 box of it in the back room, waiting for a korean family to pick it up.

they sold me a few bottles of it anyways.

i've never felt so at home, hopefully the clerk didn't mind my crying.

i had my little bit of korea on the day i was supposed to leave..

sometimes, things work out for the better.

it's all on your perspective.

카스.

i've already left on a plane

apparently in the confusion, sadness, and down-right clusterfuck of coming home, i didn't make sure that this was posted correctly.. oops.

well, better late than never. 

i am back from korea.

please check out my blog post / crying fest about it by clicking on the photo below:

oh god. what is happening.

캐시

uploading..

i am currently uploading a very small percentage of my cambodia / vietnam photos (even though this amounts to 70 good photos per place) onto the blog itself..

and it takes a really long time

so, in the meantime,

here are some photos from a buhddist temple i visited a few weeks ago!

double doors:

to ward off evil ! 



lie la and being a good person

above 3 pictures from RYLA

(rotary youth leadership awards)

that camp thing that i went to and did nothing at except meet cool university students.

helping out at a rotary soup kitchen !

...and the best photos for last.

afterwards; miss ahn, the other inbounds, and i went to a costume shop...

have a great thursday !

say hey boke mani bah de say yo

새해 복 많이 받으세요 !

happy new year !

my 친구 and i all went to the district Governor`s home for a celebration in our traditional 한복 dresses.

we also did a fancy bow saying the above phrase, and got the money below:

so epic for a 10 second bow !

the photos below are from the ceremony

enjoy !

just had to.

cassandra does christmas in korealand and posts about it 2 weeks later

so.

Christmas.

the thing that i was dreading the most since starting the entire exchange process. i knew that it was going to be the hardest time during the actual exchange for me, but for some reason, it was not!

i am so confused about this (believe me)

but i have a theory on why this was so:

#1 - KOREANS DON'T CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS

I didn't feel as if I was "someplace else but home during Christmas"

#2 - BECAUSE OF #1, NOTHING FESTIVE

This means that, when i looked around me, I didn't see decorations, carolers, apple cider and gingerbread houses, or Christmas trees ! My brain didn't switch to

OMG IT'S CHRISTMAS. LET'S BUY SHIT AND WRITE LETTERS TO SANTA AND MAKE JELLO

#3 - STICKING TO THE BRAIN SWITCH THING--> NO SNOW !

How can i feel christmasy with no snow to make it magical ! I'M CANADIAN I CAN'T HELP IT.

So with all of this said, this is how my South Korean Christmas went:

~ Get up at 8am (just like in canada) because I can't wait to open presents and stuff.

~ automatically go to the $1 stocking I bought myself 3 weeks previously

~ Realize that i am in Korea and Santa must have lost his way when trying to find my apartment

~ wallow in self pity for a minute

~ go out into the kitchen to look for food that i can pretend is christmasesque

~ find pancakes. o k

after i eat

~get dressed in awesome tacky christmas sweater (a find in korea ! woah !)

~ eat birthday cake with my host grandmother while she stares at me and says 'WOAH 예쁘다' (her birthday is December 25th. What a coincidence!)

~ leave the house, meet my friend Ai Chun 李愛群

~ EAT A MCDONALDS QUARTER POUNDER WITH CHEESE MEAL BECAUSE IT IS THE MOST CANADIAN/WESTERN THING AVAILABLE. HEHE

~ meet friends at nampo dong.

~ look at all of the christmas decorations (the only place in busan with christmas decorations ! so awesome ~!)

~come home at 1am.

o k a y

so yeah. that was my chirstmas.

yippee

but not as bad as i first anticipated !

at least i was with friends :-)

i hope all of you had a great christmas as well. just remember, christmas is a SEASON, not just one day. that's why we get more than one day off school !

xxoo cass

hello i disappeared

hellllo folllllks

yes, i have returned from the grave.

what has been up with me, you ask?

-cambodia and vietnam trip.

^woah, amazing^

-sadly, from all the amazingness above, i kind of came home and was really sick.

^well, at least no school^

-and this brings us to tonight. i moved host families !

i went from this;

my beautiful host mother, i love you.

to this;

such a cute, quaint house !

i can not wait for my new adventures with my new family !

i will miss you, family #1.

love you guys !