Signing off from the motherland

It's been a crazy crazy few weeks. This will probably be the last post until I'm back stateside. I'm already beginning to process this trip in my head.. gonna be up for a while. I'm not sure how I expected to feel, leaving Korea.. maybe homesick, or just happy and ready to come home. But I kind of feel sad. I'm going to miss this place. I honestly didn't think I would form any kind of real attachments...

-Waking up and being made to eat breakfast, Korean-style
-Riding the 08 village bus down to Hyehwa station to go to work, or play with friends
-SEOUL METRO SYSTEM. I HEART THEE! So efficient, so cheap, clean. It got me to so many places that are now memorable to me. Though rush hours were not always the most fun, with all the standing against sweaty people and such..
-In the same vein, easily meeting up with friends, no matter where in Seoul
-Thankful for said friends, for being super super accommodating by taking time out of their schedules to play with me and show me around
-Daehak-ro which Jenn and I nicknamed "the hood" because we hung out there all the time before she had to go to the neighborhood gym to pump iron
-Having a complicated relationship with the taxi system.. on one hand so cheap and will get me straight home, on the other hand risking getting into trouble for using them by my aunt/uncle because they think it's dangerous
-Living with my aunt/uncle. More my aunt, since I didn't see my uncle too much. There was a point where I was talking on the phone and accidentally referred to them as my parents, as in "I have to ask permission from my parents", which is even weirder because I don't really use the word "parents" at home. But at certain times, I really felt like I was their overprotected daughter.. like any time I wanted to go out with friends I would have to tiptoe around and gather up the courage to ask them if it was ok to go out at 10pm (was tempted to just sneak out but I'm a goodie goodie). And if the slightest bump or rash or anything popped up, I was whisked away to the doctor to get it checked out. A different relationship from the one between my mom and me but still.. parental.
-Living with my grandma/cousin. My grandma was also my roommate. She was also a bit protective of me and worried a lot for the family in general. She's cute. My cousin was super generous with and gracious about everything.. really thankful.
-Meeting my mom's friend's daughter Minjung (weird spelling it out in English) my one KOREAN-Korean friend. I had to learn how to text/type in Korean bc of her, which was stressful at first but turned out to be super fun! She introduced me to her other friends and we all played at noraebang until 6am one time. Twas fun. Hopefully we'll keep in touch.
-Being forced to speak Korean with family members/most people here.. a lot of times, English was not an option at all so I would have to say things in a roundabout way to get to the point since my vocab is limited. But I think by constantly using it, my speaking has slightly improved.
-The cute cute cute items. Cute notebooks, cell phone chains, jewelry
-Cafes!

Ok. My tiredness is overcoming my sentimental-ness. A lot of this is just because I was on vacation, I know, and actually living here would be different.

But I am looking forward to going back to my regular diet, and losing some weight!