adventures with celeste

well, this is the first chance i've gotten to update since celeste got here. ok really, i've had the time, i've just been too lazy. it's been quite an adventure so far. i've always been a believer that things just naturally work out, but we've been thrown a few curve balls since the moment she got to the airport in elmira. long story short, she got here later than expected (not too much later, but late enough to miss the last bus to daejeon which i had already gotten tickets for) after a hellish day of traveling for her. so we ended up taking a $187 taxi ride all the way to daejeon, because by that point, both of us just wanted to be home and neither of us cared how much we'd pay.

this korean visit has been authentic right from the start. by monday celeste had already seen the hospital twice, had lunch at outback steakhouse, and dessert at baskin robbins. yeah the tonsillitis came back so we were rather limited with what we could do. but by monday night the medicine had taken effect again and i was feeling better, which meant we were good to go for oasis the following night! didn't take my camera for that one, but aaron brought his, so pictures will soon be posted. we had quite an experience that night- the concert itself was good, then after we got something to eat celeste and i tried to stay the night in a love motel, while alisun, salsa, and aaron just waited around to kill time. after spending $40 to stay in the seoul motel in incheon, i can safely say to anyone considering spending some time there "run away! run away!" this motel had all elements working against us- hairs under the cover, small room, no water jug, and after the moaners and groaners and bed knockers on the other side of the wall went at it for the upteenth time, we decided we'd try to take a train out. god only knows what the man working at the desk could have thought after two girls checked out of their room only an hour and a half after checking in. on the way out we met some people i knew from daejeon (who were wasted), and the girl there decided she'd come catch the train with us. of corse this meant i had to spend the entire hour sitting next to her on the train as she talked my ear off (she even stopped and bought another bottle of soju before we went into the station). she got my number, let's pray she doesn't call me. also, it turned out that alisun, salsa, and aaron had tickets for the same train because it's the first one out and they ended up sitting in our car.

that was the longest night of my life, and we got back at about 6:30 in the morning. after sleeping about an hour we got ready and headed downtown for some shopping. it was a fun day- we got some clothes (including matching 60s-style shirt-dresses), had some bibimbap for lunch, and then did two hours in the noraebang. i'm proud to say that celeste is no exception to the smith noraebang legacy. she is a master of all performances vocal. secretly, i'm a little relieved, because this really was just an audition to see how well she performs before i put her out there with all of my friends. i wanted to avoid the possibility and humiliation of bringing in a sister who couldn't sing. luckily, she made the cut, so she's allowed to sing with my friends. so generous of me.

but seriously, folks, here are some noteworthy pictures of her visit so far:

with kimchi:



eating ssamgyeopsal:



(apparently she didn't realize this wasn't a playboy shoot, and changed her shirt when we got back to the apartment)



at the noraebang: