Random update

Monday: You know it's gonna be SOME kind of day when you would swear that's the smell of weed through the teachers' office window.

Yesterday I thanked God for my lack of food allergies because trying new and unidentifiable pastries has become one of my favorite activities. Today I sampled a pastry labeled "egg" something. It tasted like buttermilk pie. I also tried "vegetable bread." It had a big piece of ham in the middle. :0)

Today I'm thankful for a natural understanding of linguistics/phonics. Another teacher asked me to help teach one student f's and v's and I think I was mostly successful.

A friend asked me about the cultural differences earlier this week. I said people spit in the street, piss in the alleys, and pass out drunk on the corner. There's trash all over the ground and where the outdoors do not smell like fish, they smell like feces. So it's just like a college town, he quipped. Yeah. Pretty close.

Today I saw TWO fatties! Two! Ah ah ah! (The Count laughs.) But, Moniqa, how can you be so mean? OK, I'm not even talking about overweight people or Rubenesque people; I mean actually rotund. And I'm being objective, not mean. On a related note, people here genuinely like you better as a person the thinner you are, which means I have some catching up to do. Fortunately, I can easily increase my walking week to 30 miles and still have 3 days left over for other exercise.

While going for my morning walk, I found a pretty little seashell on the sidewalk. We live about a 30 minute drive from the sea, though I'm told ocean fish swim up into this river. Whatever. I took it home and hope to find some thread for a pretty little seashell necklace.

I found a place where I can take free Korean lessons on Saturdays. It will cost maybe $3-$4 per week in subway fare and is not far from Hongdae (nightlife central). I can't wait to start.

Hagen Daaz goes for $16/Qt. Lame. Flavored milks and drinkable yogurts are really big here. I want to increase my protein intake but am not ready to brave the meat market yet, so my plan is to phase out pastry sweets in favor of dairy sweets and go from there. EVERYTHING in Korea is sweet, so limiting sweets would be an exercise in futility.

The ladies I teach with want to hang out, see a movie, and go to dinner on Sunday. Fun times ahead!

This morning, as I lamented the fact that every day is dull and gray, a breeze blew through and knocked the leaves from gold and red trees before me like a scene straight from a movie. I nearly wept for the beauty of it. Not really. It was a very cold wind stinging my eyes.


There's a lot of foot traffic here, and everyone stands very still while waiting for the crosswalk light to turn. I've noticed that I stand out not because I'm white, but because I have my headphones on and cannot help but bounce and dance and groove in place while waiting for the light to turn. Meh. The folks in my neighborhood can get used to it.