A Chill Evening

Tonight Amy came over for chocolate pancakes. She brought over plums and a bottle of hard lemonade. I snapped a pic of her, lying down with Lucy earlier in the evening.

Ah, brinner....

I thought it might be homey to make a traditional breakfast for dinner, slightly Koreanized to include white rice, but then that's just my preference back home. The meal shall include chocolate pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, sticky rice, milk, and orange juice.

Picture to follow upon completion of said meal :)

The Result:

Lotte, Lotte, Lotte, LOTTE

If my head weren't splitting, I'd update on tonight's baseball game. LOVE. IT. I HEART LOTTE GIANTS (UH). And Jon Adkins. Of course, I'll marry you.

Dinner with my students

Tonight, Yeon Kyoung's family invited me to dinner at their house. Very near mine, just a few minutes away, under the bridge on the main road. I think I'm falling in love with her, and her sister, too, but Yeon Kyoung especially. She's so understanding, too, of my Korean, and is really trying to help me. We usually just walk around the playground together, speaking alternately in English and Korean. I sometimes wonder if I'm not making something of a pariah out of her, is it cool or not cool to be seen so often with the teacher....? but she adores spending time with me, and I won't ever tell her to get away from me. I like her too much for that.

She and Jee Sook met me near the E-Mart. It was so cute....as I was walking down (they called me a half hour early and asked me to meet them), Jee Sook called me...again...and as soon as she spotted me, started running towards me calling out my name. I couldn't help but smile. I asked her, in Korean, where her sister was...and she pointed around the corner of the shopping mart.

It was cute to watch the two of them running up the concrete stairs, too. Yeon Kyoung gave me a tour of her home (see below).



Later on, she gave me a Korean lesson....



Her mother was so nice, making sure I had everything I could possibly want. For dinner we ate bimbibop (rice with mixed veggies) and a clear soup with seafood and tofu. Also, some salty dried fish, which was absolutely delicious.

Here is a sample of my conversation describing my visit:

Supermodelspy
i just had dinner with my students' family
9:55

Sreneangel
oh yeah?
9:55

Supermodelspy
yeon kyoung and her sister, jee suk
i had fun playing with her brothers too
i kept saying "nanun noru pogu issaiyo," i'm watching you...and doing the bumblebee tickling thing
they thought it was hilarious
...either that, or they were just ticklish

..heheheh

Yeon Kyoung and her mother walked home with me. We stopped at the E-Mart, I thought because her mother needed something for the house--instead, she bought me orange juice. It was a bit shocking, really. I didn't expect anything like that. I had mentioned I would like some juice at the house, which she didn't have, but I assured her water was fine. If anything, I assumed she had bought the juice so she would have some in case I visited again. Which would still have been really sweet of her; this was doubly so.

It's late, though, almost two in the morning, and I should be sleeping.

Spaghetti & Wine

Amy's coming over tonight to make spaghetti with me, refreshingly American, even though you can get spaghetti around the world. Wheat noodles here, however, still strike me as something of a gourmet food item, like cheddar cheese or Reese's peanut butter cups. Those Reese's peanut butter cups! So delicious, something really chocolate, that I think is chocolate before I put it in my mouth and does not fail to disappoint. Far too often in this country, I wander through some market or down some windy road and see some vendor selling a delicate treat which I am sure is chocolate, and is, as a matter of course, red bean paste. I love Asian culture, please don't get me wrong, but dessert is something that Western culture just does better. Cream and butter and sugar and real chocolate in all manners of equally ingenious and mouthwatering designs. Whereas "dessert" here almost requires the presence of rice and red beans. All very well in a savory dish, and even acceptable in certain sweets, but not all the time. I sorely miss a real, chewy, fresh baked brownie with a scoop of the smoothest vanilla ice cream and generous helpings of hot fudge.

She asked me to buy some mushrooms and cream, am not sure exactly what she's planned, but am sure it will be tasty. I bought a bottle of cheap Chilean wine, and will probably introduce her to some old movie with Marilyn Monroe or Cary Grant. I only hope she'll understand it well enough to appreciate the humor, but I am sure I can dig up something in my admittedly meager collection, compared to many, but all carefully chosen. She very much enjoyed Flight of the Conchords on a previous visit, and I may simply resort to that, although "resort" is not the best word, I fairly savor that show. No more than my others, but it is so adorably cute and with that degree of friendship emanting from the two friends that makes a part of me melt. I am a sucker for romance in any form. Hence my fascination with most of the films and shows I obessess over. Romance, intrigue, suspense, wit, good writing...but above all romance.

Lucy is curled up on my couch now. Amy should be arriving in twenty minutes, which leaves me twenty minutes to lie on the couch so that Lucy can curl up with me, as she is always anxious to do. Or I could, in the meantime, study some Korean to prep myself for speaking Korean with Amy tonight, although it is a constant battle between my desire to speak Korean and her desire to simply speak English. My Korean is poor, but it doesn't have to say that way. I plan on becoming fluent, or at least managing survival Korean. Conversational Korean has been something I've been working hard on lately and is my priority, among getting to work and making sure I eat at least two meals a day.

an apology

I promise to update soon. Miss you all!

a follow-up thought

I am--really-- learning towards the attitude that if it doesn't hurt anyone and makes someone happy, don't knock it.

a response to the situation in Iran

11:56
Chloe Goya

oh, god
i can't take that
and what the hell is up with counting 40 bajillion handwritten ballots in a few hours?
i mean, seriously
i swear to god, journalists today could put two people in a room with a gun, hear a gunshot, open a room to find one guy dead in a pool of blood, the gun lying next to him, and write up a story about the "alleged shooting" by So-and-so

11:59
Sreneangel

mmhmmm

Late night adventures in downtown Busan....

Tonight, I left the security of my apartment in search of conversation and pastries. There just isn't any substitute to learning a language other than speaking it. I've just been too scared, not much different, really, than the way my students feel about speaking English. It isn't a matter of simply learning the words-- it's overcoming one's fear of sounding like a blithering idiot in public. Which, frankly, I do. But even so, my brain overwhelmed by masses of meaningless jumbles of mispronounced and misheard syllables, I managed--manage-- to sift through the other person's words and remove a word or phrase, here and there, like a Jenga puzzle piece, the same uncontrollable rush of joy at success, and I respond with an answer which the person understands.

I walked, nowhere in particular, just down the street. I stopped into my favorite bakery, "favorite," in this context referring only to the fact that it was most convenient, all Korean bakeries keeping the same stock of honey cakes, sponge cakes, sugared garlic bread, red bean pastries, and ambigously chocolate delicacies. I attempted to strike up conversation, but got little more than, "How much is this?" Still, I was not to be discouraged.

I next tried a magazine, er, convenience store, again with disappointing results, despite my giving in and reaching for my phrasebook. My stop at the cell phone store gave me much the same results. I was weakened, but resilient. The search continued.

Walking down the street, again aimlessly, I more or less stumbled into a Korean man who I drew, rather firmly, into conversation. The majority of our conversation consisted of stumbling blocks, but I did isolate his request for my age, to which I responded with my American age...he then made some comment about what my age would be in Korean terms, and we parted ways just about that time. My ecstasy at being understood overwhelmed my senses.

I found myself, the phrase being more than usually appropriate as I had no particular destination, and only half conciously became aware that I had stopped, at a rather dark spot of town, a police station across the street. A middle aged couple, and a younger mannish woman, too old, I felt, to be their daughter, sat at a cart eating watermelon. I had a vague plan to pretend I was lost to the policemen, but they saw me looking, probably too intently, at my phrasebook and asked me where I was going. I engaged in conversation with him, told him I was a teacher, that I taught young kids. When the man asked me if I was American, I told him, yes, I was from Las Vegas. He misheard, thought I said "Alaska." That touched me, reminded me of the twins back home, how old were they...? Three? Four? I had Kelsie on the phone. I told her I was going to Moscow, and she, in her four year old wisdom, thought I said "Costco." What was the discussion I had with my friend's friend's son, about wearing his father's shoes? He was so happy I spoke Russian to him, and he looked so ridiculous in those shoes, but so proud at the same time-- and I am distracted.

He offered me a ride home on his motorbike, told his wife, in Korean, that he'd be back in five minutes, it seemed safe enough. I accepted. I don't know how he interpreted the streets between the cart and the E-Mart where I told him to drop me off. I do know that I've never gone from Point A to Point B before in such a way as to incoporate Points C thru Z as well. He must've talked to a half dozen friends, which I desperately tried to catch the gist of and failed.

Now I'm home, typing this, and glancing down at my cat, curled up on my laptop case, sleeping in the light manner that cats have perfected, and chatting with friends in Korea.

I must buy a watermelon soon.

Night.

Cat Antics

So, I was lying down on my bed, reading about how the Supreme Court clerks drew straws to explain certain sexual acts to the Justices in preparation for an obscenity case, and my cat meows, jumps off the bed, picks up her favorite toy in her mouth and drops it on me. I guess this means playtime.

A Second List

Some Things You Can't Find In Korea

Tacos (and Real Mexican food)
Crest toothpaste
Deodorant
Inexpensive, quality clothing

North Korea

I'm not overly concerned about a North Korea attack. Perhaps, even living so close, the threat doesn't seem real.

Still, again, not really worried, but I registered with the embassy yesterday, because just in case they do evacuate, they know I'm here.