With the Sumans

March 27th saw me with Mic and Nora Suman for the day. When my parents were missionaries in Spain, this couple was also there. Their sons Matt and Drew taught my brothers and I how to play soccer. What a happily unexpected surprise it was to be able to spend a day with them on another continent.

We saw the Insadong Market, ate Mexican food, found a utensil set to their liking to take with them when they go, went to the ever-entertaining culture park (you can always count on being approached by one or two old men wanting to practice their English; this day was no exception), had coffee and finished at Bene's for Mediterranean-style deli. It was a delightful day and fellowship with them was a bolstering comfort.

Photos from the culture park (captions available):

Art market in Hongdae

Another day in early March when I joined several friends and several more strangers for lunch and a perusal through the Art Market in Hongdae. I didn't capture our slightly hectic lunch, but the market made it through my lense.

The ingredients for the market experience that day: very compact use of space, the lemon-wedge shaped park is bordered by a very darrow street on the straight side and as steep, well-bushed bank on the arched; sidled by a very small and very graffitied playground, fringed with the only punk teens I've yet to see in Korea: our group was large enough to be potentially obnoxious; a tent larger than it needed to be was at the opposite end of the playground where young teenage girls were promoting the market with maps and rice cake coated in crushed red-beans.

Things not on camera:
One particularly vocal and...shall we say, strongly persuasive member of our group was certain one of us should interview with a camera crew on-site. Surely they would want a foreigner's perspective. One young thing who'd only been in Korea a few days got roped. She handled it well and the rest of us were both amused and self-congradulatory for not being pushed over by Ms. Strongly-Persuasive.

I was chatted up by Tom, the only expat with a booth. He handed out a free literary compilation written by he and his friends. I liked one autobiographical sketch in it. The rest... well it made its way to the round filing cabinet shortly after entering my apartment.

There were some really decent hand-made wallets and handmade jewelry there.

My wallet held the same amount when I left as when I'd arrived.

Primping Grace

There was a day in March when I helped Mandy get her co-teacher's daughter ready for a father-daughter ball (her mom was in the U.S. for the weekend). There was toe-nail painting, curling, up-doing, lip glossing and twirling involved. It was an hour to let a girl be all the precious girly-girl she wanted to be. There's nothing like it!

Winter Walk

Finally, here are those pictures from my walk on the 26th of January. My goal when I walked was to take pictures of what I saw... the ordinary stuff... and not just take pictures of what's pretty. (After seeing my slide-show from the walk between work and home in Mok-dong back in June or July, my mom asked if it was really that pretty or did I just post the nice parts. I had just posted the nice parts.) I'm trying to learn to take better and more accurate photos. I found that when I was photographing the generally unattractive it was difficult not to sacrifice good composition. I'll keep trying.

(By the way, most of this is captioned if you want to click the text bubble on the left.)

A brief review of what's recent:

Last week, I was diagnosed with bronchial asthma (usually latent, but not in Korea's polluted air combined with my generally beleaguered immune system), but I saw the doctor again, today, and he says my lungs sound clear, now, so I can stop taking the meds I've been on. Hurrah! I'm just coming off a four-day weekend which allowed for some much needed rest and reflection.

Among the few task-like things I applied myself to over the four days was working out the budget necessary to take care of my debt and save enough to start up again when I come back to the U.S.. Conclusion: I'll be back next August for a break, but then I think I'll need to come back to teach here for another year. That doesn't feel so terrible now. Three months ago I think I would have been devastated.

Life here feels much more settled and normal, now. I've been spending more time with two friends in particular, Lindsay and Mary, and have also been finding additional friends, Celeste and Mandy. Can a person really "make" a friend?

Recently, I started using a new curriculum (of my own choosing) and my teaching days are now much more sane. I was without any curriculum since the first week in December. :/ My coworkers are also becoming more like friends which makes a world of difference when it comes to the day-in-day-out aspects of work.

I've been reading a lot more and enjoy it. I saw Defiance this weekend and liked it (only the third movie I've seen in theater since coming to Korea). I've been trying to write more... journaling, emails, and or in letters. I forget how much I actually enjoy it sometimes. I'm very slowly losing the 15-20 lbs I put on in my first six months here. Now that I'm feeling well (I've been feeling mostly sick since the week before Christmas) I'm hoping slowly can turn into quickly. I'm almost finished crocheting my seventh scarf this winter (I usually work on them when I'm riding the subway). I've also been taking my camera out a little more regularly just to see what I can catch and if I can make what I catch any better. My next post will be from a walk I took this past weekend.

I love getting your cards, letters, packages and blips on facebook. They add so much to my days even if they're just a few lines.

A day out

The Friday after New Year's Day, I and two other girls, Lindsay and Heather went to the Traditional Korean Village in Suwon. It was a bit of an adventure figuring what bus stop, transfer, bus number and direction one needed to get there, but it was well worth the two hour trip. It just might be the prettiest spot I've been in Korea, yet, and there was lots and lots to see. We were a little chilled all day long, but remained fairly good-tempered in spite of it. Here's a sampling of what the day held:

I dyed my hair brown: