A package arrived on Tuesday that could best be described as awesome. It contained a complete birthday party in a box. Tiny candle-holders, tiny candles, balloons, a streamer, cards, pecan bars, and a simply magnificent pound cake. Excellent.
Glorious.
This week we figured out just how many days we’ve been in Korea. Today marks day 84.
We also…well, we worked a lot this week. The kids are relentlessly cute. Most of the time they’re great and teaching is a lot of fun. Sometimes they’re tired and it’s less fun. And sometimes we’re tired and it’s painful. On other occasions, when the native teachers get in on the action, the situation typically takes some sort of a turn, ranging from possibly innocuous to confusing to frustrating to absolutely infuriating.
Last Friday we stopped to get some coffee before work. At some point between ordering our drinks and receiving them, we noticed that the prime retail space across the street had gone from fully functioning to being closed and gutted. As it turns out, Jookeon is finally getting a Baskin Robbins/Dunkin’ Donuts. It’s replacing a Dunkin’ Donuts/Baskin Robbins that was previously located there. Maybe it’s my imagination, but there seems to be a little hum of excitement emanating from the locals.
This week was primarily remarkable in that all the action was intensely focused on maintenance of the status quo. Oh, I guess one thing changed–we finally completed our preliminary report on Korea. Here it is:
1) There are a lot of cool things in Korea.
2) There are a lot of confusing things in Korea.
3) There are a lot of irritating things in Korea.
4) Korea appears to be mostly harmless.
5) If you want a cheese pizza without corn, you should say “Cheezu peecha ohksusu baygo hahnpahn juseyo.”
I can’t believe I almost forgot. Another thing changed this week. One day it was miserably hot and humid, just as it has been since we arrived. We went to bed and sweat through our pillows as usual. When we woke up, we found that the climate was suddenly delightful. June and July in Korea really are awful months during which to visit. Or move here.
Most people who know us are probably well aware of the fact that we rarely call each other by our given names. We have a plethora of nicknames for each other, most of which are too cutesie for polite company, but we like them anyway. A few years ago, we tossed one of the nicknames into Google and out came a bunch of websites. Among them was one that housed a number of delightful sketches. I’ve recently found that the site has been significantly updated for the first time in a while. They might not appeal to your sense of style, but I think his artwork is worth a look. And no, the nickname wasn’t Alan Tew.
K
J
