Amanda Takes Off...

Good Man was sick yesterday and YJ couldn't meet for language exchange today, so I thought it was going to be a weekend at home.

My apartment doesn't have aircon. Had I known that, I never would've signed the contract. No matter how many fans I turn on, no matter how many windows I have open (or if I even have the front door propped open, which I hate doing since everyone can see in!), it's been a constant 86 F in my apartment all weekend. You can bet your butt my admin team has aircon in their homes and if they ask me to re-sign next year, I won't do it unless they install aircon first.

All of this is to say that yesterday I spent mostly sleeping in the heat, with occasional trips out of bed to knit.

Today there was a CSI: NY marathon on TV, so I figured I'd just knit all day. (I'm working on a project I really want to finish!) But Good Man wanted to meet.

We met a whole lot last week (four days out of five) but two of them were very stressful and one of them was really busy for both of us—we need not be reminded of my Bank Rant.

So it was nice to meet under more normal, casual circumstances.

We met at the movie theater. I got there first, so I had to get the tickets. I took a number and 115 people were before me, so I went down a floor to the Libro bookstore. A half hour later I went back to the theater. Before I knew it my number had passed. I ran to the fifth counter (the clerk that was whipping through the numbers without pause) and couldn't remember the name of the movie. I made a fool out of myself but got the tickets. And of course...Good Man showed up three minutes later.

You know, when I met Good Man he said, "It would be good for your Korean to hang out with a man like me." But fact is, he speaks really good English and acts as a great buffer (again, will not mention Bank Rant). I hate speaking Korean in front of him because I'm nervous, but Master wants to meet...so Good Man's going to hear my North Korean accent sometime! (There's a saying from before the split that South Korean men are better for North Korean women. Guess my accent works for me. ㅋㅋ)

After I got the tickets we had two hours to kill, so we had a light dinner, and sat and people-watched for a while. We saw a very predictable but fun summer action flick, Live Free or Die Hard.

At one point in the movie, a license plate is being read. GT 592 N, I think. "Golf tango 5 9 2 November."

The subtitles read "Golf tango 5 9 2 11th month." Now, "November" in Korean is indeed "11월," but this was not a month of the year! It was the NATO Phonetic Alphabet! I was pleased to find such a translation error.

Good Man, who worked in the communications sector for his mandatory military service, was curious as to how I knew the NATO alphabet without having been in the military. There were, however, a few letters I couldn't remember (Quebec and Yankee).

Dis-Arming

The Simpsons Movie is coming to South Korea next month. I told Good Man we will be seeing it. "The Simpsons is the perfect example of humor for my generation. That show started on FOX when I was in third grade, which used to shock my American students. You want to understand Americans our age, you watch that show."

Disarming

Good Man and I were bold on the subway platform, facing each other holding hands. Guess if I act like that as a white girl here, I should expect looks, but tonight we didn't get too many.

I wish I could be like Good Man; he's usually completely oblivious to looks from other people.

I am having a Rant About Korea Day. To make up for it, some funnier, sweeter moments at the end.

What? Rant of the Day

There is an ad for maxipads or pantiliners or something of the sort that ends in English with "Enjoy your magic day." Now I don't generally view a period as a curse. It's one more month without being pregnant—아싸!—but...what?

Main Rant of the Day

Korea doesn't like foreigners making money in Korea. I will not go into the details, but basically, getting normal services in Korea as a foreigner—and you are always a foreigner—has always been a pain in the butt. We can't get normal cell phones, it's very hard to get credit cards, up until January or so we couldn't even register for websites—not even with an ID number. Many stores here have point cards or similar rewards programs, but you can watch every Korean hear "do you want to sign up" while the clerk clearly ignores the foreigners.

Well. Recently a bunch of foreigners (of the Chinese flavor) did some sort of scam at the bank. So now all foreigners face restrictions. Anyone opening a new account can't use the ATM for three months.

I asked for an ATM card that would work outside of the country. Nope, foreigners can't have one.

Gordon over at Blue Wave Taekwondo School told me that Good Man could also be called Good Sport. He's right.

"Why can't I get my own money outside of this country? I am here legally. I have obviously made this money legally, and now I can't get my own money? I've been with this bank for a year! How crazy is that?" I continued on, "And why is it always 'my foreigner friend, my foreigner friend...'? As if it's not obvious I'm not Korean! What is going to happen in 20 years when all of these half bred Chinese-Korean* children grow up? Are they 'half Korean?' 반한국인? Will people say 'Well my half-Korean friend—'"

"We don't say half-Korean. We say 혼혈." Honhyeol. Mixed blood.

"OK, so what, they get to do Korean things on even days of the month but on odd days they're foreigners?" He laughed and I went on, "Korea calls itself 'The Hub of Asia.' Hub my lily-white foreign butt! Look, I understand, historically speaking, the fear of foreigners. China was bossing you around, Japan invaded how many times, but America bombed Japan's butt and that's why Korea is Korea. OK, so you got split into two, I know, but I am not Chinese, why can't I get my own money? Why can't I bank like a normal person?"

"Ummm. I don't know."

"Didn't you date foreigners before? Didn't they ever complain about this?"

"No. I think they just gave up," he said with a grin.

Seriously, though, bless the man for listening to me. He is a Good Man and a Good Sport.

Side Rant of the Day

"Why is that woman staring at me? Like this," I say, screwing up my face. "No, she's staring at us."

"Umm. Ignorance and bias about foreigners?"

"It's racism, [Good Man]. There's racism based on hatred and racism based on ignorance and stupidity, but it's still racism."

I expected looks when Good Man and I started dating. Anytime I go out with a Korean male I get looks, but today it sort of wore on me. Interestingly, a very old couple on the subway just grinned at us sweetly while a young identically-dressed-down-to-matching-earrings-and-pink-hats Campus Couple gaped.

Koreans Marrying Foreigners

* I mentioned half-Koreans-half-Chinese above. An increasing number of Koreans are marrying foreigners. It's mostly men marrying Asian women, though there's an interesting twist with North Korean defectors.

In fact, over half of Koreans say they approve of international marriage. The twist? Korean women prefer white men. Korean men prefer Asian women.

In 2006 of 337528 marriages, 39071 were to non-Koreans (11.6%).

Foreign women marrying Korean men was 29660 (75.9% of all Korean/Foreign marriages). 14450 of these were to Chinese women, 9812 to Vietnamese women, 1474 to Japanese women, 1131 to Filipino women. Non-Asian women is 2793 of 29660 (9.4%). In other words, less than 1% of all marriages in Korea last year were between Korean men and non-Asian women. Guess it's no surprise we get stared at.

Let's Go Naked

Good Man said, "I'm hungry. Let's go eat." Pause. "Let's go naked!"

"How do you say 'go naked?'" He told me and I yelled "발가벗읍시다!" Let's go naked! I thought. "No, wait! 모자를 씁시다!"

Cheese

I said, "Michael's friend says foreigners smell like cheese. Is that true?"

"Yep. But I like cheese."

I burst out laughing. Korean men over the age of 35 (and surely over the age of 40) smell like a combination of soju, cigarettes, and kimchi to me. Luckily, Good Man doesn't smoke. He doesn't smell like soju or cigs or kimchi. Or cheese, actually.

It is utterly amazing how things can change in a matter of twenty-four hours. Rather, it's amazing how things can change in 2 hours and how your mood can be completely reversed in twenty-four hours.

Not everything is as perfect as it was a week ago, but pretty damn close.

This week has been hell.

Master and I had a heartfelt dictionary conversation yesterday. I was sitting on the couch, he was kneeling on the floor across the table from me. His wife was listening in the kitchen, then sitting on the chair to my left. NewSabumnim was to my right, leaning against the shoe rack. Master and I were dictionary talking and the two others were just nodding, offering support.

This was followed up by a new dawning in my Korean ability. I've spoken Korean with Master on the phone. I've spoken Korean through tears at the studio. Today I bawled in Korean over the phone.

This week is rough.

In lighter news...

Amanda 언니...

These siblings attend with their older sister.

Older Sister Runs Away

Master's Daughter Sizes Me Up

A nice weekend, if a bit exhausting.

Demo for a Third Time

Yesterday I met Good Man at Sinchon (not to be confused with Sincheon, both on the green line to further confuse you). We had breakfast/lunch together, then walked from Sinchon station to Kyunghuigung (a palace) to watch NewSabumnim's Demonstration.

Yes, I've now seen this demonstration three times in as many months.

What? Why?

Gordon (GW), a frequent commenter and fellow blogger over at Blue Wave Taekwondo School is in town for a foreign instructor's course at the Kukkiwon. He was here with a large group of people and I encouraged them to go to the demo, where I met all of them.

Unfortunately, the team seemed sort of tired at the demo. They just got back from a trip to the -Stans of Eastern Europe and while NewSabumnim claimed she wasn't jet lagged, I don't believe her.

Board Breaking
(New Sabumnim is the Woman)

Breaking Two Apples With One Jump

Meeting GW and his gang was awesome, even though I wasn't expecting that most of them would know me from my blog.

After the demo, I introduced NewSabumnim to Good Man or Good Man to NewSabumnim, however that would work out in Korean hierarchy. NewSabumnim told me to quit eating ice cream cause I'm getting fat. Thanks.

Went with the instructor's group to eat some Chinese food. This turned into a herding cats experience. GW wanted jajangmyeon and was told that they didn't have it. We went through a whole series of "I'm allergic to shellfish...I can't eat meat...I want soju..." before settling on fried rice for everyone (except the vegetarian who got tofu and rice). And then one guy said, "Hey, what's that?" and pointed to another table.

It was the jajangmyeon they didn't have.

GW said, "That's what I wanted! OK, no! Next time!"

I think Good Man was slightly overwhelmed. He was also quiet, though he appeared to be having a good time. Before we met them, Good Man told me that Westerners can meet and talk about anything, but Koreans need to have something in common and I think he is right.

We had coffee together then bid the group adieu. It was awesome to meet them, very cool to meet taekwondoists from America in Korea through the internet...

Let's Wear Hats!

Good Man helped me with my Korean homework on the subway. I was using the (으)ㅂ시다 form to make "let's do X!" in a somewhat forceful way. (Both Good Man and YJ told me that this form isn't used too much.) I was also using the (으)니까 form to say "because of X then Z."

I was having fun changing the prescribed sentences to mostly slightly inappropriate ones while the ajosshi next to me was trying to figure out what I was writing. Good Man was a good sport.

Then I got to a chart with a list of verbs. I had to simply conjugate the verbs using the "let's do ~!" form. One of the verbs was 쓰다 which can mean to be bitter, to write, to use, to wear a hat or watch, and possibly a few other things. There was no context for the verb, so I immediately thought Let's wear hats!

I then started saying the same in Korean, over and over. 모자를 씁시다! Mojarul ssupshida! I found this terribly funny for no good reason.

{]:)
사람이 모자를 써요
Person wearing a hat.

Only bad thing was getting glared at my random strangers on the subway (and this was when we weren't studying Korean, so it wasn't about my hat silliness).

Yes. I am white.

Yes. Good Man is Korean.

Yes. We are a couple.

Get over it.

Interestingly, the worst looks came from a guy younger than us who was with his own girlfriend. At least I hope she was his girlfriend the way he was groping her...

Language Exchange

Finally did my Korean homework since there was no getting out of it while riding the subway. Met YJ for a language exchange today and she was excited that I finally did my homework. We had coffee, then she came along as I bought some new jeans. We had dinner (while waiting for my jeans to get altered for length) together before parting ways.

A nice, busy weekend.

Good Man: I had a dream about you last night.

Me: Yeah?

Good Man: You were wearing a hanbok. It was...this color [points to something lilac].

Me: Did I look good at least? Usually I look like a mushroom in a hanbok.

Good Man: Yeah, you looked good.

* * *

Master missed class a few weeks ago to go to a military training session. Good Man has to go this week. Military service in Korea is mandatory for all men for approximately two years. Then they have to continue training for a few days each year for several (seven?) years post-service.

At Sincheon I asked, "What are you going to do at this training session?"

"Go hiking with guns."

* * *

Last night in class I asked Master why he invited Good Man out rather than talking to me. "Master, you know me, not [Good Man], so why didn't you talk to me?"

"Because it was my first time talking to [Good Man]. In Korea, two men meet, they drink soju. Or coffee. Or eat," he said, imitating drinking soju or coffee or eating in turn. "But we not meet yet, so we need to meet. Everyone, Amanda, not just Master and [Good Man]."

"I understand. Master's family, [Good Man], Amanda. I know. But Master. You know me. Not him. So why did you talk to him?"

Master stared at me blankly. "Because I know you. I don't know him. So I invite him."

I realized that I was dealing with a cultural gap later confirmed when I retold the story to Good Man. He wasn't trying to be rude by working around me, quite the opposite. I simply said, "OK. When?"

"I'll talk to my wife."

Today was a holiday. Good Man and I met (come on, you're not surprised) at COEX. I picked up a Vietnam book, some good old American junk food, and looked for jeans. We had dinner then wandered around a bit, taking photos and eating...ice cream. I should rename Good Man as Ice Cream.

Bar Bob Dylan

This photo was taken near COEX. The Bob Dylan Bar. Wait. Bar Bob Dylan. Does that mean if Dylan showed up they wouldn't let him in? Good Man said, "That place looks expensive."

Fruit Market Near Sincheon

Good Man and I headed to Sincheon, an area with a lot of bars, noraebangs and the like. I used Good Man's shoulder as a tripod.

Construction

We walked from Sincheon station to Jamsil station, the whole time with me rambling on about "the triangle of photography, ISO, shutter speed, f/stop...."

Lotte World

Jamsil station is near Lotte World. This picture is exceedingly sharp considering exposure length was a half second and I wasn't using a tripod or any other form of support! I like the movement, I like the couples on the bench near the left side.

The weather was nice, warm but not too warm, a slight breeze. The people watching was good. The conversation was easy-flirty.

Yep.

I like Good Man.

Full stop.

I went out today to practice using my camera. Unfortunately the weather was overcast in a very flat way. I like bad weather days, I like overcast days. But today it was just...flat.

In any case, I was primarily getting used to the camera, settings, and how to use it.

Camera Shop at Namdaemun

Good Man

After I'd finally decided to purchase the camera and was allowed to use the lens, Good Man enjoyed his free can of coffee.

Michael

Michael was playing with my camera. "But how do you take self-portraits with this?" he said. Apparently like this.

Owl Amanda

The elevator jolted to a stop just as I was taking the photo. I took a sharper one but liked this one better.

Deliveries Korean Style

Not the shot I want, but I've wanted some sort of shot of the autobai delivery men here for a while. Love the sandals and helmet in the basket.

One Man Twice

Watermelon

I was walking past the 7-Eleven and the watermelon in the window caught my eye. Unfortunately, the clerks inside were glaring at me, so I couldn't quite compose the shot the way I wanted to. Instead I decided to crop it down to try and highlight how much green is in this photo.

Mailboxes

JUMP! Comedic Martial Arts Performance

Go and see the show and take all your family and friends.
They will love you forever.

I don't think I've ever seen a tag line so correct before.

Damn.

That was awesome.

Friday night Good Man and I went and saw JUMP!. I expected it to be good, but I didn't expect my face to actually hurt from laughing and smiling through the whole hour and twenty minute long performance.

The theater was fairly small, about 400 seats. We were in the fourth row, with one seat on Good Man's right free. Normally these would be very bad seats, but they were very good.

The idea behind JUMP! is that a family of martial artists (grandpa, mom, dad, daughter, and drunk uncle). There's also a random old man who "narrates" (though it's mostly non-verbal and you don't need to speak any Korean to understand what's going on). There is also a man who wants to marry the daughter.

The first act is about the family dealing with the drunk uncle. The second act drags some people (foreigners, always foreigners) from the audience to do some martial arts. The third act involved the daughter and her suitor and the mother and father. The two young lovers try to be alone together with the drunk uncle constantly interrupting; the mother tries to seduce the father. "Please just let these couples love!" says the program. The last act is about two buglers who break into the house. The last act was by far the most gymnastic and acrobatic and martialistic.

I am not, generally speaking, a huge fan of physical comedy, especially not Korean style. One of the most popular things here is a "gag show" with skits such as a man just hitting himself on the head. Repeatedly. I don't get it.

But this was physical comedy done well. I can't say enough about it. It was awesome.

One thing the actors did repeatedly was sort of shake their hips, bounce up and down, and then point to another character and say, "Yay!" I've done that at least three times to Good Man since seeing the show.

After the show, the cast members did free signings. I bought a program for 7,000 won and got it signed by all the cast members while Good Man waited patiently. Some of the cast members were impressed my by Korean. You know, "My name is Amanda."

Before the play, we had dinner. After the play we had...ice cream.

Clothing Matters

As a side note, a few funny things happened because of what I was wearing.

I wore a black wrap dress. I knew I'd get some looks, because of my figure. To give you an idea, wearing 3 inch inseam shorts with 3 inch heels is considered fine in Korea, but showing back or shoulders is risqué. This dress had short sleeves, but it was a low V-neck wrap, so I knew it was a little...unusual. Because of said figure, I can't wear the ruffled, high neck things that Korean women wear even if I wanted to. So I went with the dress.

While I was walking to the bathroom a young boy (maybe 8?) looked at me with awe and greeted me in Korean. I laughed. I'm used to being greeted in English by children, not Korean. I think it was the dress.

On the subway platform (Good Man was already on his subway line), I was sitting, waiting. I was holding the program in front of me, covering most of my chest. Still, a man walked by and said, "You are very beautiful!" His girlfriend started beating on him. I think had the program been on my lap, she may have thrown him on the tracks.

Master

When my parents were here, Master's family gave them a gift (clothing) to give to give to my newphew. It's common to give clothing gifts to children and I still think my doing so made Master's Wife really comfortable with me.

Friday I got a call from my sister-in-law asking what size the outfit was. I wasn't sure why she needed to know, but I called Master and asked him. He kept asking me something I couldn't understand so I said, "Master, I'm seeing Good Man in 10 minutes. I'll call you back." He said he'd call me.

During dinner, Master called and I passed him off to Good Man. I watched Good Man's face and that combined with the length of the call told me that Master was talking about something entirely unrelated to what he was supposed to talk about.

When they hung up, I looked at Good Man suspiciously. "What did he say?"

Turns out I had understood what Master was asking. He wanted to know why I needed to know the size and my "I don't know, my sister-in-law wants to know" answer wasn't enough for him.

"No, he said something else."

Good Man shrugged, "Oh, yeah, he said he wants to meet us for dinner together some day."

"What did you say?"

"I said 'yes, of course.'"

I still think Master said more than that...

Nikon D80 Digital SLR

My father gave me my first SLR camera when I was 8 or 9 years old. I love SLR photography. I held off on digital cameras until a now-long-ex boyfriend bought me a point-and-shoot one. I loved the ease of digital (getting the pictures on a screen), but hated that I couldn't control ISO, shutter speed, aperture!

Back in August I got to use Master's Canon 400D digital SLR. I've gotten to use it a few more times since then, each time making me more seriously consider upgrading to a digital SLR.

For the last three weeks I've been researching DSLRs. Yesterday Good Man and I went to Namdaemun. Some time and and 107 man won bills later I had a brand new Nikon D80 digital SLR in my hands.

We went to two places and passed dozens of others in the meantime. Good Man had researched the prices for me, so I knew what I was looking to spend.

The first place we went wouldn't even show me the lens I wanted. They said I had to decide to buy the lens first, then I could see it. Apparently they had no marked out of stock lenses for me to play with. They had one lens I could look at and the manual focusing (which is what I plan on using most of the time!) felt weird. Turning the focusing ring felt like sandpaper rubbing against sandpaper. They said "Oh, most of the other lenses aren't like that." But then they wouldn't let me try or even look at the other lenses.

So we headed to the second place, which took forever to find. As we know, Good Man is a fan of walking. A lot. Actually, it wasn't Good Man's fault that we couldn't find the place. Numerous buildings in multiple locations having the same name, combined with a not great map was the problem. (In retrospect I think I know why we couldn't get there.) He thought I was upset with him because I was frustrated. I wasn't upset with him, though, I was annoyed that we couldn't find this store and annoyed that the first store wouldn't just let me try some lenses.

Once we finally found the second place, they let me manhandle lenses but wouldn't let me use it until I actually bought the camera.

Both places let me manhandle a body. The body is sweet. A 2.5" LCD display, the body is surprisingly light but solid feeling (about a 1 lb body). It's 10 megapixels!

Poor Good Man. I don't think he knows too much about photography and he was translating questions using a vocabulary that many native English speakers would not know. "What's the biggest possible aperture? The smallest? What are the fastest and slowest shutter speeds? ISOs?" He was very patient.

I ended up comparing a digital only lens with a lens that could be used for digital or regular SLRs. I was comparing the weight and physical length of the lenses as well as the apertures and focal lengths. I was standing there muttering to myself, "3.5 compared to 2.8 f/stop...but this lens is really, really heavy and very large... 135 mm max length to 150 mm... digital only vs compatible, but really, how many times will I need a compatible lens?..."

While I was standing there, muttering away, the sales guy told Good Man I was picky and knew a lot about cameras.

If I'm going to drop that amount of money on a camera, I'm going to be damn happy with it! I am not one of these "more money than brains" Gangnam families that has money to blow and thus just goes and buys a purty DSLR camera!

So 1,070,000 won got me the body, an 18 mm to 135 mm lens (the 3.5 f/stop), a camera bag, 2 GB memory card, and a UV filter. (The filter size is 67 mm. I look like an owl when I use the camera. This is not something you use for sneaking photos of people!) That's cheaper than anything we found online and more than 200,000 won cheaper than the first place that wouldn't even let me see the lens! (And that's comparing the first place selling only the body and lens—not including the memory card, bag, or filter!)

I bought the Japanese import (cheaper than the Korean model, but I have to pay for A/S service if I need it) so I got manuals in Korean and Japanese. Good Man then found the manual online for me in English.

I bought a refurbished SLR in the States when I was in high school (salesperson said then that I was picky and knew a lot) but I was using gift certificates. This is the first camera I've bought purely with my own money and I took a deep breath before counting out my 107 10,000 won bills.

It kind of made me feel like an adult.

After we bought the camera, we met Michael for lunch, then coffee. Then he came down to my apartment to get the DVD player I (will have) bought from him (when I give him the money) working. I couldn't get it to work, Good Man couldn't get it to work. Michael switched some menu item and ta-da! "Glad I could come all the way down here to get your DVD player working with one switch, Amanda!"

He was teasing of course.

Hanoi

I have 14 days vacation at my school. I'm taking two days next week for a taekwondo "camp." I am taking five more days in August.

So. Today Good Man spent about an hour helping me find plane tickets. Per Michael's suggestion, we used Tour Cabin to look for cheap tickets.

I dragged my Asia wall map out of the drawer, spread it out on the floor and flopped down.

I started rattling off cities while he checked prices. I wanted to go to Brunei (on the island of Borneo) but while the ticket wasn't very expensive, the trip itself would be.

I've been to Thailand, and while I want to go back, I wanted something new. "How much is Hanoi [Vietnam] or Phnom Penh [Cambodia]?"

He rattled off prices and I chose Hanoi. Then it was a matter of going down the list of websites until we could find one that would let foreigners register. (Korean websites are a pain in the ass.)

About a half hour later, I had a ticket to Hanoi.

Now to figure out what I'll do there...

Johnny

I talked to Johnny on the phone briefly.

"So. I hear you've got a new boyfriend."

"Yes."

"Did you meet him at taekwondo?"

"No."

"OK. Good. I can beat him up then."

"He has a black belt."

"In taekwondo? Well." Pause. "Then I'll have to shoot him from a distance. They all have black belts, don't they?"

I burst out laughing. My brother has really good comedic timing.

Look who's taking taekwondo!!

Master's Daughter and Me

My mouth has been hurting for a few weeks and I haven't had a cleaning since I came to Korea. Good Man found a dentist near my house for me.

Since I've talked before about about how great the Korean medical system is, so I'll keep this brief. I walked in without an appointment, carrying a note written by my coteacher, my health card, and my ARC card. Less than two hours later, I walked out with X-rays, clean teeth, and an appointment for a filling. Total cost? Only 6,790 won—about $7.

Saw Good Man tonight. We met for coffee turned dinner turned...ice cream.

I have been listening to the best musician you've never heard of since I was...15 or 16? Stuart Davis has amazing lyrics, songs that sound different from each other, and a sense of humor. (About five years ago he was promoting the succession of Minnesota; he wanted it to join Canada.)

He's got three CDs up at iTunes, and I hope he puts more up. I somehow lost possession of a bunch of his CDs in a breakup—I have no idea how, as they were truly my CDs—and I have no easy way of getting them here.

The songs that introduced Stuart to me were played on Radio K, a college radio station in Minnesota. (This was the same station that introduced me to Polara and Garmarna and a slew of other musicians that I still listen to today.)

He had two songs in heavy play in 1995 and 1996. My mother hated both of them. One of them, "Female Friend" is about a guy who constantly has non-platonic thoughts about his (female) friends. The other one was about a kid who wanted to be Jesus Christ in the Christmas play. He was only the understudy and he was planning on giving Actor Christ some food poisoning so he could play Jesus. (I don't think this one has been released on a CD.)

While I understand my mother's objections to those songs, she did find out that she really liked some of his stuff. He sings about politics (baking an explosive cake for a certain politician), racism (in his "Little White Town" he "never saw a single one acting racist"), spirituality (varying kinds), chemical dependency ("Only Changing Drugs") and what everyone sings about—love and sex.

"Atavistic Viking" on 1996's Nomen Est Numen is a haunting song about a man who taps into his Viking heritage. It's fabulously cathartic to sing (and fantasize) to this when I'm having a bad day.

And the planet hasn't seen such
horror in a thousand years
The bellicose screams of my ancestors
still ring in the Atavistic Viking

"World Learns English" on 1997's Kid Mystic is short and to the point. I often think about it when I'm studying Korean.

The children of Wales in formative years
can summon old Celtic with polyglot sneers
So kids, what's the translation—I mean how would you say
"My useless language is dying away?"

Study some numbers and we'll see whose dumb
to get into business you only need one

The world learns English to climb up a rung
if you want to be heard you speak in this tongue
The Tower of Babel is now in reverse
we're bringing together what God had dispersed

It's not really true to say cultures collide
some get erased, some spread out wide
Which brings us to you, and your obsolete ways
We might use your dead language to coin a cute phrase

But the key to your future is learning to blend
Comprehende, Katalaves, Verstehen Sie, friend?
The world learns English to climb up a rung
if you want to be heard you speak in this tongue
The Tower of Babel is now in reverse
we're bringing together what God had dispersed

Check him out. He's great.

"관장님...Good Man이 JUMP! 표장을 샀..." I pause, using a new grammar form, "샀으니까 금요일 못 와요." Master, because Good Man bought tickets to JUMP! I won't be able to come Friday night.

I. Am. So. Excited.

JUMP! is a comedic martial arts performance. I've been told that they don't actually speak. General storyline is that of some strict grandfather who trains his family and some robbers who break in. I don't much care about the plot, I just want to see some martial arts.

I have asked all of my friends to go. My taekwondo friends are too poor and my non-taekwondo friends don't want to see it.

I told Good Man I wanted to see it and now we're going Friday night.

So. Excited.

Saturday night, while Good Man and I were walking around, eating ice cream, I realized we were meandering about slowly. Not paying attention to anyone else.

I thought, "I've become one of the people I wanted to go Old Miss Diary on..."

Speaking of Old Miss Diary, Tuesday is a holiday so our principal gave us Monday off as well (a "sandwich day"). Good Man and I are loosely planning a day trip somewhere. Good...good...

I have 58 rolls of toilet paper in my house right now.

Why?

A few weeks ago Master told me I needed to have a 집들이 with his family and then refused to tell me what that meant. Turns out it means housewarming party. I had that housewarming party tonight.

Toilet paper is a common housewarming gift. It is supposed to represent good luck as it's continuous, and it spins off the roll easily, representing an easy life. Master walked into my house and gave me 24 rolls of toilet paper.

I laughed and said, "Master, look!" and showed him my closet, already stacked with toilet paper. In turn he asked if I had laundry soap. Laundry soap is also a common gift because the numerous bubbles represent good luck. I was afraid of how much soap I'd get on Monday if I said no, so I lied and said I had plenty.

So. What do you do with 58 rolls of toilet paper? I am thinking maybe I could knit with it...

The housewarming itself was nice. It was neat to spend time with Master's family on my turf. We had watermelon, then jokbal, and then went out for ice cream. I offered him soju, beer, and two other Korean liquors and he declined because he'd spent the whole weekend with his military 선배s and 후배s. I said, "Master! No soju? I am very surprised!"

Master's Daughter Plays With Chinese Food Stickers

Last weekend Good Man and I ate Chinese food. Stickers come with food here to get discounts on future food. Master's kids found the stickers.

Master's Son Breaks Chopsticks

Master

Master's Wife and Son

The composition on this photo is absolutely awful, her face is cut off, yet it works for some reason. I like it.

Master's Daughter Feeds Me

We were sharing my favorite flavor, My Mother is an Alien. Master's Daughter refused to eat any other flavor.

I was walking with Master's Daughter to the ice cream shop and I saw 1,000 won note on the ground. I said, "Oh! [Master's Daughter]! Look what you found!" She squealed and took the money and was very good and bought her/my/our ice cream with it. She was very excited.

When they left, Master's Daughter gave me fifty kisses! In a row! Wow! I felt so happy! Then she gave me even more. I think I got more kisses than toilet paper! Master's son gave me some kisses, too.

The rest of the weekend was good, too. Friday night I had a nice dinner with a 71 year old man that Mom introduced me to. What? When Mom and George were here, we went to Kyobo Books for a while. Mom met a man who used to be a diplomat in Chicago. He needs books about weddings in the West and couldn't find any. Mom bought some and shipped them to me and we met to exchange them.

The man is fascinating. He's lived all over. He has a ninth degree black belt in taekwondo. He graduated from the FBI international academy at Quantico. He was a sky martial for Korean Airlines in the 70s. He speaks Korean, English, Chinese, and Japanese fluently, and I suspect he speaks even more languages. He was a chief-of-police and also was one of the bigwigs for Korea INTERPOL.

I was sitting there at dinner thinking, "How did Mom manage to meet one of the most well-connected Koreans in the country?"

Then he read my face. He said that my nose is nice and straight, my eyes are darker than most Westerners, and the back of my head has a lump on it. Apparently this means I am interested in justice and fairness, I am a powerful person, and I am well-spoken. My ears tell him that I need to be careful of my health in the "watch out for buses" sort of manner. I guess there will be no more bungee jumping in my future... (Interestingly, a few months ago a man I was talking to on the subway read my palm and said the same bus-health thing.)

Not surprisingly, saw Good Man this weekend. Don't really know what to say about that. We had a great time. I like him. He likes me. We both know it. It's very easy.

Good Man and Amanda

I'm wearing my 3 inch heels in that picture. And still he's taller than me. Who says Koreans are short?

An Amanda Look If Ever There Were One

Good Man doesn't quite know why I like this picture. I'll give him a few more weeks. He'll figure it out. Such a classic Amanda Look.

And that dress! It falls to just below the knee and flares out...very 50s-ish. I bought it a few years ago in the States for $5 at Marshall's. In America I'd wear it to school with a red blouse over it. My students would crawl over me and up the walls about it. "Ms S! You are so beautiful!"

Good Man introduced me to two new Korean liquors this weekend. 백세주 is supposed to have 100 health benefits (백 is 100) and if you mix it with soju you call it "50세주." It's somewhat dry. 매화수 is a very sweet liquor, almost like fruit-flavored cough syrup but better tasting. (I asked Master if he wanted any of those liquors and he said, "Amanda! You are so Korean!")

A nice date. We topped it off with...ice cream. Always, ice cream.

Had a date with Good Man last night. I wanted Mexican food, so we went to Casa Loca in Apgujeong. Date sort of started out as a disaster, but we had a good time anyway.

I was cute. I was wearing a little black and white polka dot dress with my 3-inch strappy heels/sandals. Lucky me, Good Man is taller than me by a good amount, so I can wear 3-inch heels. I had worn the same outfit to work except at work we switch into indoor shoes. So at work I was wearing flip flops and Wonder Woman socks. Wonder Woman yells, "Driver! Stop the car!" on these socks. Rock on Wonder Woman.

Now, I showed up at the wrong subway station, despite the fact that Good Man had very clearly told me a different station in English and Korean Wednesday night as well as via text message yesterday. I conveniently ignored the second half of "Gangnam..." thinking "I know Gangnam, what's he worried about?" And I was so proud of myself because I got there early.

"Um. Amanda. Not Gangnam... Gangnamgu Office."

So...half an hour later I got there and we started walking in one direction. Then we weren't sure if we'd gone in the right direction, so we turned around. My feet were hurting from my cute shoes. (Usually the cute shoes aren't too bad, but I haven't worn them in a while and the newer parts of town use many bricks for their sidewalks, so it's almost like walking on cobblestone.)

I finally threw my huge bag at him (I'd come straight from work) and said, "You're carrying this." Which he did, no problem.

(Last week Master told me Korean men just want to be with women, even if they're shopping. "Korean men are like that." I said, "Korean men are like this," and threw the same bag at him. He did exactly what I wanted him to do; he happily strutted around his apartment with my bag while his wife and I laughed at him.)

We headed on the opposite direction and didn't find what we wanted. I went over to the newspaper/cigarettes/candy/Coke/shoe seller and bought some house shoes. I wear the same brand and style of shoes at school, and my socks were in my bag. So I took off the cute strappy sandals and put on my Wonder Woman socks. And house shoes.

Only I can rock an adorable dress with house shoes and Wonder Woman socks. On a date. Because I am a movie star, after all.

Eventually, we turned around again and walked much further in the original direction and found the restaurant. The food was great, good Mexican but really clean. Not greasy, no lard...it was very fresh tasting. They grow their own food on site! Fabulous!

A few weird things happened at dinner. A few weeks ago I met a French-Canadian on the subway. I thought I had made it clear to him a few weeks ago, after he'd asked me out, that I wasn't interested in him. He'd left me alone for about a week then texted me a July 4th greeting, which I ignored. Well last night he called I texted back, "I am on a date with my boyfriend. Busy."

He answered, "How long's he been your boyfriend? Do I have a chance?"

No. Now please go away. (I ignored him.)

I went to the bathroom at one point. Another woman followed me in there and my stall had no toilet paper but I could hear that her stall did. So I waited. I looked out the window and realized that I could see a man peeing in the men's bathroom two floors down in the building next door. Interesting.

Then I heard the woman shove her finger down her throat and puke. When she came out of the stall she was surprised to see me there. She had toilet paper stuck to her shoe and said, "Oh, great, I'm leaving a trail."

I had no idea how to respond. I was going to ask her if she was OK, as if I thought she was really sick, but I figured that if she had honestly been sick, she would have said something like, "Oh, bad fish" or something. Her behavior indicated—to me, at least—that she did it on purpose, so I didn't say anything except, "Yeah, I hate it when paper sticks to your shoe..."

Then we walked all over tarnation trying to find ice cream. At this point I had to take off the socks because Wonder Woman kept crawling off of my heels. We eventually found ice cream but by the end of the night I had a huge blister. Good Man was really apologetic. I told him he walks too much. Next date, I'm not walking more than a mile.

On the way home I ran into my friend PK. Actually, I didn't see him until he waved his hand in front of my face because I was fiddling with my iPod. We sat down, had a drink, and bitched about exes. He complained about exes that cheat. I complained about Peter Pan exes who seem to forgot they broke up with you and won't go away.

All in all, a great night.

One year ago yesterday, I left America (at around 7 am central time). One year ago today, I arrived in Korea (at around 6 pm).

아싸!

From Joanne:

Sometimes valuing the easy thing is really hard!

* * *

(That quote, by the way, is not at all related to the rest of this post.)

Tonight's class was awesome. Master is at a training session, so his father is teaching three classes. Most of the time his father was very quiet and calm, watching more than lecturing or teaching, but he did do three things I found very interesting.

First, he spoke to us using the -sumnida form. That's the respectful form you use with people you don't know well, generally people older or of a higher status. I found it interesting that he used it with us when all of us are so much younger (and lower ranked) than him.

Second, he taught all of the black belts 일려 (Ilyeo, not sure of the Korean spelling), the highest black belt form. The ninth degree black belt form. Why he did this, I have no idea. But I stood there thinking, "I am so grateful that Master had me test, I am so grateful I have the opportunity to learn this." It's a fascinating form for a few reasons. First, it's in the shape of a Buddhist swastika. Second, it favors one side of the body over the other. It's not as symmetrical as I'm used to.

Third, he called me over and worked on Koryeo one on one with me. We gave me some good advice but also a lot of praise. I am glad he gave me some praise, because I was working hard to make that uniform snap. Again, for some of the moves I learned yet another (that's a third way in as many months) way to do some of the moves.

Moreover, the way this man carries himself... He just exudes this calm energy. Good Man taught me the Korean word for that trait: 기가 느껴지다.

I am looking forward to the next two days of class!