Amanda Takes Off...

All photos were taken today. The moon caught my eye because of the ways the clouds were. A large group of us were standing at COEX, gaping. Good Man was a good sport and let me use his fist and a wall to form a tripod. The dress was custom made in Vietnam.

Good Man in a Suit

Good Man, COEX, Moon

Moon Over COEX

Moon Detail

Vietnam Dress Detail

Dress, Vietnam

Good Man got his name from Master. I guess "He drinks soju" is Reason #1 that he's a good man.

Reason #789
He Does My Dishes (and Enjoys It)

Met Good Man after work. We were on the bus, one stop from my house and heard a giant "CRUNCH!" and the ajummas all gasped. The bus had hit a car and made it spin out. I don't think anyone was injured.

Good Man and I met to watch the full lunar eclipse, but it was too cloudy to see anything. Instead we had dinner near my place. I live near a very busy section of the city, and there are several different fountains near my house. I want to join these kids every time I see them.

The three kids in the first picture were having such a blast. They'd stand near the fountain until the water came out, then run away screaming and slowly creep back.

Playing in a Fountain

Playing in a Fountain

After dinner we wandered around just a bit. I took photos by holding the camera on my shoulder casually and shot away without a flash. Hence this photo is blurry and tilted. But I love all the colors.

This fruit market is across from my apartment building. They change the price for older fruit so I know which fruit will go bad the fastest. The people are friendly and the fruit is generally quite good.

Fruit Market

We grabbed some ice cream from the mini-supermarket near the fruit market.

Good Man got a 돼지바 (Pig Bar). Pig Bars are these amazingly delicious ice cream bars that are also amazingly fattening. Michael loves them. Last year, when we went to The Jeollas, Michael, Leslie and I were eating Pig Bars with every meal. When Michael and Good Man met, we somehow got on the topic of 돼지바s and a great day being a "three 돼지바 day."

돼지바 Deliciousness

"돼지바 Has a Special Factor."

"돼지바 has a special factor," Good Man said while I was shooting this picture.

"What's that?"

"The outside is crunchy. And the inside is crappy."

I burst out laughing. "Crappy?"

"Yeah, it's crappy, so it tastes really good. It's bad for you, but so crappy it's good."

I was still laughing. I thought about how we polished off a huge bag of marshmallows before I went to Vietnam. "You mean like marshmallows?"

"Yes, exactly. If you Google 돼지바, you will see. Lots of Koreans think it's crappy. That's why it's so good."

Good Man took the camera and got a number of shots of me. Since I had to ask three times to post the above photo, I decided that turnabout was fair play.

Ice Cream Goodness

Good Man finally had to leave. I was standing 25 feet away when I took this picture and unfortunately the camera auto-focussed on his chest (now cropped out) instead of his face. It was dark and I didn't notice the Korean-V-Thing.

I Am Korean

[As a side note: I have no idea why, when I am in flash mode, my camera leaves a round shadow at the edge of the picture. I need to figure out how to fix that because it's driving me nuts. Any ideas what it is and how to fix it?]

"I want to see a picture of your family," I say to Good Man over Lotteria food.

"I have one. It's in my purse."

I shake my head.

"My wallet."

I shake my head.

He thinks. "My bag?"

"Yep."

He can be forgiven. They call men's underwear "panties" in Korean.

Lest you think I'm picking on Good Man, he had to correct me when I said I had presents that I'd brought from Vietnam the Person. Who is Vietnam the Person? I don't know, but that's what I was saying. "I have gifts from Vietnam the Person!" He corrected it to the point that the only original words of mine were "gift" and "Vietnam."

I was late to taekwondo and gave Master's Wife the gifts then headed up to the studio. Before I could finish closing the door, Master's Daughter was running behind the desk, "Open Amanda's presents! What did she bring?"

Class was good. At one point we were on the floor on our backs, head to head with another student. We were supposed to raise our arms above our heads, flat on the floor and grab their elbows, linking our arms together for support.

Master said to one of the kids "Elbow! Elbow! You don't know Korean?"

I caught it without having to think about what he had said and burst out laughing because I did, indeed understand him. He grinned and switched to English. "Elbow? Elbow?"

When I went downstairs after class to talk to Master, his daughter was prancing about the house in her underwear and the conical hat I got for her (also got one for her brother, and brought back some food and tea for the parents).

"Master, tomorrow I won't come to class. There's a moon...moon, sun, moon, Earth thing tomorrow. You know?" His confused look told me no, so I got out my dictionary, "Lunar eclipse tomorrow. And Good Man and I are watching it together."

Master made "oooooh, woooooh" romantic sounds at me, which just caused me to blush terribly.

Despite people sometimes thinking there must be some sort of romantic undertones to our relationship, there never have been any and I've never heard him make romantic sounds, not even when he teases the boys. It surprised the heck out of me.

"I will never become an ajumma if you never become an ajosshi."

Good Man looks at me, "What do you mean?" Though ajumma and ajosshi lit. mean "aunt" and "uncle," they are terms of respect used to describe middle-aged women and men. And the middle-aged women are often called The Third Sex by Korean teens because if their...look.

"If you don't get pants that belt exactly at your waistline and do a comb over to hide a balding head, I will not perm my hair and wear visors." He laughs at me and I go on. "But if you start acting like an ajosshi and do that spitting thing—kkkkcccrrrrrakkkkk SPIT!—I will start acting like an ajumma."

He laughs and I yell, "사과 5개 2천원!" Five apples, two thousand won! He breaks into giggles and I wave my hands around like the ajummas do at the subway stations. "I will sit at the subway station. 사과 5개 2천원! 사과 5개 2천원!"

He just keeps laughing. Every time he tries to get a word in, I start yelling about apples.

"사과 5개 2천원!"

My flight left at 3:30 am instead of 00:45 am. (I told Good Man this through GoogleChat, much to the annoyance of the Vietnam Airlines woman who didn't want me to use the computer in the business lounge. Hey, your airline delayed my flight by nearly 3 hours and there are no phone booths inside the terminal. Let me use the computer.)

I had a great time in Vietnam (and am sorting through 500 pictures to make an album) but I was ready to get back to my own bed, my own subway system, and my own money. (By the way, I accidentally-illegally removed Vietnamese dong from the country. There was no currency exchange open.)

Good Man was waiting at the bus stop for me, which is equal to getting picked up in a car when a) Good Man doesn't have a car or license, b) it's 70 mins by subway from his house to mine and c) it's 55 mins from the airport to my house by airport "limo" (bus).

I felt my face change when I saw him; as soon as he saw me, I knew what I looked like. (So nice, compared to how I felt the last couple times I've come home to boyfriends from trips abroad!)

We spent the day together, eating, watching Californication and Weeds. I gave him his gifts and unpacked just a bit.

I am not ready to go back to work tomorrow, especially as there are no students for several days and I will just be sitting there while the Korean teachers get to sit...not there. I was also not ready for Good Man to leave.

"Let's call in sick all week! 'Oh, sorry, boss, I am very sick!'" He laughed. "Tell them you ran off to the circus! Forget Cirque du Soleil, Cirque de Amanda! Let's go!"

He just laughed at me.

But he wants to call in sick, too. I can tell. 똑똑한 사람이야...