Amanda Takes Off...

I talked to H, one of my language exchange partners, for the first time in almost three months yesterday. He's got a new job, and he's been working on an album, so we haven't met in months. Four, five maybe?

He asked how things were with Good Man and asked how long we'd been dating.

"음, 백일을 했어요." We had our 100 Day Anniversary.

H freaked out. What did we do, where did we go, what did we give each other?

Young Couples (ie under 35-40?) in Korea do this 100 Day Anniversary thing. It is, to put it mildly, A Very Big Deal.

(I think it is especially so with Campus Couples and high schoolers, who also seem to dig the whole "the 14th of every month is a romantic holiday of some sort" thing. Then again, these age groups of couples also dress alike. And I can't handle that.)

Men pressure their girlfriends for sex on this day (I asked Good Man, he said that was true). People get engaged on this day. Movies have been made about 100 Days Anniversary. Expensive gifts (engraved watches, rings) are exchanged on this day. You can send flowers specifically for this day. (Of course, they're just marketed this way.)

At least, this is what I've been told.

Good Man and I did absolutely nothing special for our 100 Days, which happened to fall on Chuseok, the day after my birthday this year. The women I work with think this is a shame. H apparently agrees. "You must find out why you didn't do anything special for 100 days!"

So last night I said to Good Man, "Why didn't we do anything for 100 days?"

He grinned. I poked him. He hugged me, buying time. "Um, because we do something special every single time we're together, so we don't need one day. We have every day."

(I was only teasing him, but poor Good Man... I started asking him questions about 100 Day for this post and he asked if I was upset. "I am not very Koreanized," he said.

"I asked for cheese for my birthday. Don't you think if I wanted to celebrate I would've told you?"

"Oh, OK. Good.")

I paid 50,000 won on my T-card. The clerk looked at me and held up five fingers, saying nothing. I said, in Korean, "Yes, it's 50,000 won."

"Oh! You speak Korean so well!"

Later, I was trying to buy some filled buns from the market. I asked the woman, very nicely, how much they were. She dropped to the lowest form and sort of sneered at me while answering, "One thousand won."

I looked at her and said, "Excuse me, why are you speaking banmal to me?" in banmal. She froze.

I bought my buns elsewhere.

I've gone from being annoyed that Koreans assume I can speak Korean to being annoyed that they assume I can't even handle the most basic transactions.

***

Tonight's taekwondo class was a test, technically. It didn't look like a test. Crybaby and I worked on poomse and the boys worked on sparring while everyone got criticized. Master's Son sat on my lap to watch sparring, and Master's Daughter sat on Crybaby's lap.

A good class though, I was drenched by the end of it.

Before our test was the really big test. There were 13 or 14 people in my class, but on test days there's a bigger test at 5 or so. I got to the studio early and sat down, and approximately 50 pairs of eyes (possibly more!) stared at me and the students started poking each other to make sure everyone saw me. The few students in there who knew me (Amanda Eonni being one) sort of stood up taller. They smiled and waved at me and whispered knowingly to the kids around them, "Her name is Amanda! She's il dan!"

As they were being dismissed one ten-year old (Korean age) yellow belt came up to me, "Ajumma..." I gasped and said in Korean, "I'm not an ajumma!" This is the first time anyone in the studio has ever called me anything other than "Amanda" or "Amanda Big Sister" or "Waygookin."

He scurried off and Master laughed. I went over to him, knelt down, and said in Korean, "My name is Amanda. What's your name?"

He told me his name and he and his friends asked my belt rank and my age. Then Yellow Belt said, "한국 사람이에요?" Are you Korean?

"No," I smiled, "I am American."

We chatted a bit more and other kids swarmed and I was a movie star, once again.

***

On the way home five middle school boys saw me at the subway station. I was coming down the single-width escalator and they were huddled at the bottom, sorting themselves out. "Ohh! Oh," they said, jostling each other, "a foreigner!"

By this time I'd reached the bottom. I stared at them, expectantly.

"Oh! Unh! Hi! Hi!"

"Hi. 하지만 한국어를 말할 수있어요." But [I/we] can speak in Korean.

They immediately switched to Korean to make their small talk with me. Good thing they didn't ask anything I couldn't answer, since I said we could speak in Korean!

My Brother, Oh Brother

When I talked to my brother on my birthday (He called me! Good on you, Johnny!) I asked if he'd seen my Vietnam album.

"You have a website?"

"Yes, amanda takes off dot com."

"Oh, that's where you sell your knitting patterns?"

"No," I laughed because I've told him more than once about my website, "That's [my other website] title="My Other Website is About Knititng">모모 dot com."

"You have more than one website?"

Oh, brother...

Bribes

Went to taekwondo tonight. (No class this week until tonight, studio was closed for Chuseok.) As soon as I got there Master's Daughter and Son followed me into the changing room. Master's Daughter picked up some doboks, "Is this yours? Is this?" I pointed to my bag and she happily pulled some pants and a jacket out. She stared at the bag, stared at the doboks she'd thrown on the floor and said, "Amanda, two? You have two?"

As I was changing, she made a comment. I'm pretty sure it was about the size of my bust, and then she and her brother broke into a fit of giggles and acted like they were going to open the door. I said in Korean, "[Master's Daughter], don't do that. I have lip gloss, but you must sit down." She sized me up and I repeated myself until she sat down. She yelled, "루즈 빌려 주세요!" Please give me lip gloss quickly!

Then the three of us talked about Chuseok. Hooray for me, I can chat with two and three year olds! (Actually, I just learned the permission and no permission form, so that was nice.)

So I bribed a three-year old with lip gloss to keep her from showing me to the whole class in my dobok pants and a sports bra. Was it worth it? Yep.

Koreans at Costco

At Costco Good Man said to me, "Do you think Koreans don't really care about other people?"

We were attempting treacherous navigation around who were acting (keyword: acting) clueless, bumping into others, walking very slowly, stretched four or five wide across an aisle.

"Yes!" I launched into a brief rant about Koreans. At the end I bit my lip, afraid I might have offended him. "Um, what do you think?"

"Koreans are rude, I just wanted to know if I was right."

I looked at him. He has his trick questions, too.

Promises to Infinity +1

I am reading a really neat book called Flatterland: Like Flatland, Only More So by Ian Stewart.

I laughed aloud when I (a philosophy major in college) read this:

Planeturthian mathematicians would like to think that their universe is built from mathematics, but that's only natural, after all. Planeturthian physicists would like to think that the Planeturthian universe is built from physics. Planeturthian biologists would like to think that the Planeturthian universe is built from biology. Planeturthian philosophers would like to think that the Planeturthian universe is built from philosophy. (Let me tell you a secret: it is. The fundamental unit of the Planeturthian universe is the philosophon, a unit of logic so tiny that only a philosopher could hope to split it.)

Tonight the main character (Vikki) was in an infinite space. The population briefly flickered from ∞ to ∞ +1 (due to a birth) before changing back to ∞. The Space Hopper (who explains math to Vikki, a descendant from a family in the original book Flatland) said, "You see, infinity plus one equals infinity, and infinity minus one equals infinity. Infinity, basically, is Where Things Happen That Don't."

Chuseok is normally a huge family thing in Korea. Families travel to the father's parents' home, clean the family grave plots, do ancestor rites, etc. This year Chuseok was Monday through Wednesday. My birthday fell on Monday.

A month ago I said to Good Man, "Are you going to be able to visit me on my birthday?"

"Yes, I promise."

"Are you sure? Because if you aren't, I need to plan a trip." I explained, "It's one thing to be alone on your birthday in Korea when you don't have a boyfriend, and another to be alone in Korea when you do. I'd rather be alone in a foreign country on my birthday if you're not going to be able to see me."

"I will be able to see you. I promise."

I smiled. "Promise to infinity?"

"Yes, promise to infinity."

I thought of what we said when we were kids. "Promise to infinity plus one?"

He cocked his head and looked at me. "Um, Amanda, infinity plus one is still infinity."

Infinity or infinity plus one, he kept his promise.

Yesterday Good Man and I took some pictures of each other. All photos shot in RAW and cropped and lightly color corrected in Lightroom. Again, all photos were eyeball metered.

Almost all of these photos break one of the most fundamental rules of composition: don't put the interesting stuff directly in the middle. But sometimes breaking the rules works.

Seeing Me in Good Man's Eyes

When Korean Eyes are Smiling...

Good Man has brown eyes, like every Korean I've ever met. (Koreans don't have eye or hair color listed on their driver's licenses. As far as I know, neither do the Japanese.) But sometimes, when the light hits them right, they've got a blue cast to the edge of them. I haven't been able to capture that on film yet. His eyes are so brown that I can always see my own reflection in them. So you get the fish-eye lens effect behind me, the curving sidewalk, for example.

Amanda Looks This Way...And That

Cat's Eyes

A few Fridays ago, Good Man and I were walking past an eyeglass store when I declared, "I want those!" Twenty minutes and 116,000 won later (about $125), I had a sales slip for two pairs of glasses, complete with the thinnest, lightest frames available. I got the exact same style in green and blue. Glasses are so cheap here. I will be stocking up before I leave, because six pairs of glasses and one pair of prescription sunglasses just aren't enough, apparently.

I also wanted to photograph eyes because they are so interesting from a social standpoint here. Cat's eyes, single vs double eyelids and that Epicanthal Fold. The fold is that stretch of skin that runs over the inner eye in many populations around the world (including babies from most cultures). It apparently makes the eyes look cross-eyed sometimes, smaller, and wider apart than normal. "Normal" meaning "European." My students will say "he has big eyes" or "she has small eyes" at least twice a week. In America I remember people pulling the edges of their eyes out to look "Chinese." In Korea, I've seen Koreans do that, but I've also seen them push the edges of their eyes inward to look like "roundeyes."

Reflections

Near where we were taking photos there was a security guard's booth, though I've never seen a guard in there. The inside of the booth is dusty and there's a mirror there. Good Man took a photo of us. I thought I would see us looking at us. I didn't expect the reflection of his shirt in the glass we were facing.

Me In Me

Me Over Me

The two photos were hard to get. Autofocus was certainly confused, as was the in-camera light metering system (thank you, eyeball!). I focussed on my reflection in the mirror first, then my reflection on the glass. What's also interesting is how the sharpness of the bush reflection in the glass changes in each frame. Shutter speed and aperture were unchanged. Photos were shot vertically and then cropped down.

Saturday, Good Man says, "What do you want for your birthday?"

"Good cheese."

He stares at me.

"I'm serious. I have all the books I want right now, anything else would have to be special ordered, you don't know what kind of yarn I like, there are no CDs or DVDs I want right now, I don't want jewelry right now. I want good, nice, cheese. Cheese makes me happy." After a brief pause I add, "This is not a trick."

Sunday, Good Man says, "Why don't we meet early and go Costco and give you present of cheese and go back to house and celebrate? Because it's nothing without cheese, right?" Smart Man.

I got to talk to each of my family members on the phone, and all of them were amused. My dad pointed out that if the only thing I was not content with in my life was cheese, then I was having a good life. He's right. (There are things I'm not content with, but Good Man can't fix them.) My brother just giggled and told me it was cool I wanted cheese. My friend Mark has lived abroad, so he especially understood. He said he always craved frosted flakes and ice cold milk.

So Monday for my birthday, I got a Costco membership. We were in Costco and I was so excited. Good towels and mustard and and pasta sauce, dried cherries and dried blueberries, Honey Nut Cheerios and pasta and marshmallows and baked beans ("What's that?" "A key ingredient to a barbecue.") and...cheese...

Ahhh, yummy food.

The rest of the day was spent eating delicious food and watching Simpsons: The Movie and eating decadent slices of cake from the bakery near my house. I squealed when I say a Korean sign in the movie and forced him to sit through the credits to see the Korean illustrators because the Simpsons is inked in Korea. "Look! Look, the whole screen is Korean names!" I said. Sometimes I feel more Korean-pride than Good Man displays.

Very low key. Very nice. Wonderful day.

닭갈비 Fresh Ingredients

닭갈비 Cooking

닭갈비, After Throwing Oil On the Grill, Setting It On Fire, and Adding Noodles
(Whereupon Everything Was Stirred a Little Longer)
냠냠, 맛있어요!

Love Motel Neon Lights

가자미 Freaky Flat Fish
Paralichythys olivaceus

Subway Lines, Curves, Colors

I met some people at an orientation I had to attend a few weeks ago. Now, most of those people were crazy, but some were quite nice. (This is the state of foreigners in Korea.)

Two of them, J and T, are an engaged couple from Canada. They invited me out for some drinks and anju (appetizers you are forced to order at bars in Korea) last night with another friend of theirs.

J in a Track Suit

T had sports day at school and they'd given her a track suit. This was a great idea except T is very tall and has broad shoulders, so the sleeves were too short, the pants were too short, etc. However, after a bowl of dongdongju, J was styling in it.

We moved to a second location and two more people that J and T know met us. I, in fact, had met these people before, as part of The Eight. Later, Good Man ended up joining us, too. He had been out with his coworkers at a 회식 (coworker outing that often involves liberal amounts of soju), and was tired.

J and T and I were all tired, too.

J and Me, Fake Sleeping

J and Me, After I'd Started Making Snoring Noises

Spiderman (left) and His Friend

My birthday is next week. Next week we have Monday through Wednesday off for Chuseok. Thank you, Korea! So today after lunch, my vice principal threw a little party. We had real cake (not rice cake cake), eaten with chopsticks of course, juice, soda, and I got a bunch of little cards and some small gifts. I thought that was very nice.

I said, "And next week we have three days of no work. Yay!" in Korean.

My married female coworkers all groaned and said I was only happy because I wasn't married. Daughter-in-laws have to cook so much food for Chuseok, every Korean woman I know dreads this holiday.

I said, "But I am not an ajumma, so I am happy." The women nodded and told me I was lucky.

(When the coworker, out of the blue, told me to never marry a Korean man, she said that they were too traditional, expected women to do everything, you had to see their parents too much, etc. I said to her, "Any Korean man who would marry a foreigner can't be that traditional." Her face lit up and she said, "Oh! Then you would be very lucky!" If I married a Korean guy, I still wouldn't do the Chuseok cooking. I'm not Korean.)

When I got to my last class of the day, my coteacher had gotten the students to decorate the room. I was so surprised! I thought it was very sweet.

Sixth Grade Girls

Sixth Grade Boys

Sixth Grade Goofball

"Master, what is a 'small face?'" I try asking in Korean.

"What?"

"My students say 'small face, big face.' But we don't say that in English. What is it?"

He points to the fattest kid in class, a kid with a very round moon face. "He, big face. Everyone else, small face."

"Small eyes" and "big eyes" are similar. "Big eyes" are Western-style round eyes. "Small eyes" are the most common Asian style eyes, almond shaped. I think "small eyes" are beautiful, but apparently they're not.

Last night's class was great. A lot of poomse work, kicking drills, and freesparring with gear on (light contact—we weren't wearing head gear). I freesparred Master and ended up doubled out in a fit of giggles because he was kiyapping like a girl. I also sparred Brave's Brother. We ended up fighting dirty in a friendly way. He kicked me and I hooked his leg with my arm. Later, while I was bending slightly to block him, he roundhouse kicked my head. He looked shocked, and I was shocked, too. But it was a great hit (not painful, mind you, but well placed) so I gave him a high-five. He kept apologizing and looking at Master to see if he was going to get in trouble. But seriously, it was a good hit, he deserved the high five. And I need to watch myself when I'm blocking, obviously.

Tonight's class was also good. We ran around the track 13 times (not a giant 1/4 mile track, I have no idea how far it was) and then did drills and poomse. I didn't do freesparring because I was working on my side kicks.

Last night Amanda Eonni (this girl just whines "Amanda Big Sister..." all class long) was playing with a plastic beetle. She was making me crazy, so I handed it to one of the guys who was on the bench. She kept asking for it and I told her I'd give it to her at 9. At 9 the guy said that he'd thrown it in the trash. While she was sniveling and moaning, he slipped it in my hand.

I gave Amanda Eonni a big hug while putting the bug in her hair. It slipped but didn't fall out. I brought her to the mirror, then gasped and pointed. She screamed, shook her hair frantically and ran clear across the studio. Oh man, I wasn't expecting that response. I sat on the floor laughing, and Master and all the boys laughed and tried to figure out why she was screaming. I held up the toy and said, "This! This!" She kept back, hand over her heart. I thought she was really mad at me and was thinking Don't cry, don't cry, please don't cry. Luckily, she started laughing and said, "Oh! I was so surprised!"

There were actually thee big wasps in the studio, so it's not too surprising that she dashed off like that.

Finally made it to taekwondo tonight. This is the second class I've made this month. Week-long job orientations out of the city, anniversaries, old friends leaving Korean, new friends coming to Korea, colds... I've been busy.

"Long time, no see!"

"Ugh, Master," I said in Korean, "I have a cold. Last week I met so many foreigners, and they all brought their..." I had to say one word in English, "'germs?' You know 'germs'? They all brought their germs from their foreign countries and I got sick. And because it's raining, I'm in a bad mood. And Master...many foreigners are crazy."

Master laughed and said, "I know, you're not a foreigner, you're Korean, I tell you that!"

Class was great, poomse work, drills, and some light contact sparring. I was drenched in sweat by the end of it.

After class I stopped by Master's office. His daughter was hilarious. She told me she wanted to see my parents, where were they and when would they come back? That happened in May, and she remembers it. Yet she is adamant that she didn't meet Good Man in August.

I told Master that I thought I should drop back to three or four classes a week. "Why?" Asking that so bluntly in English is rude, not so much in Korean.

I crumpled up my nose, because I wasn't sure how to explain it to him. I said, "In December, January...March, my life in Korea was bad. My job was bad, my house was small and uncomfortable. My friends lived far away. Taekwondo was good. All bad, but taekwondo was good." I went on. "Now, I have a good job, comfortable house. I met some new friends last week who live near me. And I have a boyfriend." He laughed and I blushed.* "So my life in Korea is good. And I am very busy now. Do you understand?"

He nodded and said he did, but I'm not sure if he entirely understood. When I started doing taekwondo here, three days a week, it was more for exercise and fun. Then my jobs, one hogwon job after the other, went from bad to worse, as I got fired from the first job and left jobless, homeless, and without a paycheck because of a non-salary-paying bad boss at the second job. I was homesick, I spoke even less Korean than I do now. I had only a few friends in Korea, and they were busy and lived far away. As things got worse, taekwondo filled up more and more of my time.

Taekwondo was my glue. It was the one really good thing going on for me in Korea, and on Really Good Taekwondo Days it balanced out the bad, while on Not So Great Days it still greatly negated the bad. I needed to go to taekwondo five nights a week to keep myself together.

Life in Korea With a Bad Job

Now, however, things are a lot more stable. I have no major complaints about my job. I've made some friends that live nearer to me and are on the same work schedule. I still speak an abysmal amount of Korean, but getting around and dealing with things is easier. I am not nearly as homesick because I'm more settled. The bad is greatly, greatly outweighed by the good. But now that good isn't limited to taekwondo and I need to find a new balance of all the good. I need to re-balance taekwondo's place in my life.

Life in Korea With a Good Job

I have been missing class lately to meet friends, to go on dates, to just relax in my own home. I hate making up lies each time I miss class, but can't easily use a "studying" excuse the way my studiomates can. I thought telling the truth would free me from the guilt I feel when I don't make it to class five nights a week or when I lie. And I thought it was more respectful to tell him the truth.

But I'm not sure that it made him very happy.

I know other martial artists go through the same thing—the amount of time alloted to their art changing over time. How do they deal with possibly disappointed instructors?

* Note: I don't think not having a boyfriend before was bad; had I thought that, I would've done taekwondo less and put an effort into dating. But since Good Man is a good thing, I put it in there. Also, because I know someone will assume it, Good Man has not asked me to adjust any of my schedule or to compromise myself. He really is a Good Man.

I've been shooting in RAW and slowly, slowly learning Adobe Lightroom. This weekend I started learning how to read histograms and how to manipulate them after the fact. Quick and dirty description for non-RAWers: RAW preserves more data than JPEG, JPEG conversion done my the magic of the camera adjusts color and balance a bit. So when you shoot in RAW you can get more data from the image, but the images also tend to come out duller looking. (Anyone more knowledgeable than me, feel free to add your thoughts.)

I experimented with the D80's matrix vs center-weighted vs spot metering. Still, I wasn't happy. Everything looked muddy. Not soft, muddy. (I don't generally like supersaturated or contrasty pictures. I like more subtle color variations. Like anything else, eye of the beholder and all that. But these images were muddy, lacking pure whites and blacks.) When I turned auto everything (except, sometimes autofocus) off and started trusting my own metering choices, I started getting happier with my photos. All of the Han River Park photos were Amanda's-eyeball-and-brain-metered, in fact.)

Good Man After Work

I like this picture of Good Man because on my screen he looks like he did in person. Twilight, lots of ambient light. I know some people would argue to pump up the contrast. I like this as it is. ISO 200, f/stop 3.5, shutter 1/13th a second, no tripod.

Food Delivery, Korean Style

Love the super-thin alien neck look. He passed right in front of us as we were sitting at a fountain. ISO 200, f/stop 3.5, shutter 1/13th a second, no tripod.

Spider

Found this spider and its web on a building, about 9 feet off the ground. Stood on a chair to get the picture but had a hell of a time focusing on the spider, who was prone to move. A lot. Autofocus was no help, as it went straight to the trees in the background. Pumped up contrast just a bit (the spider really was green and yellow), converted to greyscale, erased to background. Didn't realize the spider was dis-legged until I looked at the photos. I couldn't tell from where I was shooting. I really like this picture. ISO 400, f/stop 5.6, shutter 1/250th.

Corn Ice Cream

No, I didn't try it.

Food Delivery, Korean Style, in a Cute Costume

in Jess Than NotimE

This is interesting because usually the "L" and "R" sounds are mixed up. Seeing a "J" there is unusual.

vanity networR hair castle
(아름다운 행복~ means "beautiful happiness")

This is a good example of what Good Man and I call "The Random Word Generator." I am convinced that somewhere in these advertising/t-shirt making/anything English is good companies there is a Random Word Generator. Push a button and you get such nonsensical random phrases as "vanity networR hair castle." What, pray tell, is a "hair castle?"

Photos from the Han River Park adventure are up in the Gallery.

Han River Park

I checked my stats today. In over 1000 unique visitors this month, some people are searching for some weird stuff. Here I answer what I assume are your screwy questions. I promise, every one of these searches is a true search that found my website.

Search: m&m stuck in nose
Me: So it wasn't just me, Mom!

Search: coolest thing ever
Me: Yes, I am. Thank you.

Search: korean toilet paper
Me: Yes, Korea has toilet paper. You will get it for a housewarming gift. Their toilet paper ranges from scratchy a la Swedish style to soft a la American style.

Search: naked half korean
Me: Which half?

Search: funny things wrap in him in toilet paper
Me: Wrap the naked half of the Korean in the toilet paper housewarming gift. I still have 53 rolls left. Damn. Wow. I think I know what I'm doing this weekend.

Search: naked korean men
Me: Oooh, even better, entirely naked. That will use up even more toilet paper!

Searches: white girl korean guy
korean men white women
Good Man and Me: Two thumbs up!

Search: dating an aerospace engineer
Me: Don't. I speak from experience.

Search: how to leave a good man
Me: WHAT? Why would you do that? Don't, don't, don't! I don't speak from experience, I just know better!

Searches: korean guys no good in bed
korean men good in bed
Me: Uh. Ahem. Well. OK, I'll answer this. "Guys" from anywhere are not generally good in bed. "Men" are. There, that was a smooth answer. Wipes brow. Whew.

I am stuck in a resort at a week-long orientation.

My handphone doesn't work in the room that our lectures are being held in. (First dead zone I've ever dealt with.)

I can get "emerency olny" service in the room. When you press the SOS button, this menu pops up (yes, exactly as written):

1) Police
2) Fire Station
3) Report of Espionage
4) Report of Smuggle
5) Report of Drug
6) NIS

I have been trapped in this building since Monday. Do you know how much I want to press 3 and see what happens?

Good Man and I met at Han River Park today.

10.664 kilometers of walking in 3 inch heels.

Not a good idea.

However, an absolutely stunningly gorgeous sunset and twilight over the Han River, complete with a nice river breeze made for a romantic scene straight out of a movie.

Great idea.

Han River 9 Sept 2007

"Can you tell me how to use these?" I hand Good Man a three-pack sample of facial masks from FACE SHOP.

He looks at me. "These are in English. And Japanese. Not Korean."

I have been here too long.

***

"Don't you want to go?" I ask.

Good Man protests. "Trick question!" After a pause he answers, "Yes!"

Meanwhile, I mutter to myself. "Do you want to go? Yes, I do. No, I don't. Don't you want to go? Yes, I do. No, I don't." I shake my head and Good Man starts laughing, "You don't want to go? Yes, I do. No, I don't."

Still laughing he says, "And you say Korean is confusing!"

"Why do we answer the opposite question the same way?"

He protests again, "And you always ask questions like that!"

***

Some people make it a goal to learn how to swear in a foreign language. I manage to do it unwittingly.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm looking at pictures of my nephew."

"Huh?"

I turn the computer and say, "Nephew. 조카?" I mispronounce it as jok-a instead of jo-ka.

"Jo-KA, not jok-A."

"I always say that wrong. What is jok-A?"

He smiles, "F*** you."

I look horrified. "Oh! No! That's not what I mean! But I keep getting the stress wrong. The same way most non-native speakers say 'bitch' when they mean 'beach.'"

Good Man tries it. He can say "beach" properly. His "bitch" sounds correct in the middle, but the "b" is too soft, making the whole word sound too round. "Make the 'b' pop, like 빵," I say, using the Korean word for bread as an example.

He makes it pop. "Bitch." I laugh, because he said it so perfectly and accent-free I'd swear I was talking to an American. "But I don't think I need to use that word a lot."

***

Friday night I finally made it to class. Master wasn't in class at all, but I spoke to him beforehand, and shook off little monkey daughter in her pursuit of lip gloss.

During class I got some photos of Brave's Brother and Ghost doing target practice. All photos were shot on the D80 with 640 ISO, 1/40 sec at f/3.8. They were shot in RAW with levels lightly adjusted in Lightroom. I manually chose shutter and aperture but let the camera autofocus on the target before they kicked. I was experimenting with an exposure chart I made. I didn't want the camera to choose the setting because a) it would've been flashing all over and b) I wanted parts of the action to blur.

I was pleased that the boys just let me shoot instead of trying to cover their faces.

In Vietnam I took this picture. (Click on it to see a larger version.) I took it using my temp travel partner's camera since my cheap digi is on a long, slow, painful death slide right now. Her camera was some sort of digital point and shoot.

We were at Hoan Kiem Lake at approximately 6:30 in the morning, trying to get shots of a crowd of at least 5 dozen people doing aerobics. As I was standing there, one of the women with baskets started walking toward us. I wanted a picture of her but didn't think I'd get it since I had no control over ISO, aperture, or shutter speed.

This is what I got.

Vietnam Art Photo, Before

I actually really like this photo. The road is empty (very unusual for Hanoi). The colors on her basket are bright, you can't see any of her face, and you get a little bit of street traffic on the other side, which adds some depth.

What I didn't like were the two pairs of legs that my eyes immediately went to whenever I looked at the picture.

I recently signed up for a newsletter from All Things Photography. Poking around the website, I found a tutorial for subtle spot coloring.

I was so excited; that was exactly what I wanted to do with this photograph!

I tried it once and emailed the site's author. I told him some frustrations I was having learning how to use the Nikon D80. He wrote back very quickly and gave me some good advice. He pointed out that I dropped off film at a photo lab, someone was doing the color balancing and exposure correcting. And before that, people did it in their own lab. Now I had to learn to do it with a DSLR.

That was like a smack to the head. I developed my own film in high school and never thought burning or dodging was cheating. I never thought using the correctional ink to fix dust spots was cheating. And I even worked in a commercial lab and corrected other people's film! Duh...

Back to the photo. I attempted the photo a second time. I am still not very happy with the "cloning" done to remove the people. But I am happy enough to post it since it was the first time I'd tried cloning. In retrospect, I chose a difficult (to me) photo to work with for the first time since it didn't have hard edges to use as guides for the color.

Vietnam Art Photo, After

I am pretty pleased.

...Like This!

Thursday I had to go to a local school board meeting. At some point the defensive Korean translator said foreigners "are arrogant."

When I got home, Good Man was waiting for me.

"You know what! Yeah, we're arrogant! So what! Look!" I held up my right hand, five fingers splayed. "Five Westerners are arrogant like this!" I wiggled my fingers.

I held up my left hand, five fingers splayed. "Five Koreans are arrogant like this!" I closed a fist. "The arrogance is the same! We just don't hide behind our precious groups!"

Kids' Eye Pictures

Once upon a time, Good Man and Master's Family met. Master's daughter used my handphone to take some pictures, but I'm only getting around to posting them now.

Master's Son, As Taken By Master's Daughter

Master's Daughter Hides Under My Skirt

Master's Kids

I Swear I Hadn't Had Any Soju, Yet the Bottles Were Dancing

Friday night, after class, Master's kids were being really funny. Master's Daughter has gotten permanent hold of two of my lip glosses. "Amanda, do you have lip gloss?"

"No, you have two tubes of my lip gloss!"

"No, I have one," she whispered back.

"Oh! You have one! Give me lip gloss, please!"

Master's Daughter thought. "I don't have any lip gloss!" She took my glasses and started playing with them while I kept asking for lip gloss. I was holding her, and when I tried to let go, she swung her legs back and forth wildly, like a monkey.

"Are you a monkey? I'm a monkey, too" I said, referring to the Chinese Zodiac symbol we share.

Master's Son, meanwhile, was whining, so I picked him up. He started crawling all over me and clinging to me while Master's Daughter took pictures. He was giggling and laughing and being so funny. I said, "Kiss, kiss!" He kissed my right cheek and I turned so he could kiss my left cheek. Instead he grabbed my face firmly but gently, his palms flat, and turned my head so he could kiss me full on the lips.

Master, his Wife and I laughed and laughed. Master's Son did it a few more times and I muttered, "Oh, you will be a ladies' man."

Master said in English, "Amanda! My son! Romance Man! My daughter! Taekwondo Woman!"

(These pictures were taken with my new, lesser quality handphone, hence the scary pink faces and weird lips.)

Romancing Me

Romance Man

Taekwondo Woman

As I was coming home Friday night, I spotted three dancing soju bottles. One of them posed for me. I love Korea.

Dancing Soju Bottles

Change of Status

Saw Good Man this weekend. Saturday we practiced using my D80. He got some pictures of me in one of the silk ensambles I bought in Vietnam.

Wrap Tunic Style Áo Dài

This wrap tunic is so comfortable to wear. The double layer pants are so incredibly sensual feeling, light and loose, but offering full coverage. The pants sometimes look like a skirt. I wish I'd bought more than one pair.

We were outside in a light rain. Good Man starting doing rapid fire shots and caught some good looks. The first two shots were done at the exact same time stamp. There's actually 5 photos taken over two seconds, but I thought posting all of them would be a bit excessive.

Rain In My Eye

Glaring at the Cloud Gods

Saucy

Last week, Good Man in a Suit had a job interview. He got the job and is now working veryveryvery close to my house. This is, of course, very good in a lot of ways. However, ironically due to our schedules, this will probably mean seeing less of each other.

I got used to having him around. I'm a little worried that not seeing each other as much will make things screwy weird.

In honor of his new job, Saturday I actually cooked. Amazing, I know. I made Shepherd's Pie, which meant buying groceries together (the ajumma was laughing at us) and making loads of mashed potatoes. Good Man was hungry while the pie was baking, so I gave him some mashed potatoes with homemade gravy.

Good Man Tries "Smashed" Potatoes

He liked them. Smart man.

Suwon Fortress

Whenever Good Man and I plan a day trip, someone dies or a typhoon hits. So I'm thinking of a very-close-to-home-subway-only-no-real-trains-involved trip. Also, a woman I've only met online is now in Seoul. I'll call her Buffy because that's not her real name.

I was chatting with her online.

Me: Saturday Good Man and I are going to Suwon Fortress. Want to come?

Buffy: I can't, have a part that night. Um, when are you leaving?

Me: I don't know. He doesn't even know we're going.

Later, in person.

Me: We're going to Suwon Fortress this weekend.

Good Man: Cool.

Photos from Vietnam are up in the Gallery.

Vietnam