Amanda Takes Off...

Yesterday was a nice day. Good Man and I were going to go out, but he wasn't feeling well, so we stayed in, took it easy. Giant (and I mean giant, way too many leftovers) pancake breakfast, a couple episodes of Weeds, just chatting. A nice day.

I rode the subway partway home with Good Man and he helped me study Korean. We bought some snacks for the subway. He bought banana milk. Compared to most banana milks which are yellow, this one was white. And the bottle used that as advertising. "Banana milk is white, like bananas" or something like that.

Good Man looked at the back of the bottle and said, "These bananas are from Israel." I found that terribly funny for some reason, probably because he was so matter-of-fact about it.

While we were studying, there was a man in his forties or so, sitting to Good Man's right who was watching us, nodding, listening. He was trying so hard to be discreet, but he failed. He was amused by us, especially since I was asking when I could use the -겠다 form. It expresses strong will.

The man was lined up to leave the subway and I said, "So...I can say, '태권도 이 단 받겠어요!'?" I will earn my second degree black belt! The man turned and looked a little surprised. I think he would have worked up the nerve to speak to us if he had a few more stops.

Good Man is nice to study with. He lets me...read...chop.pily...like...this and only cor..rects me when necessary.

Today Good Man and I met Jennifer and Gym Guy/Sung Hyun for dinner and something else. It turned into dinner, ice cream, bowling (where Jennifer, who claims she hasn't done ten-pin bowling before, kicked all of our butts), and a movie.

Jennifer and I had exchanged some emails and chatted on the phone, and we were going to meet for coffee. Since I thought we passed the "solo together" test on the phone, I suggested all of us get together. But I admit, I was a little nervous. Good Man is pretty quiet around new people and I had a feeling Jennifer and I would get chattering along well. I shouldn't've worried.

When we were getting shoes, Good Man just handed his big shoe to the guy at the counter, which the rest of us found funny. It was as if he couldn't be bothered to give a size.

While we were bowling, I managed to score a single strike—on the very last frame. I called myself the Bipolar Bowler because I either missed entirely or scored OK (lit. OK). I don't think Grandpa in Florida (as my brother and I called him when we were kids) would be very happy with my score. He owned a bowling alley before passing it down in the family...but! My form was correct. I rolled from the wrist. My problem was that I wasn't doing the arrow/dot thing he taught me very well.

After bowling we bought some snacks (and Jennifer and I both, separately, said, "Oh, let's buy ice cream...wait, we already ate some...") and then watched Mr. Brooks at my house. Jennifer and Sung Hyun are to be commended for not commenting on the state of my kitchen. The movie got bad reviews at Rotten Tomatoes but we liked it.

Around 10:15 we parted ways and I walked Good Man to the subway station. He said, "I like them. And it's hard to find interracial couples, Korean man, Western woman. That isn't why I like them but..."

"It makes you like them more?"

"Yeah."

I understood exactly what he meant. It's hard to get along in groups of four, and we both thought we all got on well. Very nice.

Gym Guy Laughs at Something

Gym Guy

Jennifer

Sung Hyun and Jennifer

Amanda

Good Man

Jennifer Knows How to Pause for a Photo

I think Sung Hyun was laughing at me because Jennifer and I were acting sort of crazy and I said in Banmal, "It's OK, we're foreigners."

All photos were taken in aperture priority mode. I figured out how to do simple corrections (exposure, white balance, etc) on ALL selected photos at one time in Lightroom. I also figured out how to apply presets (though I didn't do it) to all selected photos. Oh man, that will save me some time!

A very good day, two very cool people.