Amanda Takes Off...

Koreans are weird.

My principal is a woman in her mid-60s (my best guess) who can handle 4 or 5 bottles of soju, according to my coworkers. She speaks three sentences of English. "You are very beautiful...oh, my heart is happy...thank you!" She gives me gifts for no reason. We speak in Korean all the time. We speak maybe 5 minutes total a week. She, like nearly all principals in Korea, does nothing but sit in her office all day, drinking coffee and chatting with people.

She asked what I was doing this weekend. "I'm going to Sunchon."

"With your boyfriend?"

"Yes."

"Why? It's his birthday. And he's never been to Jeollanamdo. But I think Jeollanamdo is very beautiful."

She said, "You will sleep together?"

I put on my best horrified look. "No! Ms [Soju]! We are not married!"

"But in America, many people sleep together."

"I am not in America. I am in Korea. We are not married!"

Could this conversation get any worse? Yes. It could.

"Oh, very good! You are Korean!" she said. She switched to English and laughed, "No pre-sex!"

Oh. My. God. My principal just said "pre-sex" to me. Pre. Sex.

I told Good Man about the conversation later. He said too many old Koreans were nosy and bored with their jobs. I said Koreans think they're so polite and respectful just because they use -sumnida but their behavior doesn't match.

Late last night. Good Man stumbles into my house after work, whimpering. I hug him, rub his shoulders. "You work too much." Whine. "Are you ready to go to America?"

"I've been ready for ten years." I laugh and he starts doing figures in the air with his pointer finger. "I'm twenty-seven...fourteen years. I've been ready for fourteen years," he says. He presses his head in the crook of my neck. "I want to go."

Photos from taekwondo a few days ago.

He was cleaning up some bricks. He is one of the few kids who smiles without throwing up a V-sign or hiding his face when I have my camera. He's very photogenic.

Crooked Teeth

This kid's big sister was watching class and he was teasing me, so I grabbed him and kissed his cheek. Man, oh man. The boys went nuts. There are sharper pictures, ones with the correct focus, but this photo had the best emotion from my taekwondo "little brother."

Kissing My 'Little Brother'

"Why is she taking pictures of shoes?" Kiss' Big Sister asks Crybaby Gold Medal Girl.

"Because we don't have this in America," I say.

They look at each other. Crybaby shrugs.

Two of these pairs of shoes are mine.

Shoes