Amanda Takes Off...

"This," Good Man says, pulling off his jacket, "is why you need a Korean boyfriend."

"Master, I'm sorry. I couldn't come last night. Um...last month my ondol [floor heat] wasn't working." He nods. "And the gas man came and fixed it. It was OK. But last night I got home and there was an...'information' on my door." I mispronounce 'information' so Master is confused. We quickly figure it out and I say, "Um, information on my door. I looked, only I have it. So it's not a restaurant. But I didn't know what it was." He understands what I'm trying to say about finding a note on my door, so I continue, "So last night it was like this!" I pantomime banging on a door. "I was so scared! I said, 'Who is it?' 'Yeah! Apartment ajosshi!' He was so angry!"

I take a deep breath. "He started yelling '200,000 won! 200,000 won! Gas 3 tons! Gas 3 tons!' But I didn't know, 'What? What?' Why was he so mad? Well, the gas man made some mistake." I fake the valve being open too far and Master nods. "I said, 'Ajosshi, not me! Not my mistake!' but the ajosshi was like this," I scoff and mumble ajosshi rants about foreigners not speaking Korean.

"So he fixed it. Then he left. And I called [Good Man]. I was crying. '200,00 won! 200,000 won!'" I boo hoo into my fists. "And [Good Man] came to my house. He said, 'You need a Korean boyfriend!'" Master laughs. "He called last night and they said to call today. So [Good Man] called. 'Oh, my foreigner friend...yes, but mistake...she didn't know...' So it was 231,000 won, but now it is 160,000. 'Give me a discount,' he said. Thirty percent!"

Master claps, "Yes, you need a Korean boyfriend!" He puts on his Big Brother look, "But no boyfriend, I help you."

I nod, "I know. I was so mad! 'It's not my mistake! Not me! Gas Man!' but [Good Man] is Korean, so he said, 'Oh, I understand, but...I know, but...'" I grin because I am telling a fairly complicated (to me) story and doing fairly well and Master understands me. Good Man got the discount because he is Korean and knows how to save face whereas I was just saying it wasn't my fault over and over.

I shake my head. "Master, that ajosshi was so angry!" I drop my voice. "I think he needs a girlfriend."

Master bursts out laughing.

Class was good tonight. We did poomse work. I adore poomse. We also did some drills. Crooked Teeth was near me. He drew something in the condensation on the windows. I drew 月 (the Hanja for 월, Monday or month) and we smiled at each other. Crybaby then drew another character and Master scolded her.

"But Master! Crooked Teeth drew this, and Amanda drew this," she whined, pointing.

Crooked Teeth tried to look innocent and shook his head, I went wide eyed and mouthed, "She's crazy" in Korean.

She whined and Master faked a glare at me. "Master! I don't know Chinese!" I said.

All four of us—Master, Crybaby, Crooked Teeth and I—laughed loudly.

I was doing drill work against the wall. Directly below the calendar.