Amanda Takes Off...

On New Year's Day, Good Man, Sister and I went out for drinks. On the way home, Good Man ran into a friend he'd known since middle school. After standing there for a few moments, waiting to be introduced, I finally said, "Yeah, you can't introduce me?"

"No, I already told him you were my wife," Good Man claimed. Hmmm...

Yesterday Good Man, Sister and I went out for the day. We got some shopping done (Fairy Godmother wanted me to pick up a Korean nativity scene for her—I found one where Mary and Joesph were yangban class and wearing hanboks!) and had a nice dinner in Insadong.

Then, after resting at home for a while, last night Good Man and I went out with Subway Friend and another friend he's known since middle school. I was dreading going because it's still hard for me to understand Korean in a group setting most of the time, but I ended up having a really good time.

Subway Friend is graduation from one of the SKY schools soon and Other Friend is getting married soon. Even though we were in a noisy chicken hof (beer and chicken makes a chicken hof), I most understood what was going on. Subway Friend was especially good at slowing down his speech a little bit, and speaking loudly and clearly. (Thank you, Friend.) I didn't have much to add to the conversation (I have no opinion of various soccer teams, say) but I was able to when needed.

Subway Friend, for example, asked Good Man if he was afraid of guns in America. I, in turn, asked Subway Friend if he watched a lot of TV. "Oh, yeah! Lots of movies!"

I laughed and asked, "Are Korean dramas and Korean life the same?"

"Huh?"

"You know Korean dramas?" He nodded. "You know Korean life?" He nodded. "Are they the same?"

"Ahhhhh!" He clapped his hands together and pointed at me, "OK, OK, I understand. So America is not like the movies?"

"Right."

One of Good Man's traits is that he doesn't speak much. He nods, though. A lot. "Hey, when [Good Man] was in high school, was he always like this?" I asked, nodding my head.

Both friends agreed that indeed, as long as they've known him, he was a non-speaking-head-nodding-man. Well, at least I know it's not me.

This morning Good Man and Father are at a bath house. A few minutes ago, Mother got a phone call. I could tell immediately what had happened. Grandmother died.

And now I'm preparing to go to my first Korean funeral.