Amanda Takes Off...

"Amanda!" Whenever Mother says my name, she yells it. A-man-daaaaah! "[Good Man] needs new pants."

"I know, but he doesn't like shopping."

"Neither does his father. I buy him pants and say, 'Wear these!'"

I started laughing. "Ajumma, ajumma... [Good Man] how do you say 'trick?'"

"비법." Bibeop. The dictionary says it's "a secret process, a mystique, a mystery."

Mother nodded, "Yes, ajumma trick. You go buy him pants, OK?"

"I promise," I laughed.

***

At the outlet mall, Mother managed to find the sole Korean-speaking employee in the store. At Bath and Body Works, Mother managed to find the sole Korean customer in the store. She looked at the woman and just started speaking Korean.

"Mother," I said, "you have an ajumma trick! You have Korean radar. Beep beep beep! Korean person!"

Mother laughed and the woman she was talking to gasped, "She knows Korean! She knows the word 비법!"

***

"엄마, 쇼핑 올림픽 운동하면, 김연아예요."

Mother laughed and said other Korean women were much better than she was.

I made hash of the phrasing, but she understood what I meant.

Mother, if shopping were an Olympic Sport, you'd be Kim Yuna.

(Just for the record, Good Man says 쇼핑 올림픽에 참가했다면, 김연아였을 거예요 is a better way to phrase it.)

446,700

I finished the non-cartoon (manwha) version of 빨간 머리 앤 tonight, bringing me past the 40% mark for my goal.

Now...what to read next?

Last night I made chicken salad. I decided I wanted to eat it in a different way today, so I decided to make pita bread with a recipe I found at The Fresh Loaf.

Pita Bread

They didn't puff perfectly, but next time I'm going to try baking them at 500 F instead of 400 F.

They were amazing. I haven't bought tortillas since finding my own recipe, and now I won't be buying pitas, either.

Mother arrived last Wednesday. She left yesterday. During that time, I didn't have to cook a single thing. Even when Mother and Good Man went to Philadelphia for three days, Mother left enough food in the fridge to cover me. "Amanda, you work so hard. I made you food."

맛 means "flavor" or "taste." 맛있다 means "to be delicious." 단맛 and 쓴맛 mean "sweet" and "bitter" respectively. 밥맛 is "rice" and "flavor," which becomes "appetite."

손맛 is "hand" and "taste." And as I've seen it used, I've always thought of it as meaning "home cooking."

Watching Mother cook for more than a week made me realize that it really does mean "hand taste."

When Mother cooks, she rarely uses mixing spoons or spatulas. She dons thin plastic gloves and uses her hands (or chopsticks in the case of hot foods) to cook.

She chops everything by hand.

She mixes food with her hands.

She serves with her hands.

손맛.

It Meant He Would Leave

Over lunch on our shopping day...

"Mother," I said in Korean, "were you angry when [Good Man] said he had an American girlfriend?"

"Ahhhh, of course."

"Why?"

"Because it meant he would leave."

I nodded. How could I answer that? He left. He left for school, sure, but he stayed for me. For us.

Mother continued, "But it's OK because I have two kids. If I only had one child, I wouldn't let them marry a foreigner."

"So [Sister] has to marry a Korean?"

"Yes." She thought for a moment. "What would happen to Korea if everyone left?"

I had no answer for that.

Three Months vs Three Years

While on a walk without Good Man...

"Mother, how did you meet Father?"

"We were introduced to each other."

"How long did you date before marrying?"

She held up three fingers. "Three years."

"Oh, three years? A lot of Koreans marry after three months. Why?"

Mother scoffed. "I don't know. But that is too soon."

I laughed, "So if [Sister] met someone and said she wanted to marry him after three mon—"

"Nope. She can't. That is too soon."

"[Good Man] and I dated for two years. My mom always says you should know someone at least one year. Because you go through summer, win—"

"Fall," Mother corrected me.

"Fall, winter...um..." Mother gave me the word, "spring."

"And maybe a funeral or a new job or moving."

Mother sounded confused. "Why?"

"Because a funeral, a new job, moving...those are all hard things. They make a lot of stress."

"Ah, that makes sense."

Grandmother and Grandfather

On the same walk...

"Mother, how did your parents meet?"

"My mother's mother, my father's mother, [some word]." Mother slowly explained it and I got it. They were an arranged marriage. Of course, that makes sense. They were married nearly 60 years ago. The fact that Mother and Father were a "love match" in ~1980 is rather unusual. "They met when they were 18 and got married very soon after that."

"When you were growing up, did they like each other? Did they understand each other?"

"Hmm. They liked each other and then didn't like each other and then liked each other and didn't like each other..."

I laughed, "And now?"

"Now? Now I think they're OK."