A Little Behind and I have no idea 2 months?

I’m not keeping up very well with this, am I? Oh well, it’s what happens when you actually have things to do, tv to watch, and places to go.

I think some important things happened last week, but I really don’t remember before the weekend. Oh, other than I had another throw down with a child. That was a lot of fun and it ended fairly well.

Brat-Girl has been pushing and pushing at me since the school year began. But she’s a master at toeing the line… she just misjudged it finally and gave me a reason to come down on her like a ton of bricks (no one can’t say I’m not patient). We were watching Fantasia. Predictably, the Grade 4 boys were acting up, smacking each other and being wild. I told them, “Quiet. Be quiet. Watch the movie please. If you don’t watch the movie quietly…*whips out workbook dramatically*” Oh the screams and pleas of horror. They settled down and watched the movie with no further incident. Great. I’m watching the movie, they’re watching the movie, Grade 3 is not watching the movie. Because Brat-Girl snuck out of class making all her classmates run out to scream at her out the window to come back to class.

She sneaks back into class and I corner here. “Why did you leave my class? Why? Where did you go? Where? Why didn’t you ask to be excused? Bathroom? Nurse?...” She just babbled incomprehensibly at me while her classmates scolded her. I asked for her name and the little boy saw the roll and noticed I marked him absent the day before. He pitched a fit in Korean.

Now I love this kid. He’s runty and geeky and very energetic… and a total sheep with the IQ of wool. And he had shown up 25 minutes late to my 40 minute class. That’s not attending class. And I told him that. “My class is at 3. It is at 3, not 3:15 or 3:30. You are late. You need to be on time. At 3.” (and I was directing this rant at all of grade 3 because they’re all always late). The good girls and the sheep boy go into a litany of ‘sorry teacher sorry!’ while Brat Girl is still sulking.

Amazingly, Grade 4 boys are quietly watching the movie.

Class ends and I dismiss Grade 4 and everyone in Grade 3. I told her she had to stay after. She started screaming at me and arguing (in Korea) and tried to walk out the door. I simply grabbed the back of her jacket and threw her in a chair. Then I sat over her and told her if she got up early I would add more time. She was beyond pissed, she was seething. She wanted to hit me. She might have if I wasn’t twice her height and weight.

So when my co-teacher came back to grab her stuff, I took her in the hall and informed her of what was going on. She said she would talk to them… I said good, but there’s no need. Later she told me that she talked to Grade 4 and they totally ratted Brat Girl out. So Grade 3 got chewed out by me, by my co-teacher, AND by their homeroom teacher.

They were early to class the next day :) and Brat Girl informed me she wanted to meet me 10 years in the future (and all I could think was no thank you). I think there’s something imbalanced in her head; she has massive, volatile mood swings. No just with me but with other students and teachers too.

Now I hate to say this and be stereotypical. But girls are terrible. The boys are rambunctious and crazy, but they really mean well. If anything, their problem is that they are boys. They want to go outside and play soccer; they don’t want to sit in a desk. So if I don’t do something active, they get twitchy. If I do something active I have to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand. I understand that. They’re not doing things to be malicious or sneaky. Most of the time it doesn’t even occur to them that they’re doing something wrong. It may take a couple of reminders, but they usually want to follow the rules. Girls on the other hand… girls are sneaky. They have more control and they know the rules. It’s not just Brat Girl. I’ve seen evidence of this several times, and they simply get more refined as they get older. Oh teacher, I’m sick; I need to go home. Or they get their friends to cover for them. Sadly, it’s only going to hurt them in the long run.

I’m not a babysitter, and I’m not going to make them come to class or participate. They can sit and sleep or skip for all I care as long as they’re not disrupting the class for everyone else. But when they get to middle school, they’re going to be in for a rude awakening.

Korean school life is rough.

For the weekend I went to Daegu and Andong.

I took the train, which was really nice. The ticket collector spoke to me and brought me an orange. I do enjoy the free gifts I receive just for being a foreigner. The train rolled into DongDaegu a little late so I missed my connection to Gyeongsan. I just waited an hour and caught the next train. My very gracious hosts picked me up with their yorkie and bull terrier.

And of course, their cat made a bee line for me. I have no explanation. Cats like me. Then their dogs jumped on me and wanted to play with me… except the dog I went down to meet. She wanted nothing to do with me. Nothing at all.

But I had a great Saturday filled with pancakes, lively, intelligent discussions that didn’t involve talking about beer or drinking beer or soju, and dogs! We went to the shelter and I participated in a dog walk with other foreigners. My dog was a little feisty and scare and snippy, but once she got out of the cage she was fine.

So there’s about 15 of us, almost all foreigners, walking a parade of dogs down the street and around the park. Most Koreans do not like dogs and they don’t like large groups of foreigners. So why the hell did this one guy swerve so he could walk in the middle of us… oh wait, it’s Korea. I’d like to be generous and blame it on the left/right thing… but that’s not it. Because they don’t seem to follow a set pattern for walking (or scarily enough, sometimes driving).

I didn’t really talk to any of the foreigners. I don’t live in Daegu (although I’d love to live outside it—like in Gyeongsan); I wasn’t looking for friends; I was there to play with the dogs. I’m going to put my dog back and this woman comes up and informs me that I shouldn’t have walked that dog, that it was too aggressive, and why didn’t I take another dog? I told her the dog was fine and gave her an Erinn Glare (patent pending). The next time she walked by the dog was in my arms and trying to lick my face. Aggressive my ass (granted, the girl only saw the end result and not the first few tries where I could’ve lost some fingers if the dog was serious).

There were two dogs I liked. The black and white one I walked that snapped and a funny terrier looking dog with long legs and yellow eyes. What did I come home with?

THIS:

Candy the stripper dog!

No, it’s not a toy. It’s a really dog. Yes, its ears and tail are dyed pink. Yes, its only about 2 pounds. Yes, its ridiculous.

I wasn’t planning on getting a dog. I was coming to look for AFTER vacation when I was going to get a dog. Now I have a dog and am going on vacation. I’m in the unpleasant situation of finding a pet sitter. Wish me luck.

But I couldn’t leave her there. She was too tiny and sick to last long without a foster home and all the fosters were full in Daegu. I didn’t realize how sick she was until I took her to the vet.

Anyway, got the dog, went to Papa Johns (hell yeah, Papa Johns in Korea—real pizza!), and then went shopping… with the dog… for two hours. And no one said a word about it. Actually, most of the employees seemed intent on determining if she was real or not. I think I just perpetuate the American Paris Hilton stereotype too, damn. But they were a good sport, and we had a blast shopping.

I bought this ridiculous outfit. My kids are going to die when they see it. It’ll make the panda cheese lesson I’m planning that much more amusing. And I needed another hoodie and the sales girl pointed out this one was a set. I also wanted to buy a cell phone cover but they didn’t have one for my phone.

Went back to my hosts’ house, washed the dog and packed. Woke up at an ungodly time to catch the train—and walked myself to the train station with instructions because I didn’t want to wake my hosts. Woke them anyway because the bull terrier heard me get up to leave and fussed. Got to DongDaegu and went looking for the bus to Andong.

Sounds easy right?

Ha. Right, easy. I found the first bus station by following the signs. I went in and asked, “Andong?” “Aniyo *point*” before I could clarify where the lady was pointing, an ajumma shoved me out of the way. I went outside and asked the bus drivers. They directed me across the street. Rinse and repeat. No, okay… wait, why did you direct me to a back alley? Where am I going? This is seedy… but its okay, its Korea… soju bottle, trash, cat… ah, a hole in the fence. I get in there and get a ticket to Andong—wonderful. Wait, what? It leaves NOW? But the online schedule—aw, whatever.

That was the first time in Korea I’ve been told to buckle my seatbelt. FIRST TIME. I was shocked, Koreans don’t wear seatbelts. None of the Koreans I’ve gotten in the car with have ever worn a seatbelt. Wow. I felt sufficiently reverse culture shocked. I put on the seatbelt and pulled out the dog and watched the country side as the sun came up.

I roll in Andong and called my friend. Which, I knew, was going to suck for her because she’d be out the night (morning) before. But she was awake and I caught a taxi to E-Mart. We hung out and chatted and had coffee then hung out with some of the other foreigners from Orientation (who I, surprisingly, remembered most of) and celebrated one of the guys birthday with a fantastic chocolate bear cake.

I also took the dog to the vet… in E-mart. The vet was in Korea’s version of Wal-Mart (how I pray the real Wal-Mart doesn’t get any bright ideas). People could take their dogs there to be groomed/vetted while they went shopping. I explained to the vet that she was sick and asked if he could look at her hoping for some antibiotics. He immediately ushered me in and had me fill out paperwork and proceeded to give her a full examination.

For about $150.00 the dog had the following done: x-rays, a full blood panel, a heart worm test, an examination, two kinds of anti-biotics, and some prescription food without an appointment. For those of you who have pets back home, you’re probably going DAMN. If I had that done back home it would’ve easily been 2-3x the cost and twice as long (the vet did the blood panel and the heart worm test in 10 minutes BTW—10 minutes, not 10 days). He carefully explained the blood panel results and the x-rays and what care was required… in English! Well, medical English, but after the years of Dr. Brown, Dr. Execline, Dr. Organek, and Dr. Brewer, I understood perfectly what cretin levels were.

Good news is the dog is heartworm negative, has great kidney function, and is actually pretty young. The bad news was that she was so nutrient deficient from a poor diet she had no muscle/fat left, her teeth were rotten, and she had a resp. infection. He was very concerned she came from a shelter and about the stress and the cold.

Of course, I missed my train home. No biggie; I just hung out in Andong for a few more hours.

Finally went to catch the next train home and the taxi driver couldn’t understand bus station or train station. I tried to use the phone dictionary with questionable success. So my friend had her Korean friend call and give him directions. Great, fantastic. I distinctly remember shutting my phone and putting it in my pocket. Guess what wasn’t in my pocket after wrestling two bags and a dog carrier out of the cab?

Better the phone than the wallet or camera.

We know the phone has been found because someone tried to call my friend from it. I had my co-teacher call and she had her friend text but no one replied. My co-teacher is going to call the Andong train station lost and found in case he turned it in there. If not… I hated that phone anyway. I just hate to shell out for another one after paying a ton of money earlier in the week due to the Korean company and my logical Western mind having a miscommunication. Which ended in me paying for another person’s cancellation fee, paying for my own start up fee, and paying for a new SIM card.

But due to this excursion (when I learned the quiet, sweet, tiny nurse LOVES Linkin Park—I may never stop laughing), I learned Korean phone companies keep records of your phone’s information. So when you get a new SIM card, you pull in a couple of numbers (passcode against theft), and wallah, all your information is on your new SIM card. So, aside from the hassle and cost, getting a new phone isn’t the end of the world. I will even get all my missed texts back.

I got home to Dogye (after spending hours on the train with the dog in my lap and nary a word said about it) I got in a cab and directed him home. This is only the second time I’ve had problems with directing a cab to Samdomart. Sam-do-Martu is not hard to understand. I fumbled around and said Heung Jeon and he seemed to get it. Thankfully the dog didn’t bark in this cab—she barked in all the others.

That was my wonderful week.

This week did not start out too fantastic. I was hungover from being so sleep deprived and from the hours of being stationary on the bus/train. I dragged myself into school with no major incidents on Monday.

Tuesday, however, I still feel crappy. Which was remedied by going through the tail end of the book with Grade 4 and play Simon Says. Then I loosed Grade 3, 4 with a pair of balloon and the simple instructions of “hit & say English word” and “don’t let it touch the ground.” It got a little out of control, but I heard the most English ever since I’ve been here. And the game is deceptive… it’s not as easy as it sounds. Grade 5 tried to pull their ‘come early, leave early’ routine again without success. I had my co-teacher warn them that it wouldn’t. Tried out some flash games that were either too easy or too hard but worked perfectly with the Monsters (Grade 4).

Then I get a bomb dropped on me. I don’t get to deskwarm.

All that time I allotted to lesson plan for the next year? Poof. All the time I was planning to use to learn some Korean? Gone. All the time I was going to use to find places in Gangwon to visit? Pfft, right.

And to make matters better & worse, I’m going from teaching 12 solo classes to two groups of students 4 days a week to teaching 15 solo classes to one big group of students 5 days a week. Way to effectively double my workload in one fell swoop. So essentially, I’m teaching two extra weeks of winter camp without extra pay or a co-teacher. Sweet, just what I always wanted to do… not. Especially RIGHT after winter vacation.

Where is my buffer?!!

The good (or potentially hurricane Katrina disaster sized) result is my Grade 1 (the Beastilances—pestilence+beasts because they’re too big and ill behaved to be grasshoppers) and Grade 2 (the Cherubs) are going to be thrown together. It could go one of two ways. Grade 1 could learn how to behave from Grade 2 (possible). Or Grade 1 could corrupt Grade 2 so completely that they lose favourite status to the Monsters (Grade 4). I’m not a gambler, but if this works… it could possibly be the best idea EVER. If I could get the Beastilances under control… I think I’m swooning at the possibility.

Further good, I can try some TBL and TRL techniques on them and see how well they work. Maybe with house vocabulary and illness or something. Make a medical chart with crazy, made- up illnesses and cures.

The only thing that I’m having issues with is the gas heaters. They scare the ever-loving beejeebees out of me. I won’t touch them. Especially after the kids told me if I turn them off wrong they explode. KABOOM. But my co-teacher loves to have hers on high (too hot for me when I’m teaching) and I always forget to remind her to turn it off when she leaves. So usually I end up trotting down the hall and grabbing the new Grade 6 teacher to fix it.

Come to Korea. You’ll learn to master English in its most basic form: “Come. Grade 4. Heater.” Which really means, “For the love of all things sugar and spice, please come and deal with this scary piece of medieval machinery for me.” And “Friday. 24. Me won you. Cable.” Which really means, “I’ll pay you on Friday when I get my paycheck for the cable bill—I haven’t forgotten it, I promise. I’ll also give you my electric bill too.” “Me. Box. Home. Dinner Samcheok. Now?” Translation: “Can I take my package home now before we go to dinner in Samcheok? But really I want to go home to turn on the heater for the dog because its going to get cold and who knows when we’ll return from our drunken exploits.” Add hand motions and facial expressions as needed.

Dinner was nice. Once I was trapped in the car with the science teacher (who has no interest in English) and two of the admin guys, the questions began. I went through the “No boyfriend? Korean man?” routine again. It never ceases to amaze me that they completely ignore me at school but are really so eager to talk to me. Must be a PITA to be inhibited like that.

Dinner was, um, sashimi… raw squid… it was chewing and kinda tasteless. And I broke the golden rule of eating with Koreans… WATCH the Koreans to see what crazy mixture concoctions they throw together before you try ingredients… chopped raw onions are not tasty nor a side. My co-teacher wasn’t there (why oh why didn’t she tell me a) it was going to be raw fish when she knows I don’t care for fish and b) she wasn’t going to be there!!) and so I hung out with some of the other teachers who I’m on friendly terms with. Dinner was good, and in typical fashion, the fish of doom was whipped out in soup form. Spicy hot kill you soup form! And I told them it was going to be too spicy… then ate a bite anyway. Yeah, I think I killed off 1/3 of my tastebuds. The women were highly amused… then proceeded to give me gum to make up for it.

Then we went noraebonging… I tried to wiggle out of it, and almost succeeded, but it was fail when the principal and VP were shoved in our car so drunk they were swaying. But that was fun too. I like the singing room even if English songs really aren’t made to be sung like that. I did Lady Gaga and The Eagles. Eventually I went out to surface for air and was joined by some of the guys.

The school accountant basically summed up the Korean drinking culture in a few words: “Sorry, drunk. Tomorrow forget.”

I don’t understand why Korea is so harsh on “drugs” but encourages going out and drinking yourself stupid with your co-workers on a school night. We won’t even mention the smoking… Apparently soju and cigarettes aren’t actually drugs here.

But I learned the new 6^th grade teacher (who’s arrival we were celebrating) actually speaks English, is interested in speaking English, and wants to be an English teacher. WOW. And he had to be tipsy to approach me after a week of not a word. He told me “when I left dogye I thought my skills were high and my pride was high, but after army *tsking noise* my skills low, my pride low.”

A bit of explanation on this: Koreans have mandatory army service. All young men have to serve a two year conscription. Makes sense in a small country. Actually, for some American young men it would be a good idea too… but I’m sure he’s glad that he was released now considering all the flare ups happening.

There have been limited attempts to speak to me sober… but he’s really nice and I think when I’m a little less tired and stressed out I’ll hunt him down and make it easier for him.

Really, there’s an English speaker who is starving for conversation in front of you… why aren’t you taking advantage of that like Eun Hee? (not saying she’s just using me for my mad English skillz but y’know)

I told Maggie about the wonderful “winter school” idea and she looked pretty horrified. I think I’m screwed on this one. But now she gets it… and I think she realizes that I’m not being lazy or shy when I have no interest in fighting her for control of a class she can teach better than I could with my limited experience and with a teaching style that is completely incompatible with mine.

Friday was the end of the semester, so we all had ham bone soup. It was okay; I like the chicken ginger soup better. But I said the soup stock was too spicy for me… the stock! That was misinterpreted into the soup was too spicy… so the admin suggested I take a bowl of water and “wash” my radishes/meat/greens. It was sweet.

And I had no classes! Yay. I was going to send the kids home early anyway.

So I went down to the 5 day market and creeped myself out in the fish stalls. You should kill your food, not cut it up and throw it in a bucket where it is still trying to escape (sans organs!). I bought a hat to replace my ugly daiso hat and some more fish cakes (mmm).

I also froze my fingers solid through two pairs of gloves and the pockets of my coat. I was swearing and howling when they unthawed. It hurt quite a bit. Amazingly, my face and thighs weren’t numb… just my hands.

I also ran over the nurse in my haste to get back in my apartment. She wanted to know if I wanted to go buy a new phone to replace my lost one. I need to learn her name.

Saturday and Sunday was spent hanging out at the church. Rather fun, even the random, surprise duet of ‘Silent Night’ thrust upon me. I tried to use the excuse the Koreans always use with me… “but I’m too shy…” somehow it didn’t work for me.

"Please stop grooming me!" (this dog is a rag doll... yes, she sleeps like that)

Daegu Park

Downtown Daegu

It has cat ears... and no, that doesn't make sense...

See the octupi being gutted and trying to crawl away? Gross. It was really, really gross.

Dogye says Merry Christmas!

Despite the shrunken head groom job, she is kinda cute.

The next week-- 7? Have I really been here that long?

I’m getting lazy. Or busy. Not sure which. Or maybe the days have gotten so comfortable, they are blurring together.

This week was finals at my school, so I only taught 1/3 of my usual classes. Which was good and bad. Good because I used the free time to work on my Winter Camp (wait… no classes… but more work? That’s good?). I also used the free time to finish my 20 hours training course for EPIK (the memory is killing me as I type—moving on while I still have a little soul left…). Three straight days later I completed my course, wrote up 10 lesson plans, made a materials list, did several power points, rip several songs and videos, and make some worksheets. I impressed the crap out of my co-teacher.

Mostly because she came in to find me in the completely deserted office happily toiling away (I say happily because the office was SILENT!—no VP making weird smacking noises or Music teacher snapping her gum). She also amazed that I can use powerpoint (my power points would look more fantastic if I could read Korean for animations and hyperlinks).

Obviously it’s my super-amazing levels of concentration I thought had died a slow, agonized death at the forced ADHD multi-tasking uselessness of retail. It revives! Like a zombie…

One of my “lessons” for camp is making gingerbread houses. Finding the materials was a trip and a half. I think I finally got it all nailed down. Korea doesn’t have graham crackers. And I am supposed to be getting powdered sugar, but I’m not sure they understood “POWDERED” sugar verses white sugar. We’ll see. If not, we can always use glue. Lame and the kids can’t eat it but ya know. If that’s how the Lotte Coconut Butter Biscuit crumbles…

But the funny part is I bought a box of crackers to test-build a house. But, of course, I forgot the cardinal rule of food in the Korean office. If its laying out, it’s a free for all. I set it out on a plate to build it and the next thing I know someone’s swiped two crackers. And I couldn’t explain why I needed them and that they weren’t for eating. So I put the sacrificial crackers out and grabbed a different bag for my house. It was a revolving door of co-workers who came in to snag a cracker or two. I also gave a cracker to Miss Chatterbox and another girl. Now to get rid of the other 4 packages… shouldn’t be too hard.

The kids also tried to dupe me. Grade 5 kids came into Grade 3/4’s class and sat down. I went WTF? But kept teaching. Class ended and I dismissed 3/4 and looked at Grade 5. They spent the next 20 minutes trying to explain to me why I should let them go home early. We used an online translator (which seemed to fascinate them) and when I asked if it was okay with a Korean teacher I got guilty looks. UH-HUH, yup. But when Mrs. Chae returned and I asked her, she replied I was the teacher, so it was my decision. I said good-bye! They did an hour of English and really did have exams to study for. I hope they don’t consider trying it again though because they think I was being too easy. Next time I’ll make them do both hours and they won’t like it.

In any case, all I’ll be doing for the next two weeks of after school is Fantasia. No English, colorful, and it has music. The kids aren’t going to be good for anything else, since exams are done. I’m just going to show the movie and ask the usual questions “how many” and “what color” and “what are they doing?” I may incorporate a game into it somehow, but maybe not. Grade 1 & 2 will continue on with phonics and flashcards because they don’t have the attention spans for 40 minutes of movie.

And at some point during this week I was hit on by a (possibly drunk) Korean man. I played the dumb foreigner who doesn't understand Korean card when he asked where I lived. I think he was kinda put off by the fact that the local stray cat ran up to me and started rubbing against my legs. Koreans aren't a big fan of cats. I don't know why this cat "Navi" whom I have named "Arthur" (and no, that is not a Catalia reference) is so friendly, but I feed him jerky and the Koreans feed him random things. He's so skinny though. I'd like to bring him inside during the night but I have no idea how. Its just so cold outside for a half-dead cat.

The most exciting part of my week was the acquisition of a beautifully terrible and intimidating Korean oven. Koreans don’t use ovens to cook. They use stoves and school heaters. The oven is all in Korean, the instructions are in Korean, and the cookbook that came with it is in Korean. However, the oven mitt is not in Korean, so I can use it without fear of mistranslation.

I still can’t believe my school bought it for me! I asked for a toaster oven to bake potatoes in!!

Then I ran around like some demented housewife looking for baking supplies in Korea. Easier said than done… especially when I got distracted in Home Plus by the pencil fish… and the dollar section. And I had to buy some more $10 cheese. Somehow I always come out with more than I intended. I’m sure TESCO is very pleased, like the evil British corporate empire they are.

I really need to sit down and hash out a budget. Having all this money makes living within my means ridiculously easy, but I need to start paying off those debts. The cheese may become limited in the near future… I still think with all my generous spending that I’m still living off less than $500 (even after bills, travel, clothes, and food). I could probably live off of $300 if I ate only Korean food and didn’t travel.

The muffins actually turned out pretty good. I used Korean guinea pigs to test them before taking them to school with me tomorrow. The first batch of banana nut muffins came out square (I know, round muffin tin, square muffins, I don’t have an explanation) and burnt on the top. The second batch came out a little flat but perfect. The pumpkin muffins were an experiment because I had to make the “pumpkin puree” which was really acorn squash puree. They came out really good but “oozed” out of the top, so they look demented. This was all complicated by the fact that my measuring “cups” were not cups but grams and ounces. Yes for the fact that Americans use completely different measuring systems than the rest of the world. I love trying to convert cups to grams in my head! Lots of guestimating here.

I also invited Eun Hee over to help me with the oven which turned into a sleep over. Which might have gone better if I had the heat on (I was gone all day) and could get my comforter dried out. Bad, BAD idea to wash it—no matter how badly it stank. It overloaded the tiny washer and wouldn’t drain. So I had to haul it out (it weighed more than I do) and drape it over the edge to drain the water. I left it overnight, so when I retrieved it the next day it was an icicle. I took the ice-sheet into the bathroom to thaw. It is now spread across the bathroom (the bathroom is smaller than my bed!) drying.

I need to cut back on the church. I’m glad to be included and invited, but I remember why it’s not my scene. Even less so since it’s all in Korean. I enjoy the singing (YES for sight reading!) and I think I’m being used as a distraction for Eun Hee (I’m sure she’s heard her father’s sermons a billion times and needs something to keep her occupied—random subject-verb agreement discussions on paper seem to do the trick). It’s lovely, I enjoy eating lunch and listening to the music and the sermon, but I don’t want to spend hours and hours at church either. 

Next weekend I’ll be out of town anyway. I’m going down to Daegu (uggh, 4 hour trip—I dislike being in the middle of nowhere—I mean Gangwon) to visit an animal shelter. I want to talk to one of the coordinators and meet the animals and check out the shelter. I have told them I’m interested in a dog, but I cannot do anything until after winter vacation (kinda stupid to get a dog for three weeks then have to board it for two weeks). We’ll see. Somehow I imagined my next dog would be… bigger. Not a maltese or mini poodle or yorkie… I was thinking a cockalier or king Charles spaniel. That’s just not practical though, since I don’t own a car or a large apartment.

And on a side note, I am breaking out like crazy. I think it’s the meat. I never had this problem before. And I’m really bad about scratching/popping them too. Maybe that’s why the Korean women cake on the foundation? I suspect this is why they become the dreaded ajummas though. They don’t seem to age gracefully at all. And my skin is drying out like crazy despite the lotion.

My translated "instructions" for the dial-- using it is a little more complicated but I figured it out faster than Eun Hee who was actually reading the manual

I keep meaning to take a picture of one of these. Think ice cream truck that sells veggies, fruits, garlic, tofu, and eggs... and announces its presence with a loudspeaker instead of music.