It was another busy weekend in Korea’s capital…
+ Daenamulsul!
+ Drunk Nika
+ Successful navigation to Namseong
- Hiking in the rain, twice!
+ Kimbap lunch on Friday
+ Finishing a good book (The History of Love—one of my new favorites)
- The emotional aftermath of reading The History of Love: I cried buckets on the bus, and I really couldn’t let go of the sadness and despair it inspired (until I drank enough…see #1)
+ Cheese at Susie’s house
+ New Converse sneakers (a purchase I’ve been contemplating since last winter and finally broke down to buy when Nika told me she wanted to get some, too)
+ Coming out $7 ahead on the Converse purchase by using my gift certificates (a leftover from my days of teaching the SK guys)
+ Piercing my tragus (again, something I’ve been contemplating for four years now, but never got around to actually doing)
+ $11 piercings
+ Wandering Hongdae on a sober Saturday night
+ Wandering Hongdae on a drunk Friday night (“Fridays are tight but Saturdays just make it old”)
+ Making Korean friends at Ho Bar (Hee Jin, who STILL hasn’t called me…)
+ $2.50 cocktails at Ho Bar
+ Giving out my 200 business cards as quickly as possible, and to as many random people as possible
+ Giving my business card to the guy I danced with at Harlem…a true romantic gesture on my part
- Not yet receiving a call from any of the recipients of my cards
+ Being escorted home by my dancing partner—contrary to what I’ve long thought, chivalry is not dead. It just moved to Korea!
- Chasing after my dancing partner, half an hour after he left, on a rainy deserted street
- Rainy nights
+ The beauty of Gapyeong, the location of the jazz festival we attended
- The lame music that played while we were there (evidently, night was the time to come…who knew? Last weekend, the festival DIED past six…)
+ Free pajeon, ddok, and patpingsu, as part of an advertisement for milk products
+ The cute, though midget-like, egg seller
+ Polaroid pictures
+ Atmospheric ssam bap restaurants
- The absence of mushrooms
+ Hiking Bukhansan
- Hiking Bukhansan in the rain
+ Beer and kimbap with Bu Gil at the top (my new hiking buddy from last weekend)
- Being uncertain as to middle-aged Bu Gil’s intentions—why does he want to hike with me so much, to the point of trying to make plans to hike around Jirisan on the other end of the country next month? What was with him saying “You….me….to be intimate?”
+ Telling him yes to the question “You…..Nika….to be intimate?” I hope he thinks I’m a lesbian now.
+ Post-hiking makkoli and kimchijeon
- Various sea-dwelling creatures in my kimchijeon
+ Seeing Janaki for the first time in a month
- Realizing I won’t see her again for possibly another month
+ Catching the last bus to Buyeo
- Getting home at 9:30, covered in rain
+ Being towel-dried by host mom
+ Listening to rain pelt down on the roof
+ Cheap silver earrings
+ My new traditional liquor ceramicware
+ Waking up to a brilliant blue sky and the beginning of what I remember as Korean fall
+ Four more days and 16 more classes until Taiwan
+ I am a quarter of the way through the semester
- The teenage angst that has erupted across my face, courtesy of quitting bc. Why does going natural have to have such dire consequences?
+ Gifts of food from students—my fifth-grade girls can always be counted on for candy and lately, chestnuts
+ Chestnuts from random Korean girls sitting beside me on the bus
+ Being a pillow for two random Koreans on two consecutive modes of transportation: the subway and then the Buyeo bus. They must have been tired—I’m sure they wouldn’t have leaned on the foreigner otherwise!
+ Being crushed between two men, Night-at-the-Roxbury-style, on a crowded bus of hikers
- Nika’s early departure—what’s so pressing at home?
+ Finishing all my lesson plans for the next three weeks in two hours this afternoon. Man, I love my new teaching system!
+ Feeling competent in Korean…when sober
- Not being able to find my own way home after clubbin
- Telling my dancing partner, over and over, that I am an idiot instead of figuring out the way back to Susie’s
+ Eun Ho washing grapes to give to me after a long day at school
+ Rockin at online yoga
- Lingering lower back pain…it’s been six months now!
+ Operational internet in my classroom
Yeah, the pluses far outweigh the minuses. Living in Korea rocks.