A Wonderful End to January

The last while has been hard because I've been on the outs with my friends. I was worried about having class with one of them this morning, what with being given the silent treatment for an unknown malfeasance, but that obstacle was removed from my path thanks to the $1 guaranteed hangover: Soju.

It gave me the freedom to enjoy my caramel macchiato (first one since October, and deeeeeelicious), and to get to know the girl next to me, Tammy. I helped her practice pronouncing the alphabet, and we worked together on the conversation drills (what's your name? I'm blahblahblah, and I'm an American. I'm a Canadian. etc.) During break time I found a really cool bike where someone had taken 2 bikes and put them together in 1 machine, and I dragged her away from practicing to see it.

I got up the courage to ask if we could do lunch together (not as a date type of thing but as a, I'm really shy and incredibly insecure, but do you want to consume food while talking sort of thing), and not only did she come, but she added two others, Luke and Steve. I had kind of noticed Luke from afar and was pleasantly surprised by the addition. Of all the places in all of Korea, though, they wanted to eat at Burger King, so to BK we went. Luke and Steve work at a school with a really good reputation, but they also have to work six days a week, from 3:45 to 10:30. Ouch. Tammy's schedule is 5 days a week, and from 12-8 or 1-9 depending on whether there are special classes or not; she is the only foreign teacher there, and they only have squatting toilets. It really makes my M-F, 10-6 look good, and I plan on remembering how fortunate I am when I have to work February 28th, a Saturday, and miss my last Korean lesson for this session.

One cool thing is that Tammy knew them from church! They go to a service at 2 p.m. on Sundays; they all get to work the subway, so I have to find someone to help me figure out the bus, but I'm definitely interested in seeing what it's like. I'm also interested in expanding my social circle, of course!

After lunch, we went shopping which really entailed a lot of laughing and enjoying another person's company. We talked to two strangers (shoe salesman and a professor), played a crazy fish-candy game, pawed through jewelry, and used the tester make up at a face shop before taking a Valentine's Day picture of her in front of a big red love sign to send to her boyfriend off in England.

It was a genuine adventure with lots of pictures. If you haven't already, go to http://katefiftytwo.blogspot.com; it's not updated every day, per se, but crazy doesn't happen every day.