TASTE BUD EXPLOSION

There are literally not words for the awesomeness that happened in my mouth Friday night. My friend Katie spent all of the afternoon preparing a vegetarian feast that was delicious, scrumptious, salivating.

It is a luxury to eat food like this. It's not that the ingredients are not available, but it can take multiple hours store-hoping to find all that is necessary. Then there is the price tag to consider AND the preparation. The four of us girls sat around the table and did not quit saying "OH. MY. GOSH." for an hour straight. With every bite, I closed my eyes and took in the tastes, the flavor. It was out of this world - ALL OF IT. I haven't eaten pesto or avocado in over two months, and there was not a bite I did not find ravishing.



PHOTO: Katie McAlery

pesto, guacamole, sweet potato peanut soup, raw carrots, raw cucumbers, baguettes, balsamic, red wine, 4 ladies

Just to top it all off, Saturday morning we headed to the Gwangju International Center's Community Day which featured food from roughly 15 countries. Below is a picture from the Thailand booth. NOM NOM NOM.


PHOTO: Gillian Farber




PHOTO: Gillian Farber


In addition to eating mass amounts of food, Halloween was also celebrated this weekend. Friday we had a party at school for the kids. I have been taking pictures with my cell phone, and the quality indoors is significantly average. Forgive me for posting pictures that are dreadfully out of focus. It was my "job" to pose for a picture with every child so I spent a lot of the party sitting down channeling my inner mall Santa as children approached me, some hesitant and some ecstatic, to be sitting so close and staring down the barrel of the camera. Hopefully I can get a hand on those photos too.





Saturday night I went downtown. I really could not be bothered to come up with a costume, so I was a shot in the dark. I wore all black and a shot glass around my neck. However, there are some extremely crafty people in this city.

Below is one of my favorite costumes of the evening, Kim Jong-il, the dictator of North Korea. HILARIOUS.




PHOTO: Gillian Farber

KID QUOTES

A deserted island is dangerous because deserted islands have crocodiles and snacks.

On super powers:
I want transparency powers because me is naughties.

What is a couch potato?
Kid #1: 'That is fat and no exercise and hamburgers."
Kid #2: "THAT IS AMERICA!"

DOS

I just finished applying, reapplying and then DEapplying my trial coat of make-up for Friday's costume party at the academy. There are many moments that remind me that I am a TEACHER, of all things humanly possible, and sitting on the floor in my apartment applying half a stick of eye-liner to my face is definitely on that list.

The anniversary of month two has come and gone. I promised a reflection of sorts, and when reading over an e-mail I recently sent to a friend back home, I found a perfect summation of my thoughts.

At first I was confused why I was here, because where I wanted to be was Europe, or some place that puts equally as much emphasis on voluptuous amounts of pleasure. I wanted to take care of myself, indulge, and let architecture and history engulf and cradle me. But what I've noticed is, Korea has oddly yielded the same results. It's taken away my ability to communicate. It's taken away the convenience of drinkable water, the expectation of sanitation, proper lattes, and overall, the comfort I find in all things familiar. And in that, I've realized that I find an exceptional amount of pleasure in putting water on the stove every morning. And that being unable to communicate has only shown me how fulfilling it is to look at someone straight in the eyes, smile and bow.. knowing I don't have a clue what they are saying, but I thank them for trying, for existing, for being patient with me. I have never appreciated so much a shot of jack daniels (whiskey is hard to come by). And when I found an avocado for $6, I was so excited you'd think I won the lottery.

The cities are full of a plethora of grey, rectangular, concrete buildings that rival any tacky, miami beach condo (tiny balcony after tiny balcony, in all), but once you escape, it's untouched, underdeveloped masterpieces ornamented with temples and bamboo forests. Somehow Europe now feels like too much, excessive, unnecessary. I, of course, don't really feel that way about Europe AT ALL, but... I'm enjoying the simplicity and the process of searching for luxury where it is not so overly available. There was a point where I had definitely eaten more pastries than kimchi, but the latter has definitely made headway over the past few weeks.

Comfort is a little inconvenient so you have to work for it, which I like. Never get complacent.

UPDATE:

I suppose this isn't that odd, considering hiking backpacks are this large.
But WOW.

TOUCHE

Three days a week I teach a private lesson with an exceptionally bright 10 year old boy who pretty much speaks fluent English. Every day I assign him seven vocabulary words that have included luminous, magnificent and exacerbate.

Today I made him read me a paragraph about the difference between facts and opinions and after he was finished he told me that "even a baby knows the difference between facts and opinions." DUH, TEACHER.

This morning he had his "Big Test" at school, a test that I'm assuming is very weighted by the chorus of, "UHHH. TEACHER! BIG TEST TOMORROW. MANY HOMEWORKS! MY MOM! UGH! TEACHER!" that I hear from my other kids. He informed me that he was tired today because he stayed up until 1am last night studying.. and then was up at 5am to study some more. YES. THAT'S RIGHT.

"Well, how do you think you did?"
"I don't know."
"I bet you did pretty well. You're really smart."
"I don't know. We'll see."
"You don't believe me? I think you work hard, study hard and that you're really smart."
"... teacher, is that a fact or an opinion?"

And then he ran out the door.

NONSENSE FACTS

Just to confirm a stereotype:
Chances are, it comes in Hello Kitty.

WEEK END

One of the coolest things about Gwangju is that it's geography contradicts itself. One moment you're in the city and the next you're in the mountains.
Mt. Mudeung is a 15 minute bus ride from downtown and in fact, I heard a rumor today that it used to hold the record for being the tallest mountain such a short distance from a city of over 1 million people. I have not found the information to confirm this claim, but regardless, it is unusually close to the city.

With it's tallest peak at 1,187 meters (3,894 feet), climbing to the top is a multi-hour adventure and my co-hiker and I did not get started until about four the in the afternoon. We hiked one of the shorter trails and stopped when we got to a gargoyle spouting fresh mountain water from it's mouth. We filled up our water bottles, ate some almonds, and headed back down.

This morning I found myself out the door by 7:30 to catch a bus to the Gwangju World Cup Stadium to run my first organized 5k. I have been running pretty regularly with the Gwangju Running Club, a group of mostly foreigners and a few Korean's who meet Sunday afternoons to run, eat and be merry. The race this morning supported breast cancer and like in The States, everyone was dressed in pink. Following, I went downtown to do a bit of shopping and watch the South Africa versus Australia rugby game. Rugby is INTENSE, man.

OH, & ON FRIDAY I GOT MY FIRST PAYCHECK SINCE MAY. MOMMA NEEDS A NEW PAIR OF SHOES. (OR THE ABSOLUTE PERFECT SWEATER DRESS. DONE!)