Monday, March 23, 2009

Falling short of world domination

[Areca from yesterday's dyeing.] Last week in Korean class, I learned that the word for the skill of handling water (in reference to making paper) is the same as the word for oyster diving. My tutor wanted to make sure that I didn't end up in a situation where I talked about how good I am at oyster diving. Though being able to do that would rank pretty high on the list of amazing skills to have as a woman, I'm okay with only being able to make paper. In the end, they both help feed you, one more directly than the other. Today we did more practice tests and my tutor gave me copies of her new book. I'm quoted in the backs of two of them.

I was recently alerted to my lifelong lack of a trench coat, so I called Chunhwa for another shopping spree. She takes no prisoners, and I came home with a champagne-colored coat and all sorts of other things. This means that I again whiled away precious time that I could have spent studying Korean or weaving my chamber pot or preparing my Fulbright presentations or or or or. But a girl can only handle so much hanging out in a pressure cooker; girlfriend time is vital. ALSO, thru correspondence with Nikki, I've realized a tragic error in my efforts to document: I have a glaring lack of photos of myself. I prefer not to have them b/c they involve 1. a tripod, 2. excellent self-timer skills, or 3. asking people constantly to take pictures of me. As a result, I have ZERO good shots of myself actually pulling hanji. This is slightly problematic. But thank goodness I figured it out before it's too late - I still have time to schedule more shoots. As soon as I finish making flash cards ....

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