What really matters

It took a while, but I have figured out that a sweet disposition trumps impeccable grammar. Especially since I can't be one to be judgmental about grammar since mine is good but not outrageously fantastic. I drew this on Monday at Table while Michael and his colleagues were hashing out business. I couldn't stay engaged, and was unable to focus on my Korean homework, so I played w/his fancy markers instead. At one point, one of the women was like, "what are you doing??" I thought it was pretty obvious what I was doing, so I didn't have a verbal response for her.

Today was hard; I had no desire to get out of bed, which is uncharacteristic of me. I even dragged my computer to my bed to start my day and only rolled out b/c I got an email that told me not to get suckered into thinking that spring malaise in Korea is a good excuse to spend the next three months in bed. Funny thing is that my hanji teacher and I separately made the same excuse today to our jiseung teacher! We're like flip sides of the same student. We're not the best students, but at least we're fun.

Today was grueling: 8 hours of class, but the lid is ALMOST done. I go back on Friday to finish it (more like, to watch my teacher finish it). His wife was away, so I got comic relief by listening to my teachers in the kitchen fight over how many noodles to put into the pot and how to make dinner. In that sense, I'm thankful that I'm useless in Korean kitchens, so that I could just stay on the floor and weave while the men were lost w/o a woman to cook.

I've been having interesting conversations lately with people who have known me for a little while now in Korea, and they've been impressed by how well I've adjusted and how much better my language skills have gotten (they always like to recount how much they had to dumb down for me when we first met). They're also always impressed by how well I take to Korean food. Which is kind of weird to me, since I've had mainly Korean food for my whole lifetime. But it does make me sad to think that when I leave, it won't be as easy to get. What IS nice, though: realizing that I am more and more at home here. That makes me happy.