Hi I have a few moments during nap time so thought I would get some thoughts down here.
Our landlady is the sweetest person. She and her son have been visiting with us. The other day I was trudging up the hill pushing Olive's stroller and she just came and took over. Just moved me out of the way and pushed Olive up the hill. Then she dealt with putting the stroller away while I carried sleepy Olive upstairs. It was like an angel had arrived. Later she and her son came up and played with Olive and I for awhile. Olive had fun zooming her push back and then go airplane at them many many times.
Exciting news while they were here they asked if I or John would like to tutor a 5th grade neighbor in English. And so I have my first student - which is perfect. Close to home and should be a profitable and fun job - I hope. It was so nice of them to set it all up for us. It is like having a Korean mama - although from reading some blogs Korean mamas can be a bit pushy and she is not. She is just sweet and taking care of us...
So we have been sleeping on a yo for 2 weeks now and although it is not comfortable it has not led to back aches as I had feared. My back feels fine and I have been sleeping fine too. Miracle of miracles.
This is turning out to be a rambling blog - a bit of stream of consciousness. So I'm going with it.
I have been really missing good chocolate. One of things John and I did on our weekly date nights at home was to share some dark chocolate. We traded off choosing and it was always fun to indulge. During those dates I discovered my love for salty chocolate. Anyway there has not been good chocolate here so far- just crappy candy bars. So last night when John headed out for his nightly bottle of Soju - I asked him to find me some chocolate and he did. Yay! yummy 72% cacao dark chocolate bits. Oh the little things in life.
Netta has recently been watching Good Eats on Youtube and that inspired her to do some cooking for us. It has been really fun - she works quite a bit on presentation and thinks quite a bit about our likes and dislikes. For example for John she made up a nice plate of kimchi. I have taken some photos and will post them in the next post.
Netta has also really enjoyed being able to go to the store by herself here. I think it might have something to do with sugar but it is fun to see her stretching her wings nonetheless. In fact when we are all together sometimes I need to remind her to stay within our sight as she will just take off walking way ahead of us. Seoul is really safe but it feels weird when she is out of our sight.
Sugar and Seoul seem to be connected. There is sugar in everything. It is so hard to find crackers without sugar. I look at the box thinking they are wheat crackers (I can't read the ingredients yet) and they are always more like cookies. The only crackers that boast "sugar free" on the box are saltines. Not my favorite.
I have been trying to cook at home now that our kitchen is set up. It is challenging without things I am used to using at home and with all the new ingredients to try.
We have been enjoying fresh vegetables from the Shichang (market). It seems like it is mostly farmers bringing their wares into town to sell. So I am hoping they are not heavily sprayed although I really don't know for sure. But I am confused because along with their veggies they will have bananas that are obviously not grown around here (they even have del monte stickers on them). So where do they come from? Is everything like the bananas? I wish I could ask. Maybe someday I will be able to.
Which brings me to the subject of studying Korean. John began a class this week but discovered it was too far to go to. We are trying to find classes for both of us closer to home. I really need some help and structure to get me on the ball with learning the language. I am motivated when it is so hard to understand people - but so lazy when I have a few moments to just space out and blog or read.
I have been tearing through books. Anyone sending packages could include novels in English for me. I just read Run by Ann Patchett in about a week. I ordered it from Amazon but the shipping was not cheap even though the book was. It was a good read.
OK now I've guilted myself into stopping this post so that I can post pictures and do some Rosetta Stone Korean lessons.
Miss you all and hope everyone is well.
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