안영! I just taught my computer to type in Korean. I’m so excited. Despite the fact that I didn’t do ANY of my planned activites, it’s been a good day.

It was bright and sunny, so I hopped on my bike to go shopping…but the breeze was deceptively cold – I should have worn a jacket. In November, go figure. So instead of going shopping, I stopped at a favourite restaurant instead…how was I to know that it’s not possible to order just one serving of BBQ??? So there I was all by myself cooking up TWO servings of pork on the coals….plus I got two servings of all the side dishes. Two servings of marinated spinach. Two servings of kimchi. Two servings of acorn jelly. Two servings of spicy jellyfish. Good thing I was hungry………

Now I’m heading out for a walk before the sun goes down. There’s a great little shop nearby that serves the BEST chocolates. Chocolates with a strange magnetic pull….a pull that draws me from my livingroom….must….resist…..can’t hold out….mmmm….chocolates……

I’ve found a new webpage that’s always good for a laugh…especially for anyone who’s lived in Asia. It’s http://www.engrish.com …it’s a lot of pictures of humourous misuses of the English Language. Most of them are from Japan – but you’re just as likely to see similar errors in China or Korea.

In pottery today I made a mug! After months of nameless shapes, I’ve finally made something I recognize!!! Hooray!!! I’m not saying the other stuff isn’t pretty, or doesn’t serve a function – I’m just saying I’m not 100% sure what they are. But today…oh yes, today. The breakthrough. The crowning achievement. The mug. There was some concern though – it spent part of the afternoon looking remarkably like a bowl. A little more squishing and pinching helped, but it was really the addition of the handle that helped define it’s role in this world. (Let’s hope it makes its way out of the kiln safely)…..

My friend Ken has a new job at a ‘pissbong’ … translated as PS (Playstation) Bong (room). We go to visit him every so often….and wind up staying for an hour or two or three as we try to improve our gaming skills. I’m still at the ‘you suck’ level, but hope to work my way up to ‘hopeless cause’ by the end of the month.

My favourite innocent cusser is moving to Seoul next week, so I won’t have him in my classes anymore. Sad. His lisp, combined with his accent made me smile. Every Monday, in respose to my query “What did you do this weekend?” he replies “I played f**ker wif my friends” when really, he means soccer.

Speaking of innocent cussers, I taught my l’il kids the song “Shoo Fly, don’t bother me” … and some of my really wee ones have trouble pronouncing lots of syllables at once. So their adorable rendition came out sounding like “Shoo Fly, don’t f**k with me”. Which, considering the size of the local insect population, I think a harder line with the buzzers might just be in order!