Mid-winter

"Fear is good. In the right degree it prevents us from making fools of ourselves. But in the wrong measure it prevents us from fully living. Fear is our boon companion but never our master." from Molokai  by Alan Brennert.

6 a.m.
I wake up to turn off my electric blanket, which must remain on the entire night since it's too expensive to leave the heater on.
I'm cold within five minutes, freezing again within eight. Despite three blankets and the heater, I turn the electric blanket back on.

8:45 a.m.
I can't believe I have to get up early on a Saturday! Who invented any hour that early on a Saturday, anyway, I want to send them a sternly written letter! I wake up to be ready to open the door for the internet guy, who apparently doesn't sleep, and who shows up bright up and chirpy at my door one hour later.

9:30 a.m
After making a yummy French toast with almond yogurt (Korean almond yogurt is the best!), I decide that I need a couple of mini projects. Today at noon, I'm leaving to go to my Korean language teacher's house (one of the teachers at my school, Gabriela). I decide that what she and her husband really need is a bean soup. Bring the beans to boil with a couple of cloves of garlic and a few dashes of sea salt, add bacon to flavor, and bring to a delicious salty simmer. Simple hearty fare that's good for you and just plain good.

Next, I bring out that quince fruit that's been sitting in my fridge waiting for me to finally prepare it. A couple of weeks ago, I bungled and ruined a good third of the fruit by adding it to the boiling water to make a tea. After Gabriela laughed at me for a minute or so for misunderstanding her instructions, she gave me the correct intructions. Cut up the quince into small pieces, add tons of sugar, and set in a tupperware in the fridge for about a week before adding boiling water to make a quince tea that's worth waiting for. I used brown sugar instead of white sugar, because I feel more artsy and a lot less guilty when I pour a bit more than is good for you all over the sweet-smelling fruit.

12:30 p.m.
By 1pm, I'm at Gabriela's house, bean soup in hand. Actually, double-wrapped in two plastic bags, because I don't have a proper container in which to carry the yummy soup I made.
Gabriela has promised to teach me Korean, and her husband, a youth pastor, has proposed weekly bible studies. Somehow, I always end up meeting really nice couple to hang out with, and Gabby and her husband are terrific, nice people (But I do know an awful lot of nice couples). Anyways, we don't get around to the Korean lesson, because Gabriela is determined that I should get a phone, finally, after five months of not having one. I think the Koreans are more nervous about the fact that someone could go without phone in hand for so long, seeing how no one here would ever think of not having one, although I do have to admit that it makes sense to have one for emergency purposes. Still, I hate having to get one.

6 p.m.
Zen
I drop off to sleep for a three-hour nap. I've been so tired lately. I started running 3 miles before going to work, but somehow I don't think that that's the problem. Suzette, a new foreign teacher I just met last week, says that happens to foreigners sometimes, that about mid-way through our year here, we just are exhausted and tired all the time. For me, it feels mentally exhausting more than physical. I barely make it through my dinner at the end of the night before my head hits the pillow and I'm dead to the world. Maybe it's a lack of proper nutrition? I eat the healthy lunch we're served at school and at home, I have nothing but super delicious, fruit-laden salads, but my nails are thin and brittle. Anyways, I wake up refreshed and so glad for winter weekends, not having to talk to anyone if I don't want to, and having some peace and quiet in my own space.
Dinner for two. Only.



Just outside Cafe Bene on a snowy night

Around this time, I decide dinner sounds good, but I'm forced to go for pizza. Not that I don't love pizza. Pizza's great, and we have to support the industry. But in Korea, I eat junk food more often than I want because guess what? In Korea, it's dinner for two. Always. Only. Apparently, it's taboo to eat here by yourself (I guess Koreans don't like the idea of people who might not have friends or family, or just like eating by themselves, and don't like being forced to see it eat alone in their restaurant). In fact, the only places that will serve me a dinner for one are the burger joints. I love Korean galbi, but this is not a place where bringing a book and reading on the outdoor terrace while enjoying your meal is considered a romantic image. Gabriela suggested that I go to the coffeshop, where it's not so weird to sit alonge, and so I can meet someone there to eventually eat with. But even at the coffeshop, I get looks, and I don't think that it's just because I'm foreign. Plus, only couples go to the coffeshops!