This morning versus this afternoon. Here’s just a friendly reminder that outsourcing our manufacturing for bare bones cost and quick turnaround time to a place “far far away” still has environmental consequences, even if we can’t see (or smell) them.

As you know, the beginning of this class was a hot mess for me. Now it’s been 6 weeks and I’d like to humbly say I have turned it all around. I knew things had really changed when one of the studious Chinese asked ME a question. 70% is passing and not all my classmates are right now, even though they studied like crazy for our midterm. The teacher asked me if I studied a lot for these tests. I said “I didn’t study at all. But I DID hang out with Korean friends.” (You can see my speaking grade is lowest: “your pronunciation and conversation are great but your…

I loooove my southeast Asian classmates. The four of us share level 1 korean and about 100 words of English but we get along just fine. My Thai friend, daily lunch partner, and as of tomorrow shopping teammate, told me today “my husband says ‘Abigail this, Abigail that, don’t you have any other friends?’” We’ll both be in Korea by the time she has her baby (currently 5 weeks) so we’ve already planned a little party. My crew ♥️

I could tell you about a lot of little adventures today but I’m most proud of this: After coming down from Acha Mountain over in Guri I passed by a produce stand, flanked by two men, one of whom was calling out deals of the day. He caught my attention with 1000 won blueberries. I was in a hat crouched over some plums when the younger fruit man approached and started talking to me in Korean. I looked up from under the brim of my hat and I swear to you this was the most movie moment of my entire life: There was a very long pause as younger fruit…

Having done little except rewrite an essay and go to the gym, I decided a treat was in order. The kind dumpling lady chatted at me in Korean “where are you from? Are you a student?” And a bunch of colloquialisms I didn’t understand. She saw that I hadn’t made it to dumpling four: “ah yes these are big, I know you’re full, I’ll pack it for you”. She dropped a note in the bag to say how I should reheat the leftovers. I didn’t have the heart (or vocabulary) to tell her I don’t have a kitchen but I appreciate her nonetheless! She has been added to the list…

Throughout class our two teachers have referred to themselves as “여자선생님” (female teacher) and “남자선생님” (male teacher). Today 남자선생님 asked us what his real name is.Me: “uh… 남자선생님” The whole class had a good laugh. I still don’t remember what his actual name is. Last week my Thai comrade and I asked how to say “shave your armpits” and “pee/poo” because flustering him is amusing and I’m also twelve.

Today was yet another case of aiming for a certain destination and never arriving for having found something better. Hyundai outlets, kids in fun bobble chairs, duty free super mall, watermelon juice, an alley full of children’s toys, a public lingerie measuring (and now I know my Korean bra size, very useful). The day ended with my fried chicken friend who gave me a free Pepsi with my order. “서비스”, he said, which is my favorite word. You know I love a deal.

Seoul is really like the Room of Requirement. It doesn’t always give you what you want, but it will give you exactly what you need if you walk by in confusion enough times. I’ve been having a rough day and took a break to get iced coffee and wander for a few minutes before teaching. For the first time I went up the hill in my neighborhood and right around the corner is, I kid you not, a florist slash coffee shop. This is probably the sixth or seventh coffee shop on my block and I’ve added it to the ever expanding list of places to try.