Christmas lights

On New Year's Eve, there's much advice about cleaning one's house both literally and figuratively. So I spent the day cleaning, with frequent computer breaks. In the negotiations over rent, the last thing I remember is agreeing to accept $50 less if they do yardwork. I haven't heard anything since.
At 6:15 we left to deliver Michele to Tina's house to babysit. She got paid good money to sit and watch TV and play computer games. We drove Tina and her husband to the Navy Club, then dropped by the library and got a book. We lead such exciting lives! Then Chris suggested that we go get my camera and photograph the lights. I had been kicking myself for forgeting the camera. So it was a welcome suggestion. His next suggestion was to walk back for the camera since traffic was picking up. Ha! We did and it was COLD. The only reason I agree was that I needed some exercise to go with all the goodies I'd been consuming. Shivering burns calories, right? Then while Chris stayed in the car, I walked around photographing lights. I think my camera is better at daytime photos. We also drove to General Sterling's house to photograph their Seoul tower view, but the camera hardly caught any of that. So home we went. Tina's husband lent us "A Christmas Story" so we could see what the leg lamp joke was. We watched that and now that I know the story, it is much funnier.
We went to bed but I couldn't sleep. What with the noise from upstairs and rampaging thoughts, I was awake. About 12:30 am, I took a broom handle and rapped on the ceiling. They got the message and turned the music down. Later Michele called asking for a ride home. I let Chris handle that. Then blessed sleep....

Tenants!

AS usual, I went to the thrift shop to volunteer. We had so many donations, that all we did for three hours was to sort through them, passing all but the very best onto some other charity. When we left, there was a huge pile of garbage bags out back waiting to be picked up. Of course, more were coming in as we worked. We still have a huge pile of saved items to price and hang tomorrow. Sigh.
As Tina was somewhere with her husband, I went home to make a pair of dress pants. The first thing I did however, was to check e-mail. It is strange how I intend to do one simple thing on the computer and end up sitting there for hours. We got an e-mail about a prospective renter for our house. Yea! But they don't want to pay full price. Same old story. I responded to that, and then tried to work on making the pants. I kept getting distracted. Although by the end of the day, all that remained to be done was to handsew the elastic and hem them. I stayed up until midnight waiting to hear back from our realestate agent. In spite of all the consessions I made, they still aren't willing to pay the price. I responded again, and got up at 6 am the next morning to continue the 'discussion'.

Eeny, Meeny, Miney, DINNER

I got up early (I had forgotten what that's like) to make Chris a sandwich before he went to work. After answering e-mail, I packed a box of presents to mail (the last one) and decided to spend a few minutes on a computer game. That lasted longer than I thought. Then it was 11 am and Chris was calling to say he would meet us for lunch at the Katusa snack bar. We agreed, so he picked us up at the walk-in gate and we went to lunch. Michele had the cheese and ramen, I had the jabchai, and Chris had bibimbap. Chris dropped me off at the post office, where I waited in line for 15 minutes to mail the package. Then I walked to Tina's house. She wanted me to take her measurements so she could make clothes. The pattern-making system that she is using requires 20+ different measurements. After that, we decided to walk out gate 17 and look for a kitchen and sundries store that might sell a timer. We found it rather easily and bought a few things, like tape. Then I thought we were going back, but Tina said "Hey, what's over there?" "I don't know". "Well, then, lets check it out." I love the way she thinks. So we wandered about in that direction and others. We saw stores and restaurants, beauty shops and tailors. When she saw the frozen yogurt store, she was delighted, but it was too cold for it. So we wandered in search for a place to eat. When we had sat down, the waitress laid an order ticket on our table for us to fill out. It was all in Korean. Ramen noodles are a safe bet and I was able to make that one out (I know some letters like m,n, and e). So we checked that. Then Tina made some random checks, and we sat back to see what would be served us. We got ramen, a very large noodle on a stick, broth, kim bap (rice wrapped in seaweed), kim chi, and yaki mando (a small filled dumpling). Oh, and dish that looked like cheese manicotti, but the manicotti was made of rice. How they can reduce rice to a paste and shape things out of it is beyond me. Then we were full, but Tina decided that she was now warm enough to have the frozen yogurt. So back we went to the frozen yogurt place. What she ordered came with lots of fresh fruit and was really good, but I couldn't believe that we were eating it in December. Then, frozen inside and out, we went back home. She dropped me off. I got home to find Chris and Michele having dessert and popcorn.

Pictures

Today is not a productive day. I have been reading, which I plan to continue. Chris is at the commissary. I am adding pictures to some of my previous posts (because I use Chris' computer to do it and he's finally not here). So scroll down and check them out. Michele is applying to a college here in Seoul.
Later: I have uploaded 21 photos of my quilts to my Facebook account.
Much later: I uploaded a pic of Chrismas lights taken on Dec 31st.

Hyundai department store

I was a little nervous this morning as I remembered that I had agreed to 'teach' English to two groups of Korean kids at a culture center. All I had to do, so they said, was speak for an hour about winter. Ha! Chris drove me to the subway station where I met my guide. She didn't speak much English and I had a very hard time understanding her even though she had a digital dictionary. When we got to the destination station, I found out that she didn't know where the building was either. So we walked. And it was cold. Very cold. Because I felt I was representing America, I wore a skirt and a nice sweater. So my legs were cold.
When we found the building, it wasn't open for business, so we had to go in the back. Then up to the 10th floor. We were early, so we had some time to sit and admire the view. We found ourselves in a conference room. Then 15 first and second graders came and sat. They wanted to talk about Christmas, so we did. And winter, and snow, and warm clothing, and New Year's Day, Groundhog Day and Valentines Day and St.Patricks Day and anything else I could think of. When I invited questions, they asked how old I was and if I had children. Their English was quite good.
After they left, I was treated to lunch in the employee's cafeteria. There was Lunch A, and lunch B. I couldn't read either menu, but the sign indicated that both lunches had almost 800 calories apiece. I asked for whatever was traditional Korean. What I got was 4 kinds of kimchi, rice, and a soup that was mostly broth. Where did they hide 800 calories in that? One kind of kimchi had little bird eggs in it. After lunch, we stopped by the restroom to wash hands. The hand dryer looked like a microwave because of the hellish red light it put out. But it was just blowing hot air. After that, we went looking at 9 floors and a basement of merchandise. I thought to ask for pickled onions in the grocery section. Tina had been looking for them. But my rendition of spicy backfired. They were showing me RedHots and Altoids, etc. Even with her digital dictionary, it didn't translate.
So back upstairs for the second group. There were 3 4th and 5th graders. I had to cover even more territory to fill the time. When there was 10 minutes left, I asked for questions. One child asked me to tell her American history. In 10 minutes? Turns out I only know 10 minutes of history. I mentioned 1776 when we declared independence, 1864 when Lincoln freed the slaves, 1914 and WWI, 1929 and the Great Depression, and 1941 and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I couldn't think of anything interesting past that so I dismissed them. (Later my daughter suggested 9-11 and I said "Oh, yeah!". No one has ever mistaken me for a history teacher.) When I finished, I was given a jar of pickled onions by the person in charge. Cool.
I thought the day was over, but my guide took me to a cafe on the 9th floor to exchange languages. I had a hard time hearing her words and she was not satisfied until I had pronounced each one correctly. It tired me out quickly, but she kept going. Finally I had to say "Subway, we go home." But on the way back, she kept drilling me on the phrases she'd taught me. And she made an apointment with me to exchange more phrases. I will bring Michele with me then, so she can help me interpret the sounds. When I got back to post, I called Tina and she drove me to her house. We ate a lot of chocolate and talked a good bit. Then she drove me home. I have been on the computer ever since. I think I shall sleep well tonight.
Soom cha da - short of breath
tahm tongue cha - person in charge
il gop she - 7 o'clock
ta zo tie - 5 months
Ha poom ha da - yawn
noon gam ta - close eyes

Day after Christmas

Intending to walk to the thrift shop, I left the apartment all bundled up. But a lady in the elevator offered me a ride to post. Isn't it amazing how things work out? Of course I could use a little walking after all the cookies I've eaten. I worked at the thrift shop for 4 hours and then walked with Gerry to Tina's house. But this time Tina wasn't home. (see pic of Tina and me) And it was too cold to wait, so I walked to the nearest bus stop. I stopped by the Collier gym to use the restroom. I mention this only because I was happy to see I wasn't peeing ice cubes, it was that cold.
I caught the bus back to the gate nearest our apartment. The elevator wasn't working so I got my exercise after all. After having a bite to eat, I cleaned up my sewing room and cut out a pair of pants. I am wearing them as I write, testing the length of elastic, which is good. All they need now is to be hemmed. I must admit they didn't take long to make. I also spent an hour with Michele on math and several hours on Bejeweled Two. One mode claims to be playable infinitely and I am testing that theory.

Christmas

Michele did NOT wake us up early to open presents. Instead I found her on her computer. I snuck up on her and yelled "Merry Christmas!". It was so funny, but I think it took 10 Christmases off her life. I insisted we sing some carols before we opened gifts. While Michele and I were singing, Chris secretly skyped his parents and aimed the camera at us. We had a nice visit with them and Marie. Becca skyped us, too. Then we opened our gifts, mostly DVD's and chocolate. I got Michele a Korean children's book. I thought it might be easy reading, like "Dick and Jane make Rice Cakes" or something. We spent the rest of the day watching DVD's, reading and playing on our computers. I do have a pic of our Chrsitmas tree, sad as it is.

It is hard to believe that Christmas is here. In the states, Christmas starts so early that I have to actively avoid it until the first week of December so that I won't be sick of it by the 25th. But here there are few reminders. Yes, there are lights on post. But I haven't been shopping in malls stuffed with decorations and surfeited with Christmas music. No radio or TV reminders since we watch mostly DVD's. I haven't had my Christmas fix yet.

Chris has sentenced Michele to one hour of calculus a day since she is not doing well at all in calculus. Being the resident calculus expert, I share in that sentence. It is a good thing I love math.