In the meantime I am still trying to adjust to Korea. There are several things that I don't do that I want to do because I feel they will make me a better guest in the country. One of these things is getting the picture for my ID card that I should get before the end of the month so I am not deported.

The second is learning to hold my arm. Holding my arm is important whenever giving or receiving anything. They are very polite in Korea. When someone returns money to you at a convince store they will always touch the arm that is handing the money with their free hand right above the elbow. Usually they give with the right and touch with the left. I am trying to learn to do this as instinctively as Korean's do so I can at least feel polite. Not touching myself makes me feel like a rude and vulgar English person, and I just can't stomach that.

I'm trying to also learn ask "how are you?"  Unfortunately the common greeting "Annyonghaseo" is a combination of Hello, and How are you? So I can never figure out if I have already asked the question and there is no answer, or if in fact there is no question. I've almost given up on that one.

I'm still learning how to use my washing machine, and I think I almost have it down. I still feel vaguely frightened whenever I approach it, knowing that it will ask me how I want my clothes washed in Korean, and knowing that I have no idea what it is asking, and only hoping that this time I will not have soap stains on my clothes.

Saturday I went to the temple mountain with the giant Buddha with Jenny and we had a nice time sitting on the ground and drawing flowers. Apparently the Koreans who were there had a nice time as well as we ended up being surrounded by about 40 Koreans who wanted to watch us draw the flowers and drink coffee. Korea still has those interesting coffee machines that produce hot coffee in a little cup, which is very fun.

Afterwards we went to a little Spanish restaurant that we had found in passing, and had dinner which was okay, but not mind blowing, but it did have the advantage of not being Korean, as both of us were getting a little tired of Korean food.

In the meantime I'm just keeping my head above water, although I'd rather be under it as it is ungodly hot here.

Cheers and what not.