Travel Log Korea from the begining and onward

Currently in South Korea.... Join the list by mailing korea@saradevil.com .

Well, I'm still hitting and missing when it comes to shopping. Last night I went out to one of the restaurants that surround my apartment, only to discover that the restaurant does not serve food. This is a problem as I still don't have utensils, or pots, or pans, so I went to the corner grocery for some ramen, which is everywhere, and bought a large bottle of water, just water, plain, clear as day water. I got home and opened the water and took a big swig of what tasted like the mouthwash they asked you to use in a dentists office, all icky and flouridey and sweet, and spat it into the sink, and spent the next couple of hours painting and being in a general funk.

Saturday the director is taking myself and the other two new teachers out to Kesan for the day, we leave early and it should prove to be a good time. The other new teachers Jenny and Eric, respectively, seem to be settling in well. They came out together and are sharing two apartments though they seem to stick to mostly one. Jenny has red hair, which the students find quite fascinating and Eric has very hairy arms. The kids have taken to calling him the monster teacher because he is so fuzzy. This just amuses me. Some things I've picked up when traveling out with one of the Korean teachers are as follows:

I have a very small face.
I have nice eyebrows.
I am generally perceived as tired, sick, or serious, in that order.
I do not look like a typical American.

I hear there things quite a bit and as I find them generally annoying I thought I'd share. I went out for lunch today at one of the little restaurants near the school, all of which do serve food, and had some pibimbop. It's a spice rice dish with seaweed, vegetables, red paste, and green onions. They serve all the ingredients piled up and you stir it with a spoon. As most Korean meals have about four side dishes it is served with a brothy soup, some seaweed and green onions, and a Korean radish covered in red pepper paste. I've eaten there about three times but apparently enough to be remembered as they now know that my order is go-gee-bay-go and go-gee-karo which I think roughly translates to No Meat, No Egg. It works for me. When I walked in today the very nice hostess sat me at a table and then turned the fan on, and placed it directly into my face, so I had to fight with my hair for most of the meal, but it was very nice of her being that it was hot and what not.

I've been working on getting a more advanced website up and running for the school, and hopefully I shall have something to show everyone sooner or later. I may also be hosted in an art exhibition here, as the Director has taken quite a liking to all things Sara and thinks I should try to get featured in several galleries here. We shall see.

In the meantime I will need to find some way to get some of my art, and at the very least my sewing machine, before to much longer. Hopefully if Sam re-emerges to the land of communication I will be able to convey lists of things that must be sent before to much longer.

Other than that life goes on. On the subject of reading, I was wondering if anyone aside from the Wolfandbonister has heard of the Limmeny Snicket Books about A Series of Terribly Unfortunate Events. They seem to be a series of children's books but they really do sound interesting. Something that EA and Peter might enjoy, I suspect, as well as several of the students I worked with at the Settlement. Hopefully I will have word on whether or not we can get a little pen/e-pal thing going. All of the students at the school have email, so that would probably be the simplest way to write back and forth. In other news I adventure out to the post office on Friday, and will let you know how it goes.

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