The final days

Happy New Year!!!

 

 

The Lunar New Year that is.  At one of my favorite hole in the wall places in our neighborhood.  Year of the snake!  I made my mark!

Recents and Gifts

This was a gift for Lunar New Year (or Chinese New Year) which is one of the two biggest holidays in Korea and China. The thought process when I receive a gift like this:

OMG! There’s lunch meat on the wrapping….lunch meat in Korea?!?!? It couldn’t be! Don’t be pessimistic, it could be!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so it looks like Spam cans but there still is the possibility of lunch meat inside that can! I’d even take mediocre lunch meat….just not Spam! Please, no Spam!!!

Then I opened the can….and……………..Spam ! And as an even bigger insult it smelled like dog food……….oh Korea!

Winter carnations – anything to brighten these cold days!

This picture looks pretty funny and I couldn’t figure out what it was…meat? No, it’s a waffle with nuts and chocolate on top. These waffles are so popular in Korea and I could never figure out why until now….they taste divine. I figured it would be dry and stale but it was sort of tasted like a treat at the fair – rich, fried, indulgent, and delicious!

Walls and walls of ramen. Normal.

 

 

Food and Kyle (aka “Killer”)

My new obsession: Salad Lyonnaise

And Kyle got a ouchy on his head.  Some ceiling and hallways in Korea are really short and well, Kyle’s pretty tall.  He was bounding up the stairs to the bathroom and knocked his head – and this was only after a half of beer!  He went to the emergency room and received three staples in his head.  All is fine now and Kyle gets to wear a little bandage hat secured by his own hair – cute!

Also, anytime I type Kyle’s name, I say it in my head just like our Chinese teacher says his name:  Killer(!).

The Bob Mullet

The “bob mullet”

A note about my new haircut, a new hybrid:
When you see me and notice that I got a haircut don’t feel obliged to comment on it. You can just act like it didn’t happen. I just want to set the record straight and let everyone know that I did not go into the hair salon and ask for a “bob mullet”. I did go in and ask that they take off two centimeters (2 CENTIMETERS people!!!). And they shook their heads, repeated “two centimeters”, and showed me to the chair.

Then the snipping started and I felt comfortable with it. The lady acted like she knew what she was doing. I trusted her. There was nothing to do but trust her once I sat my bum in the chair. I shouldn’t have trusted her….after my hair was washed and styled, I paid as quickly as possible and ran out of there. I couldn’t quite tell in the chair but I was pretty sure my hair was longer in the back and it was significantly shorter than I requested in the front. I said two centimeters, NOT two inches!!! After arriving home and washing my hair for good measure I examined my head to find that my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. I had gotten a “bob mullet”. I may have just made this new hairstyle up but it is a real thing my friends. And sadly it is on my head right now. I have a pair of scissors at home and may try to fix this myself, so don’t be surprised if I come home with no hair….

The real lesson of this story is one that I really should have learned by now…..don’t get your hair cut in Korea! There have been haircuts here that caused tears and you would think that would help me remember the important fact that a haircut in Korea isn’t quite the same as a haircut at home (actually it’s really different and usually tragic).

The “Bob”
http://0.tqn.com/d/beauty/1/0/k/A/1/drew-barrymore-bob-hairstyle.jpg

What my hair looks like….. 

 

http://d19sdi931o025v.cloudfront.net/cdn_120402150336/images/detailed/2/product_detailed_image_590_1049.jpg

Teachers + Coffee

Oldies but goodies!