Hapkido and odd bits

Yesterday my friend Vicky and I followed vague directions to a Hapkido place (dojo? studio?) and were somehow able to negotiate a class schedule with the Korean instructor. Luckily we had our trusty Lonely Planet phrasebook along, and ended up agreeing on private lessons, 5 days a week for one hour each. We start tomorrow (Thursday) and my schedule will be changing quite a bit, since it's 20 minutes to the Hapkido place, 20 minutes home, 45 minutes getting ready, then 20 minutes to school. When one is walking everywhere, one's time tables inflate tremendously. Not that I'm complaining at all - I'm quite enjoying the exercise and reflection time provided by a pedestrian lifestyle. I've also been working out with Kate after school (9:45p-11:30p) and trying to adjust to the English teacher's odd hours. After being up so early all the time in NJ, I feel like a lout if I sleep past 9:30... but with work ending at 9:10 and working out afterwards, it's a good night if I'm asleep by one. But I suppose it will all settle into some sort of workable rhythm after a couple weeks.

I want to thank all of you who have asked about care packages - it's so nice of you to offer. I have to tell you first, though, that it's very expensive to mail things here. Please don't feel obligated if you get to the post office and it costs too much. Just eat the cookies yourself and send the card ;)

BUT if you really would like to send me stuff, I would totally appreciate it. For right now, there isn't anything I'm craving from home or need desperately, but when there is, I will definitely post it. Looking ahead to the holidays, I would like to be able to make enchiladas for Thanksgiving but enchilada sauce and refried beans are nonexistant here. They're also very heavy. Perhaps a bunch of you could go in on one package together? Or each person could send one can? I do have tortillas and can buy cheese at Costco.

And of course letters, cards, photos, etc are great to receive. :*

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This weekend we had an absolute blast - Friday night was a busy one at Bench, and the Intra-national King's Cup group will be happy to know that we had a huge game going at the bar. Saturday night we went to the other foreigner bar, Tombstone, to meet my future coteachers, Gino and Andrea. Gino's band was playing their last gig so we hung out for that and between sets - more King's Cup. I have to be sure to carry my cards in my purse with me now because people are requesting "that fun game with the cup."

On Sunday the girls and I made a foray into the shops downtown searching for costumes for the big halloween event (downtown parade and costume contest), but came up empty handed. Luckily, since then we've been told of a couple of fabric stores and have been lent a sewing machine for the weekend, so instead of being at the bars we'll be cutting and sewing... okay maybe in addition to the bars. ;) We're going for the group prize, and have 7 (+?) people in our troupe. We are -

The Gender Bender Wizard of Oz

It's pretty self-explanatory, but we hope it's a good time. Obviously, the scarecrow (me) the tinman (Lindsay) and the lion (Kate) are girls... and Dorothy (Phil) is a guy. However, after that it gets blurry since our witches are both girls; Glinda (Katie) and the wicked witch of the west (Wendy). But we bring it back to the theme with Toto being played by Michelle, who will make the cutest little dog ever. And, as obligated, the girls' costumes are going to attempt a measure of sexiness. This is all being done, though, in a country that doesn't celebrate Halloween, so we are without the aide of costume shops and Party City. We're currently trying to recruit a couple flying monkeys and perhaps a bit or two of the yellow brick road. As some of you may know, I happen to be an expert Wizard of Oz skipper, so instruction will begin for the rest of the crew soon. We're hoping this comes together this weekend, but if it doesn't, we'll move to Plan B: A Korean pop band.

We just ordered dinner at work - we order everyday because it's actually cheaper to order than prepare and bring your own food here. $4 for dinner includes the dish you order and plenty of side dishes (panchan) to share. The side dishes vary with the day and the restaurant from which we order, but usually there is one little plate of kimchi, and then an assortment of spicy vegetables, tofu, pickled radish, potato strips, sauteed greens with spicy sauce and always some sort of egg. Sometimes it's a fried egg, other times it's cold scrambled eggs (surprisingly good), and my favorite times it's omelete-type egg strips with vegetables or crabstick in it. The side dishes I don't eat - EVER - are the dried whole anchovies, dried squid strips, dried squid strips in a spicy sauce and the like.

Today I have some sort of soup coming that I haven't tried before, but is apparently spicy and filled with vegetables and some kind of dumpling. To date, my favorite soup is a spicy miso based soup that also has some kind of tomato base. It's served with big pieces of tofu, bamboo, scallions and potato in it, and I avoid the sea squirts that are also in there. Sea squirts are the weirdest things. They look like what I would imagine the little creature in a barnacle does. (Wikipedia has something on them I think).

Gotta go! Food's here!