Adults Only

Two of the things that I think make you an "adult" are being able to balance your check book and cooking a darn good meal. You can hold a job, own a car, pay your bills, have a house, be married and even have kids, but to me those two things are what really separates the mice from men.

So one of the things that has always made me feel like I wasn't a full fledged adult was my grasp on finances (or lack there of). I didn’t really have to be in charge of my own budgeting until I was in college and I had my first job. It was just a little part time job at the library but I had to use the money for food, utilities, and fun money. I lived in an on campus apartment (so housing was covered) and my car was second hand and therefor paid for (plus, my dad paid for insurance and gave me a gas card, like dad’s do). It should have been pretty simple, but I feel like I was overdrawn every other month. Mostly from shopping for clothes.

Flash forward, until quite recently, I’ve never successfully designed a budget that works. It's based on percentages and it's very helpful to me because it basically tells you how much you Should be spending in each category (like housing, auto, utilities, food, insurance, saving, fun, etc) you can adjust it to your own needs, but it's a great place to start.

I hated math when I was in school, but now numbers fascinate me. I enjoy seeing how all the parts come together and have the pleasure when the numbers add up. Lame, nah. We have been using our new budget plan for a few months now, and we're getting the hang of it. I'm not saying I haven't spent too much at the grocery store, but it's defiantly made me feel a little bit more like I'm in control of my life. (Big love to my honey bunny for being extremely understanding when I either don't understand how something adds up and/ or go way over budget like I did on vacation… and my birthday… and when I bought that life size R2-D2 trash can).

So that leaves cooking food that is nutritious, delicious and doesn't cost an arm and a leg in time or money. Enter Alton Brown, our new favorite show and guru. Justin and I tried eating out around here (both off and on base) but we haven't had good luck with anything (or they just steal our credit card number). Then one night we had particularly horrible "Italian" food. It was just awful, we looked at each other and said 'we can do better than that' and so we started cooking at home almost exclusively.

At first we used Allrecipes.com, which was fine, but with our lack of good oven (see other post), and lack of planning it didn't go badly but it wasn't wild cooking success. I'd seen Alton Brown's show before and liked it, so we got all the seasons, and we sat down to learn. Also, most of his recipes are on the foodnetwork website.

We are still trying to prefect our pizza crust, but we can now cook a pizza that you'd think was gourmet. Our Mexican food is fantastic (probably because we are most familiar with how that's supposed to turn out) we make enchiladas in a snap, beef tacos in our sleep and we just made our first batch of Tamales. Italian now boasts garlic butter shrimp that is dreamy, but I still need to learn a good lasagna. And surprisingly Chinese food is pretty darn good too, egg drop soup, fried rice, teriyaki chicken, etc. We do a real good pineapple pork and some normal fast couscous with sausage. Fish is limited by the fact that it's frozen and not great quality but we've done a couple batter/frying that's gone well. Oh, and when we feel like it Parmesan chicken tenders that are really good.

All in all, I wouldn't feel bad for making people ate our food anymore and we have fun in the kitchen (usually, unless I'm grumpy because I'm too hungry while cooking). So yay me, and yay us I feel like it's a good few steps down the road of being An Adult.

Do you want the truth or the polite answer?

The other night I woke up and thought I heard bombs falling. If I had been almost anywhere else in the world I would have told myself I was being silly and gone back to sleep. But being here, in Seoul, South Korea, and within strike range of North Korea I listened and debated if I should wake Justin up. The sound was like fireworks, which I’ve heard from the house before, but there was no holiday and it was 4am. It sounded like thunder, but we don’t get that here, and a big dumpster truck which they also don’t have because there are no dumpsters. And that whistling sound you hear in movies when they drop a bomb from an airplane before it hits the ground. It was that last sound which had me holding my breath to try and hear better and thinking through everything we should grab if we had to evacuate quickly. I eventually decided it was a police siren and some large truck, maybe a fire engine shaking the ground. But it’s these little things that make you realize, you aren’t in American anymore.

I haven’t really talked about my view of Army life and living in South Korea before. The truth is, I’m not really crazy about it. South Korea was never even on my long list of places to visit someday, much less on my list of Places to Live for a Year (the south of France is at the top of that list, by the way). I’ll get into details in a minute.

The other half of this equation is Army life. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for my husband being assigned here. The thing is, I don’t consider myself an “Army Wife”, and I don’t really see us as a military family. When I married my husband he only had about a year and a half left in the service and would be spending that time in South Korea. I’ve never had to deal with the nightmare of having my husband deployed to a war zone. And even when we were apart, I got to talk to him every day on Skype.

The other part of this is I’m not command sponsored. This means, while the army pays for my housing where-ever I live, I don’t really have any other privileges. SO when we decided that we wanted to live together (even if it meant in South Korea) I moved here (as in bought my own plane ticket and only brought what I could carry) and changed my residency with the Army, etc and Justin did a bunch of paper work. The end result being that we get a housing allowance and some utilities paid to us each month that we have to put to housing costs. And to-da! I live in South Korea with my husband.

This also means that I’m the low man on the totem pole. If I ever wanted to fly Space A, I’d be last. If I ever wanted to go get flu shots, I’d be last, if I ever wanted to take the bus home from the airport to base, I’d be last. Funny story, while they pay my housing cost to live here, when Justin applied to get Army loaned furniture they would only give him enough for Him because he was here “unaccompanied”, so we’ve been sleeping on a full sized bed since last February, and our cat has his own (empty) room because we only have enough furniture to sparsely furnish our place.

There is also zero community, Army or otherwise. We live off base, in non military housing, so no one near us is military. (Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE our apartment), I’m not in any wives club, I don’t have kids so I’m not in any school groups, etc. There just isn’t much here in the way of community, like none. We have the good fortune to be friends with a wonderful couple (Justin works with the husband) and there is probably one other family we talk to, but that’s it.

Coupled with that is the fact that we live in Seoul, I think it’s the second largest city in the world or something like that, and because we’re not in any Korean groups, we don’t have any Korean friends. Not to mention the fact that the culture differences are pretty big and it’s a lot of work just trying to communicate with the shop owners or taxi drivers.

I sometimes feel like a second class citizen living here too, for a number of reasons.
One, I don’t talk to people on the street and they don’t talk to me.

Two, Korean people spit on the street often, sometimes suspiciously close to me as I’m walking by.

Three, I have to show my ID to get onto base, and every store on base as well.

Four, I have to walk every where- which I don’t mind, until I have something to carry like packages to mail or groceries. I then have to take a taxi which is a whole other post, but they are hit or miss on the friendly scale.

Five, Justin and I share a phone (our choice) but we can’t really get a hold of each other unless he’s at work and I’m at home.

Six, the commissary (or grocery store to you non military folks) will run out of their already small selection. For example, they ran out of redi-whip (you know, that whip cream that comes out of the spray can, not essential, but still lame), and they weren’t going to get any for another two weeks. It’s not like I could just go to another store, there is only the one store. That actually happens a lot, I went to buy a kitchen trash can from the PX and they were out of trashcans and all plastic storage things.

Errands actually take up a lot of my time, much more time than they would if I was doing comparable errands in the states.

To go buy groceries: I have to walk to the store, which isn’t too far, but it’s the farthest thing I walk to. I don’t mind walking if it’s not too hot, or raining, or too cold. Then I have to have my ID and ration card (oh yes, we have ration cards that keep track of how much of what we buy and you can’t go over in some categories), I then push my cart up and down every aisle and hope they have the thing I need (if it’s even a little obscure it’s hard to find, ie lard or molasses, forget it) and hope I like the selection of what they do have (only one kind of baking soda, no choice of aluminum free, Alton Brown). Then wait in line, pay, tip the baggers (because you have to), have them push my cart to the taxi stand and wait in line for a taxi (on a good day takes 5 minutes, on a very bad day it takes an hour or more). Load the food, tell the taxi how to get to my house and hope he speaks good enough English to understand, pay him and lug my groceries to the kitchen in several stages. (my groceries go from cart to conveyer belt, to baggers to cart, to taxi to my front gate to mudroom, to kitchen… and hope I haven’t forgotten a bag anywhere).

To pay rent: All South Koreans pay rent in cash to the bank on the first. If they do otherwise, I sure don’t know about it. To pay our rent I have to walk to base to our bank there (too much to get out of an ATM), withdraw the money and hope the exchange rate is good, carry about $3,500 in cash back to our neighborhood to the Korean bank there, take a number and wait to be called. I give the teller the money and a “rent book” which has our landlords deposit info in it. They count the money and the amount and date gets printed by computer into the rent book that I keep as a kind of running receipt. If you go at the wrong time of day the bank is full of Koreans with rent books and it takes forever.

To pay utilities: I don’t know if you Can pay bills any other way than in person. I asked our one Korean acquaintance (our realtor) what to do about our bills because we were going to be gone for a month and a half, she said that when Korean’s go on vacation, they just pay a late fee when they get home. Anyway, we get two bills delivered to our front gate/shared mail box. I only know A) they are ours because they have Justin’s name on them and B) what amount to pay because I just look for the number that is repeated the most all over the bill, as they are not in English. I can just go to an ATM near the bank to get this money, then I take the money (rounded up to the nearest won) and the bills to the Korean bank. I go in, take a number, wait to be called, give the teller my bills and money and she gives me a little change plus a receipt stapled to my bills.

Trash: I’ve talked about trash before, so I’ll just mention a few things here. But I think we have a pretty good system in place now, it’s been running smoothly for a while. So I have small trashcans lined with grocery bags in the bathroom and under the kitchen sink. When those are full, I tie them off and put them in a large trash can in the laundry room lined with the Official Trash Bag of Korea- I don’t know what it’s called, but you have to buy them from the equivalent of a 7-11 BUT in your neighborhood (so I’ve been told, I can’t read the bags), when the large bag is full I tie it up and take it across the street to lean against the wall (which is where I was told to leave trash) it gets picked up, there is no such thing as a curb trash can here (as far as I can tell). For food waste, you have smaller yellow bags (all gotten at the Korean 7-11) and we have another small trash can under the kitchen sink for the food waste. When that gets full and /or smells too much I tie it up and carry it down the street until one of my neighbors has left out their gray and orange box for these bags (this is also what I was told to do, why we don’t have our own box I don’t know, but they seen to have about one per block). Recycling, I can just put in a clear trash bag and put it next to the trash. And cardboard is taped or tied together in 13x13 bundles. I don’t know what happens to these things, but the old man with the green vest doesn’t yell at me anymore when I take things outside. He also has a broom and leaves a bill in our mail box, I just let the landlord take care of that one since I have no idea what it says.

Our oven... is probably the one thing in the apartment that is complain worthy. It’s gas, which is okay, but it’s the size of a cracker box and it doesn’t have any kind of top heating element so it doesn’t brown food At All. I’ve gotten more cookies burned because they didn’t look done on top but were black on the bottom. I’ve had to return a few pans and cookie sheets because they literally didn’t fit in the oven. Most of the pans we Do have only fit one way. And there is defiantly only one rack in there, I think you can move it, but it really wouldn’t make a difference.

If I want to talk to family or friends we can call them on Skype or just the Skype phone part, and since my parents are so busy I tend to just call them on their phone. BUT there is that pesky 17 hour time difference that makes getting a hold of people so hard.

The phone/time zone thing,
in combination with the cultural isolation from Koreans,
and the differences in Army-life,
and the difficulty of daily necessary tasks-
makes life here a little harder.

But I would not change this year for anything. You see, I haven’t been alone in all this and I’m not here for myself. I wanted to come here and be here every second because I didn’t want to leave Justin alone in all this difficulty. I met Justin when he was home on leave and I talked to him every day when he went back to Korea. I could see the effect it had on him, I could see the strain from daily living taking a toll on him. I felt so helpless being so far from him. When he came back home, on leave again, and we got married we decided that I would come to Korea. Mostly because we didn’t want to be apart for a year or more, but also because I didn’t want to leave him alone in a place as unwelcoming as this and can still be called civilized.

When we were home on vacation people asked me all the time; How do you like living in Korea? I’d say ‘Do you want the truth or the polite answer?’

If you're awkward and you know it, clap your hands!

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not the best random conversationalist. Even when I’m with people I know, I won’t have anything interesting to say or I won’t know how to phrase what I’m thinking about. My confusion is usually because I’m so busy thinking about a dozen other things while trying to talk. So, when I DO have a “successful” conversation, i.e. my point is made clearly or I don’t feel awkward and/or make other people feel awkward, I feel rightfully proud of my self.

I have had several successful conversations recently, if I only knew what the secret was I wouldn’t be writing a blog about the few times it has happened.

The first was pretty much on accident. Justin and I were leaving the commissary right as it closed so there was a line at the taxi stand. The first thing I notice (after the line) is the cutest, tiniest, white dog I have ever seen in person. (I also happen to be obsessed with tiny white dogs currently. I would have one already but I’m not ready to have a dog in an apartment). Anyway, so I see this cute dog and am gravitationally pulled towards it. I am even reaching out to take the dog from it’s owners before I even realize that I’ll have to at least say ‘hello’ and ‘can I pet your dog’. The owners seem to be used to the effect their dog has on people because the guy holding the dog just hands it to me (it’s like 2 whole pounds. adorable). Now I have the dog snuggled in my arms and I feel obliged to talk to these people so they know I’m not going to run away with their dog, which I might have considered doing anyway. It’s a young solider who is waiting outside with his friend while he waits for his girlfriend to finish shopping. I probably talked to these two guys for like half an hour, while their tiny adorable dog falls asleep in my arms. I was coherent, pleasant, and not awkward.

The girlfriend finally came out of the store and she had a very young little brother, he was probably 4 years old. He saw I was holding their dog and assumed that he knew me. So I had a small child talking to me about... I’m not even sure what, but I’m going to count this as a win too. Until the little boy asked me about my Dad. They were waiting for their Dad to come pick them up, and he wanted to know if I was waiting for my Dad to come pick me up to. I explained that, no, I wasn’t waiting for my Dad, but that my husband and I were waiting for a taxi. I point Justin out to him (who is being so good and waiting in line while I sit down with a cute dog). The little boy then thinks that Justin is my Dad and I only try one more time to impress the word ‘husband’ on him before I give up. The taxi line wasn't moving, so Justin and I finally decide to just walk home and I have to give the dog back and we leave.

The second random successful conversation I had with people was even more unexpected. I was on my way to base to run some errands when I saw that the beauty shop I have to pass had some cute lotions back in stock that I had wanted. So I stopped in to buy them and was waiting to pay for them when I heard people speaking Spanish! There were two women and a younger girl in front of me who were speaking Spanish with each other. I was so excited. I decided to go ahead and try to speak my crappy Spanish to them. I asked the lady who was closer to me, 'donde tu eras?' which should be ‘where are you from?’ She said Columbia (which thankfully sounds like it’s English name) and which point, I was out of Spanish to speak. She asked me where I was from, I said California. She asked me something like, how long have you been here, but like I said I was all out of my speaking Spanish, and she could tell so she (graciously) switched to English for me.

The women were here because the other lady, whom I hadn't spoken to, and her daughter were here with her husband who was in the military. They had just moved to Korea and wanted to get my phone number so they could have coffee with me and get some advice about living here. I’m not sure how to explain it, maybe because I grew up listening to Spanish, but it was infinitely more refreshing to hear Them talk than to hear people speaking Korean. We are all standing outside talking when the girl, who was probably 11 years old, asked me if my Dad was in the Army too. I told them no, my husband was and I was here with him. They all said how young I looked, etc, we parted ways happily.

So, I have to wonder, do I really look *that* young? I hear adults (when I say adults I mean people my parents age, or older. I know technically my generation are adults too, but it's a habit), anyway I hear adults say how young I look ALL. THE. TIME. But I don't mind really, as long as I'm not being carded for an R rated movie (which you have to be 17 years old to see) it's kind of nice to be called young in a flattering way. But if children think I look young and could possibly be in their age range, how young do I Really look? So that's my weird story about kids asking about my "Dad" and having "successful" conversations.

Santa, Not Christmas Yet

I found this letter re-posted a few times so I don't know where it came from originally, but it's great. I know it's only the beginning of November but I've been thinking about Christmas anyway. (and yeah, it's kinda funny that the little girl's name is Lucy too.)
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A few months back, the Tooth Fairy got busted. She left a note for Alice up on her computer, and Lucy figured the whole business out. The Tooth Fairy cursed her need to write notes in elaborate fonts and tried to come up with a cover story, but it didn’t fool Lucy.

To her credit, Lucy has kept the secret from her little sister, who still hasn’t lost a tooth and deserves to wake up with money under her pillow.

But the Tooth Fairy knew it couldn’t be too long before Santa was similarly unmasked. She didn’t know when or how, but she knew the days of magic in her house, at least magic of a certain sort, were coming to an end.

And the Tooth Fairy—by which I mean myself—was pretty darned sad about the inevitable, which finally arrived last week.

Lucy and I have been exchanging notes since the school year started. We’ve talked about all sorts of things—sports, books we’d like to read, adventures we’d like to have, even stories from when I was in third grade. For the most part, though, it’s been light, casual stuff. Until last week.

I NEED TO KNOW, she wrote, using capital letters for emphasis. ARE YOU SANTA? TELL ME THE TRUTH.

What do you do when your kid asks for the truth? You tell it, of course, doing your best to figure out a way that keeps at least some of the magic intact.

Here’s what I wrote:

Dear Lucy,

Thank you for your letter. You asked a very good question: “Are you Santa?”

I know you’ve wanted the answer to this question for a long time, and I’ve had to give it careful thought to know just what to say.

The answer is no. I am not Santa. There is no one Santa.

I am the person who fills your stockings with presents, though. I also choose and wrap the presents under the tree, the same way my mom did for me, and the same way her mom did for her. (And yes, Daddy helps, too.)

I imagine you will someday do this for your children, and I know you will love seeing them run down the stairs on Christmas morning. You will love seeing them sit under the tree, their small faces lit with Christmas lights.

This won’t make you Santa, though.

Santa is bigger than any person, and his work has gone on longer than any of us have lived. What he does is simple, but it is powerful. He teaches children how to have belief in something they can’t see or touch.

It’s a big job, and it’s an important one. Throughout your life, you will need this capacity to believe: in yourself, in your friends, in your talents and in your family. You’ll also need to believe in things you can’t measure or even hold in your hand. Here, I am talking about love, that great power that will light your life from the inside out, even during its darkest, coldest moments.

Santa is a teacher, and I have been his student, and now you know the secret of how he gets down all those chimneys on Christmas Eve: he has help from all the people whose hearts he’s filled with joy.

With full hearts, people like Daddy and me take our turns helping Santa do a job that would otherwise be impossible.

So, no. I am not Santa. Santa is love and magic and hope and happiness. I’m on his team, and now you are, too.

I love you and I always will.

Mama

Window to the Soul

I’ve never hated anything about myself. Sometimes I’d wished I was better in school, or playing a musical instrument, or faster at running- but that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean the parts of yourself that are essentially you. Things you can’t change with more studying or practicing.

I’ve always liked my body, sometimes wished I was a little thinner, but who hasn’t. It isn’t something I obsess over. I fuss over my hair a LOT, I like everything about it (color, texture, temperament) but usually I have a haircut I don’t like or I’m in the middle of growing it out. (and then when I like the length, it takes too long to wash).

I suppose my one secret thing, that really keeps me up at night sometimes, are my eyes. I love my eyes, their shape, the lashes, their size, the width they are set at... and the color.

I both love in extreme the color of my eyes, and, I also wish they were something more unusual and more striking.

I have deep, dark brown eyes. They are soft and warm, they are mysterious and can’t be read. I like that about them. People often remark on my eyes about how beautiful they are. And I love them.

But, but, but... oh to have the blues eyes that are in poems and songs. To have green eyes, or gray, or violet, or the nonexistent but sounds awesome turquoise eyes. Something colorful and striking and beautiful and mesmerizing. Sometimes I wonder if the world would look different through different colored eyes. Sometimes I wonder if the world would look at me differently too.

The eyes are the window to the soul, they say. Are blue eyes more open? Are brown eyes shuttered against the world?

I hate that I wonder. I want to be happy with who I am and what I look like because it IS who I am and it can’t be changed. And I also believe it Shouldn’t be changed. I feel that it somehow is like hiding yourself if you change those things about you.

Yes, it’s fun to try new looks, different lengths of hair. Sure, different colors then too. Oh, more makeup. Maybe a little help to get into those jeans that look so good on everyone else... and maybe fill out that shirt a little more in a bountiful way. Firm up that face, and maybe pull some wrinkles straight, like a sheet.

I object to these. If I object, then why do I wonder? Who would I still be if I was taller, skinner, blonde with those glacier blue eyes? Or luminous green eyes, or those piercing yet mysterious gray that I read so much about.

It’s not the changing of the outside that bothers me, it’s what must be going on INSIDE that allows you to think that the outside must be bad and changed, like a flat tire, with no more thought than that.

Will your life be better? If you were taller, thinner, blonder, blue eyed? Maybe...

Would you be the same you? no. never.

Something inside has changed, twisted, made you feel that the most precious thing in the world wasn’t good enough. You, you are that most precious thing in the world and you are Exactly as you are meant to be.

Or so I tell myself. Doe eyes, chocolate chip, my brown eyed girl.

Hoddeok (Korean Street Food)

Since Seoul is a) a big city and b) Asian, there is a lot of street food. The most predominant street food on the street where we live is squid on a stick cooked directly on top of coals. It’s actually a smell I’ve come to appreciate.

Depending on the location and time of year there are lots of different street foods, most of them on a stick. I usually don’t eat street food, nothing about it looks sanitary and I’m a little paranoid about food borne ah.. disruptions.

But last Winter, I was invited out to see some historic temples and walk around Korea with a friend and a local Korean guide. As a treat our local guide took us to several local spots. One was a traditional Korean restaurant (I’ve had American Korean food and it was nothing like this, I didn’t even recognize anything or know if it was animal or vegetable), but I decided to be brave and try EVERYTHING on the table. And I did.

We then stopped at a street that was famous for having a ton of street food vendors. They had little tiny shop fronts (instead of carts) and there were tons of people in line at every shop, so I decided to just go for it again. I accepted the street food offered to me by our guide and was surprised because it was hot, sweet and delicious! It was Hoddeok, and brown sugar filled pancake thing.

I loved it and kept my eyes open for more the rest of the winter but none of the street food people near me were selling it. As it got warmer they stopped selling hot food and I gave up on ever having it again.

THEN I happened across a Korean woman’s blog who had a recipe for Hoddoek !!! apparently she made it for her kids all the time, and it was a common treat for house wives to make. I’ve never, let me repeat that NEVER baked from scratch like it was saying and I’ve never made dough, so it was a little intimidating. But I really wanted to see if I could make it, and I wanted to share the deliciousness with Justin so I set out and made a batch.

They were awesome. And exactly like I remembered them being. Be careful, they are hot and the liquid sugar inside is even hotter. The blog said to serve hot, but just heads up, not too hot. I re-worded the recipe, her English wasn’t the best (not the worst, but you have to be in the habit of translating), so here is the recipe. If you want to have authentic Korean street food without wondering if they washed their hands or if those car fumes can get cooked into food, here ya go!

Hoddeok
Korean street food
a flour dough pancake filled with sugar syrup

Dough:
2 TS dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/2 TS salt
1 TBS vegetable oil
2 TBS white sugar
2 cups flour

Filling:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 TS ground cinnamon


1) Combine
Yeast, Water, Salt, Vegetable Oil and Sugar
in a large mixing bowl, stir well

2) Add Flour and Mix to combine

3) cover bowl and let dough rise at room temperature for 1 hour

4) knead dough (flour as needed) and let rise for another 15 minutes

5) flour cutting board and knead dough again, shaping it into a log. Flatten log and cut dough into 8 equal pieces. Form balls, set aside.

6)FILLING: combine brown sugar and cinnamon in a separate small bowl

7) take one ball of dough at a time, flatten into palm size piece and fill center with approximately 1 TBS of filling, reform into a ball with filling in center, pinch to close. Flour as needed. Fill all dough balls, set aside.

8) Place nonstick pan over medium heat with a thin layer of vegetable oil in pan.

10) Place dough ball in pan cook for 30 seconds or until light golden brown on bottom

11) flip ball over and flatten with spatula (to about the size of a CD) let cook for 1 minute or until golden brown

12) flip over again and turn heat to low. Place lid on pan and let cook for 1 more minute.

Makes 8 Pancakes, keep finished pancakes covered until cooking is done, serve hot.

Itaewon Global Village Festival

Saturday Justin and I were sitting in the living room when he asked if I heard a noise. I listened and thought it sounded like bagpipes! They weren’t, they were the Korean long horn drone thingy, but it’s in the genes to go in search of bagpipes if you hear them. So we hopped up, put on shoes and headed down to the main street where we live.

I’d forgotten there was going to be a festival. Itaewon is the “global village”, it has little brass plaques in the sidewalk every block or so with how to say 'Hello' in another language, I haven’t cataloged them all, but it seems to cover everything, even the pretty obscure languages. There are also tons of restaurants that claim to have different world foods, but it’s all cooked by Koreans so it pretty much all tastes the same. Besides the food, there are innumerable shops.

When I say shops, it’s not what Americans think of. There are several types of shops; the most obvious kind are the carts. They show up every afternoon and are reminiscent of gypsy carts, they have everything from socks and underwear to knock off purses and sunglasses. They fold up into closed rectangles that are then wheeled away (somewhere) for the night.

The second kind are the more normal shops, they have a sales floor, back storage rooms, clean window displays, etc. They are the most reminiscent of “American shops”, but half the time there are several floors of the same shop. I guess it’s cheaper to buy up.

The next kind seem to be the most naturally Korean. They are stuck in every possible corner, they are the size of large walk-in closets, there is no back room with extra stock, everything is hanging on the walls and ceiling so it looks like there are no walls, just stuff. Often the floors are not level and they usually just have a roll down metal door to close at night, but otherwise they are open on the front.

The last kind is the scariest and I don’t go into them alone. They are just normal shops, for Korea, but they are huge and maze-like with no way of telling how far they reach. They have normal shop fronts but the windows are so crowded with things that you can’t see into the store, once inside, the store keeps going back and back, or down into basements or up and up. I once went in one and came out a few streets away in the back ally. Every surface is packed with products, I’m betting they don’t have a back store room either. It’s also harder to walk away when the sales people get pushy (and they always do).

The remaining business on Iteawon are night clubs, I’ve never been out at night there, but we can hear the various clubs blasting their music every night of the week. And I pass numerous drunks still waking up the next morning having passed out from too much the night before.

There are always people out on the street too, I’ve never seen it deserted. There are two main subway stops at either end of the street, and the roadway is a popular and busy road. The people who drive scooters skip the roads and drive right on the sidewalk (which is narrowed considerably by all the gypsy carts). The main area on either side of the street has sidewalks, but if you go one block to either direction(and in all of Korea) it’s just a narrow one-way road that people drive two-ways on, drive scooters on, put their trash out on and expect people to walk on too.

ANYWAY, we heard music and went to see what it was. There were people lined up in the street like they were waiting to start a parade and the far end of the street was blocked off with a huge screen and lots of chairs. There were tons of people on the sidewalk and in the street (with only half of the traffic stopped I might add). There were at least eight policemen trying to control traffic at one intersection all blowing their whistles constantly. The people in the street were in various traditional costumes and most of them had either a drum or a gong and were (semi) rhythmically banging the shit of them. There was a huge knot of people crowed around the performance area and past them was the rest of the street with white tents set up on either side all the way down to the screen with the chairs.

I spotted a big gold dragon and we followed it trying to get a better view. It was one of those that was being held up by a dozen guys with sticks who would move their sticks and it looked like the dragon was undulating along. There were also two of the 2-man dragon dancers. I was pretty excited about the dragons, and I noticed that I could see pretty well (everyone in Asia being roughly the same height as me).

We followed the dragons past the big display area (where all the performers stopped to perform in front of one set of bleachers), and down into the tent area. Most of the tents were empty and the rest had food from the surrounding restaurants. I thought it was a little silly because the restaurants were right along the street. It was like having a BBQ in your front yard when the kitchen is just one room over, except that's a bad example because it's fun to have BBQs. Anyway, we walked along the street (this section being closed to traffic minus the occasional scooter) and looked at all the booths, most of them were Korean food booths. Odd since this was a global village festival, but those were the most popular booths.

The odd thing about the parade was that they didn't have the street blocked off with police tape or saw-horses or anything, AND the people didn't stay on the sidewalk. So the volunteers in the bright yellow vests were constantly telling people to step back so the parade could squeeze through. All in all it was a huge mass of noise and whistles, gongs and drums and an announcer on a loud speaker only speaking in Korean and people wandering around in the street that was only half blocked off from traffic while the parade of performers were trying to get through.

We saw everything there was to see that night and went home to dinner.

The next day was Sunday and we had to go to the grocery store, we were out of cat food and milk plus a bunch of other things, but those two items are my cue to go. The only problem was, the street was still blocked off by the festival. So Justin and I walked to the store, bought our groceries, packed our carefully selected food into our backpacks and started the trek home. It had been a little cold the day before but on Sunday the sun was out and it was warm and there were millions of little tiny flies out en mass. At first I thought they were ash falling from all the outdoor cooking, that's how fine they were. But soon we saw they were flies, and they were everywhere. They got into your mouth, your eyes and nose, they stuck to your skin. They were the whole length of the festival route, we cut up to a side street and there were fewer flies, but when we got home we had to shower to get them all off us. I took off my shirt and they were stuck to the skin of my stomach. Weird.

That was Halloween weekend, the Koreans don't do anything for Halloween and this was the first year that I didn't either. I did buy a candy bucket (it's a black cat face) and some candy in case we got any trick-or-treaters (or so I told myself) but we didn't get any. Oh no, I guess I'll have to eat the candy myself.

Dear Tomato

Dear Tomatoes,

I’m sorry I never liked you before. Maybe I just never had a good tomato and I was too stubborn to try a good one when it came along.

I’m sorry for all the BLT sandwiches I had (hold the “T”). I’m sorry that the first phrase I learned in French class was ‘I hate tomatoes’. I have always been a fan of tomato soup and Ketchup, but that was pretty much it.

I first started to like you on margarita pizzas, cooked Roma tomatoes are amazing. Then I had you on Greek salads, also a win. I don’t know exactly when I accepted you on anything you came on, but after that point I would stop picking you off my food.

I have even bought you in a supermarket and voluntarily put you on my food at home.

Oh my tomato, will you forgive me?

Love, Lucy

P.S. canned tuna fish and creamed corn, this letter does not apply to you. Other people can eat you and like you, just not while I’m in the same room. ew.

Would I like some cheese with this whine?

I can't figure out how to un-mute my laptop. And it's not the normal, click here to turn the mute off and on, it's something else and I don't know what it is, or how to google for the answer.

I don't remember the password to Justin's computer, which is basically our home entertainment system.

We don't have cable because we live off base and the English programing we Did get was pretty much the same 3 CSI's on repeat.

The x-box plays DVDs but at this point I've watched the dvds we have so often I can recite them word for word.

I've already re-read two Southern Vampire mysteries (aka Sookie Stackhouse) and Twilight (too many times to count).

I don't want to cook anything, because all I would make are cookies or shortbread and I don't want to get fat. (er)

And I'm pretty sure I was having my first ever allergy episode yesterday at the park, watery eyes, runny nose (but I'm fine today).

Even Gambit is being super good and cute today, but that means he's alseep.

I enjoyed a quiet, relaxing long weekend with Justin home, but with only me and the cat, it gets a little still for my taste.

To Sum It Up

In the past Eight weeks alone I have flown SO much, here is the break down:


Korea ----------------> San Fransisco, California

Oakland, California --> San Antonio, Texas

San Antonio, Texas ---> Oakland, California

Oakland, California --> San Diego, California

San Diego,California -> Oakland, California

Oakland, California --> Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore, Maryland --> Oakland, California

Oakland, California --> Oahu, Hawaii

Oahu, Hawaii ---------> Oakland, California

San Fransisco, California --> Korea


If I had been really smart, I would have used the same airline for all of my flight and gotten a ton of frequent flyer miles. I did do that with the flights to and from Korea, but with everything else,I either got the cheapest flight, or my parents bought the tickets.

***

ALSO, EVERYONE IS HAVING BABIES!!!
Okay, not like every single person I know, but a lot of people are. For example;

My cousin Mary is due in February.
My friend from college, Caroline, is due in April.
My cousin Leslie just gave birth in September to her Second baby.
My other cousin Martha has a 2-ish year old...
My friend from high school, Nicole, has an eight month old...

I realize only two of those are people who are going to give birth, but considering my small circle of friends and family, that's a high percentage. ALSO like, a bunch of people on facebook who I went to school with have kids now, or are going to give birth soon. It's just a lot of people, that's all. But I suppose I am at the age where my peer group is the kid having age.

Hawaii, Oahu

One of the reasons we picked September to visit the states, was to have a family vacation for my husband and brother to meet in person. Since Nicholas was at his station in Hawaii he didn’t get to meet Justin. And when Nick came to Texas for Christmas Justin was already back at His station in Korea.

So Mom, Dad, me and Justin flew to Hawaii to spend a week on our first family vacation together! We stayed at the Hale Koa, it’s a military recreation hotel and if you’re military I highly recommend it. One, it’s just a really nice hotel, two they have their own beach right out back with everything and anything you want to rent for the beach plus several snack bars and such so you don’t have to shlep a cooler of food to the beach. And they have their own Luau show, it was really good.

Nick was supposed to be on leave the whole time we were there, but someone, somewhere lost his paperwork so he just had to meet up with us after work and on the weekend.

It was so much fun, we went to the Waikiki aquarium, there was a street parade for Aloha week, they had fireworks at the hotel one night, we went to the beach at our hotel, we went to Bellows beach and swam near huge sea turtles, we went to the Luau at our hotel which was really, really good, we walked around Waikiki a lot and went shopping, we got shave ice from matsumotos on the north side, we had dinner with my father’s cousin and her family at their house by Diamond head, we went to Punchbowl memorial and Pearl Harbor, Nick took me and Justin on a “hike” that made me realize, why yes, I am terrified of heights. We went to the look-out point, we went to the Army museum, Justin and I had breakfast everyday by the beach, and we got to spent some good time with my parents and brother.

It was a really great vacation. AND no one got sunburned, not really. Win.

September

After I went to San Antonio with Justin for his TDY, he had to go back to Korea for work for three more weeks, while I went straight to California to be with my parents.

I mostly just tagged along with whatever my parents were doing- including but not limited to: church, brunches, museums, folk dancing, Rancho Days, running errands, meeting new Canadian distant cousins, washing cars, shopping, flying kites, you name it.

And for my birthday weekend I went to visit Allie in San Diego! We just ran around town looking at everything and having fun. I also got to be a law student for two classes, I had to bite my tongue to keep from talking in a class I wasn’t enrolled in and I had to read to stay awake in the other. I realized I had booked a PM flight instead of AM like I had intended to. But the flight got cancelled anyway, so I got to leave late afternoon. I fully intend to have more visits there, esp if I can find flight deals that cost less than it would take in gas to drive there (not to mention saving me 16 hours of my life driving round trip).

Justin flew into San Francisco, September 5th officially on vacation. We spent the first night he was in town at the Claremont Hotel. It’s this huge, historic, white painted wooden hotel on the next hill over from my parents house. It’s got a tennis club and pool you can belong to, but I had never had a reason to stay in it before, so that was fun. Then that weekend Justin went to San Antonio to visit his friends and family while Mom and I flew to Maryland for my college roommate’s wedding.

Mom and I arrived Thursday late afternoon and I don’t think we stopped driving the whole time. Luckily we had an AWESOME rental car, it was a little red Fiat. And thank god I brought the GPA, it would have been a rough trip without it. Thursday we had a girls night with Sarah (the one getting married), our other college friend Caroline, and some of Sarah’s other friends. Friday was nails, rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Saturday was getting ready for the wedding, the wedding, the reception and then a quick trip to Virginia. I know. My uncle and his family live in Virginia and we had already decided it would be too much to drive out and see them (it’s like 100 miles away from Baltimore). BUT my cousin gave birth on that Thursday to her second baby and it was pretty much the only chance we would get to see everyone for a while. So we showered, changed and drove to see them. We got there late that night, slept at a hotel and visited with everyone in the morning for like three hours before we had to turn around and drive back to catch our flight. It was totally worth it to see my aunt and uncle, my cousin Leslie and her new baby (and her family), and my cousin Thomas.

That Sunday happened to be 9/11, and we were a tad worried about flight, not because we thought something would happen, but because of how crazy other people might get. Luckily the only thing that happened was we had a plane delay for about 45 minutes because the President was flying over our airspace. So Mom and I got back to Oakland safe and sound, and Justin arrived at the same time as us and met us at our airport gate! I remember when you would see your family or whoever you were visiting at the gate instead of having to wait for them outside security.

It was a beautiful wedding weekend, it was wonderful to see our family and my college friend Caroline is going to have a baby in April! Kind of an exhausting trip but good.

Justin and I toured Cali, since he’d never been there before, looked at colleges, and spent time with my family. We spent a week in Hawaii visiting my brother (see entry ‘Hawaii’) then we had three days to pack for Korea before we flew back here. And that was September. Wow, right?

Back in the Saddle Again

It’s now October and we are back in Korea. We being; myself, Justin and Gambit.

The flight was supposed to be semi short because it was direct from the West coast to Inchon (the airport for Seoul). It takes about 12 hours of fly time to get there. But there were delays (after 2 hours on the tarmac, we were about to take off but had to turn around and go back to the gate) they had to fix something on the plane and then it took too long so they had to change the crew out, etc. Twelve (12!) hours later we finally got to start our 12 hour flight. And yes, I had a cat in a carry-on bag the whole time. I defiantly let him out of his carrier on his little harness and leash, surprisingly not too many people noticed a cat on a leash in the airport. I was reprimanded for moving a chair, but the airline employee didn’t blink at my cat out of carrier.

Anyway, we arrived at 3:00 AM in Korea and got a cab from the airport. This cabby decided it would be a good idea to pull over on the side of the highway to try and talk us into paying him more money for taking us home. I don’t think Justin has ever seen me be so stern with someone before. He later said that if I had been a staff sergeant I would have made that private shit himself (the private being the cabby). Poor Justin had to basically shower, shave and go straight to work. I got a few hours of sleep, but for some reason I’ve been waking up super, uber early since we got home. Like 4 and 5 AM.

Justin and I rearranged the furniture in our living/dining/everything room. It’s a great room, just oddly shaped, but I really like what we’ve done with it this time. It’s very quiet and rather empty feeling since we got used to staying with my parents and their slightly cluttered decorating style. Gambit is one of those cats who needs a playmate. I kind of wish we had brought Teddy with us too, but I still think he wouldn’t have been happy to move again. At least I already know Gambit and Teddy will get along when we go back to California again.

I do think time will pass quickly here. It’s October and we have to apply to colleges for Justin (deadline is Nov.15th, but we’re saying end of October just to keep ourselves on track). Then it’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and packing up the apartment. Since we have to ship everything at least 30 days before we leave (March 25th) they might take it sooner. Also nearly all our furniture is on loan from the Army and they’ll take it who knows when. At that point Justin thinks I should fly home with the cat and he’ll stay either at the hotel on base or with friends.

I’m going to post this and then back post (posts I haven’t written yet) our adventures from September. That was a busy month that flew by too.

Twenty-Seven

I turn 27 years old in about an hour. If you want to get really technical I could ask my mom what time I was born, but I’m just going with ‘it’s an hour till midnight’ and then it will be August 25th, which is the day I was born.

26 was full of many huge life changes. Huge. Some painful, but mostly I have my memories of meeting and falling in Love with Justin. So I’m rather fond of 26, everything turned out all right in the end, and I’m wondering what comes after the surprise happy ending?

This next year will also bring some big changes, but these are a little more planned. We’re going to wrap up our last 5-6 months in Korea. We’ll be moving back to the states, probably to California. Justin will be going to school full time and I’ll (hopefully) have a job. We’ll be closer (super close) to family. It’ll be our second year of marriage, we’ve both heard mixed things about what happens after the first year but I’m optimistic, and actually so is Justin.

Personal growth-wise, I hope to be more of the writer I want to be. I do feel a little bit like a fake most of the time, but I’m reading a book that says all writers of worth feel like fakes often, so I’ll remain hopeful. I also want to be a better cook, a planner in the kitchen, someone who makes food that people really look forward to eating but is also good for you (I can dream, right?). I also want to find a new social niche. Justin and I are newly weds, and will be new in the area so it’s time to dust off those friend making skills (if I ever had any) and make some friends. I mean, this is California, there have to be some cool people around here somewhere ;)

The other things I want to do, like spend time with my parents, will come with our proximity. We will most likely be living in the same house (that will be interesting). And thank heaven, Justin and my parents love each other. It’s so easy to be married to Justin, I hope I show enough appreciation for that.

Also, I usually go overboard with shopping for my birthday. I’m trying to remember what age I started shopping for myself, but I can’t. I do know one day I realized that if someone didn’t give me what I was hoping for, for my birthday or Christmas or something, I could just buy it for myself! It was such a freeing revelation! A little too freeing, I tend to over indulge, but I try to limit myself to those times of the year (August and December). This year I defiantly got some various things for myself, but I have yet to find that 'something'. Some years, I don’t find it. But you know, that big gift that you tell people about when they ask what you got for your birthday (or Christmas). Maybe I’m out growing that...probably not, I want things still, they just aren’t toys anymore. More like home decorations or kitchen things, or clothes, (okay, and some toys. What? I like cute thing).

Anyway, the thing that I’m most excited about is our family vacation to Hawaii. I’ll finally have my husband, parents and brother all in the same place. We’re one of those awesomely weird families that like hanging out and we have a great time together. Besides that, I’ll be SO happy to have Justin with me in California in about (exactly) 12 days.

I guess that’s what I really want, to be close to my family and the people I love. Someday I’d really like to have my own house too, but I’ll be happiest if it’s near them.

PS I just remembered, 7 is my favorite number. yay!

Micro Climates

My family would visit California in the past during traditional school breaks, which lead me to believe the Bay Area had pretty much one climate: cold.

During Winter break, it was cold because it was December. During Spring break in March, it was cold because apparently the fog does something to keep it that way. During Summer break, when one would expect the weather in California to be sunny and warm, it was-you got it, still cold. I remember once being so cold they put me in bed wearing a sweater, a pile of quilts and with a cup of hot chocolate. I was still cold. It was June.

So for the first time in a while I’m visiting home when it’s the very end of Summer going in to Fall. School starts about now so we wouldn’t have visited during this time of year. It’s been a long time since I was here for this season; which is mild? I’m not going to say warm, but I’m getting to that later. You can see how I would be confused by the weather. I brought warm clothes but I’ve really only needed a light jacket, I even still wear flip-flops.

Besides the quirky Bay Area weather, there is also the extreme micro climates of our house. Now, nearly every single room has huge glass windows, some of them floor to ceiling. They were built about 60 years ago so they are single pained and pretty basic for windows (which are getting super technical these days). My bedroom for example, gets the most direct sun in the evening. It turns my room into a sweltering sauna. You have to close the curtains and open the doors and it’s still hot in there. On the other hand, the living room with it’s three walls of windows it usually chilly, no matter the weather.

Also in the back yard, if you sit in the sun it’s too hot, if you sit in the shade it’s too cold. The side porch it’s a similar problem of hot and cold, but with a breeze. Some rooms are too dark, no matter where the sun is or what it’s doing, other rooms are blindingly bright. The kitchen is an odd combination of both blinding bright and dark, you have to be standing in the right place to get the perfect light.

I’ve noticed that people here are probably used to the blinding sunsets. I’m not talk about the lovely colors, but when the sun is starting it’s slanting decline to the horizon. You can’t even look west without being literally blinded for a moment (or more).

My parents said they got used to the sunlight, but it’s still painful to me. It’s not like Texas’s sun wasn’t bright, you’d stand outside too long and get a burn, but something is different. The California sun is blinding but cool (unless you’re in a glass room). While Texas’s sun is hot but not overly bright. It’s like the difference between a 60 watt bulb and an LED light.

Now, for me, I tend to be a little colder in general, but I can get too hot in the sun. So I like to try and dress in layers. Here I can almost get away with moving to different areas of the house instead of layering up or down.

Then there is also the factor of where you are in the Bay Area which will determine the climate. We live up near the top of a hill, which is always cooler than the flats below us. But if we went through the tunnel it would be much warmer on the other side. It’s nearly impossible to dress for the weather, I seriously end up bringing the opposite of what I’m wearing just to cover all the bases (ex: if I’ve got on warm clothes, I bring flip-flops and a lighter shirt. If I’ve got on light clothes I bring shoes and a jacket). And I ask where we will be going to determine the warmth that I’ll need to dress.

But I Can say, at least it’s not humid and gross. Which makes this funny weather a win in my book.

TDY San Antonio

If you recall, Justin got the opportunity to go TDY to San Antonio a few weeks before our upcoming September vacation. I was then faced with two options.

One) Stay in Korea until our planned vacation at the beginning of September and miss Justin for two weeks while he was on TDY.

OR

Two) Go to San Antonio with Justin on his TDY, then go on to California for the remaining three weeks that Justin had to go back and work in Korea.

It came down to me being alone for TWO weeks in Korea, or without Justin but with my family for THREE weeks in California. I couldn’t be alone in Korea again. Justin had another TDY earlier this year to Denver and was gone for 8 days. I thought I would go crazy. So while we both Hate being apart, ultimately, it would be better for me to not be alone for so long. Plus Justin would be working 14 hours days (on night shift) for most of those three weeks back in Korea.

In a perfect world, I would just fly with Justin to wherever he had to be, but with a limited budget (like most people have) I could only fly back to the States once. While Justin’s TDY trip to San Antonio was paid for by his work and his second trip to the states in September was on our dime.

We had a great trip/mini vacation in San Antonio (“mini” because Justin still had to work). I felt oddly at home in our hotel room with almost nothing familiar around me. That paired with how strange I felt standing in our old house, in my old room, and realizing that I really didn’t live there anymore. I started to wonder where I felt most at home.

I’ve moved around a lot in the past year; San Antonio, Berkeley, Seoul. And while I have been a very materialistic, home-nester in the past; each move resulted in me having less stuff. I guess I’ve had to redefine “home” and the ways I feel comfortable and settled-in.


I’m in California, my San Antonio mini-vacation is over. I’m very happy to be with my family again, and very happy to be with all the animals(The two cats get along, I’m so relived). But I miss Justin.

When people talk about their spouse being their best friend, they really are. It’s different then your best friend you had growing up. But it comes down to the same thing, you really like hanging out with this person and you want to share everything with them from; how your day went, meals, chill time, adventures, basically your whole life. Plus all that awesome “etc” stuff that grown-ups get to do.

When someone is that important to you, they become an inseparable part of your life, and they become your everything. My home is where Justin is.

Justin is my home, my life and my love.

Texas Heat

All of the weather forecasts for Texas and San Antonio were making me not excited about visiting (103 F, 102 F, 104 F, 101 F, 100 F, etc). But it’s not as bad as I remember it being.

In Korea right now, it’s humid and pretty hot. So anytime you put one toe outside you’re sweating and it’s really gross. But in Texas it’s SO hot that there is hardly any humidity. It’s kind of like being under a heat lamp, but strangely enough I’m not a gross sweaty mess like I was expecting to be. There are also no mosquitoes as far as I can tell (trust me, they’ll find me if they’re alive).

The nights are particularly nice. When it finally gets dark, around 9pm the sky is a dark blue and the moon is bright white. The air is warm, but there is a breeze and it’s just kind of lovely. It makes you want to sit outside and watch the sky.

That being said, I guess I didn’t realize HOW hot it was, mostly because I wasn’t sweating. In reality I’m probably sweating like normal but it evaporates before you are even wet. Yeah, it’s that hot. (If I was outside running laps, yeah I’m sure I’d feel the sweat. But compared to stepping outside in humidity and being gross immediately to stepping outside in ultra heat and feeling hot but okay, hot is winning.)

So the first few days Justin and I would wake up, do stuff around San Antonio, come back to the hotel and fall asleep at 4pm. I’ve never slept like this before. It’s the sleep of the dead, where you just crash on top of the covers, fully clothed and all the lights on, only to wake up 5 hours later and feel like you just closed and opened your eyes. So, we started drinking water all the time even if we weren’t thirsty. It’s helped.

Even though you have to be extremely careful with this kind of heat, I prefer it to the humidity that I associate with summer. I really hate the humidity. Turns out, the heat I actually kind of like.

Airplanes: Wine in a Plastic Cup

As you know, I flew in from Korea on Tuesday and arrived in California in the afternoon. I got the cat settled, repacked for San Antonio, had dinner with a good portion of my family and went to sleep (kind of, see previous entry). The next day I flew to San Antonio (via Oakland to San Diego then San Antonio). The first leg was a short flight, like an hour, and the second leg was about 3 hours.

I usually wear my head phones the whole time and/or read when I’m on an airplane. It’s just easier to ignore the people around me and the fact that I might freak out if I think too much about how airplanes work (or potentially don’t work).

The flight was completely full and I was on southwest (a choose your own adventure seating airline). I like to sit as close to the front of the plane as possible, and always in front of the wings (otherwise it’s just too bumpy). Like I said, it was full, so I grabbed the first open seat I could find, which was a middle seat between two white guys. It’s not my first choice to sit next to guys, I prefer little old ladies (they’re usually smaller, friendly, and don’t care if your butts touch in the cramped seating). But like I said, my first priority is sitting close to the front. And this was the only seat.

So I sat down and took out my ipod and kindle, preparing to ignore people for the next three hours. The guy in the window seat started talking to the guy in the aisle seat. Window guy had free alcoholic drink coupons that he was offering aisle guy, and since I was right between them, he asked me if I wanted one too (after he asked how old I was), he had a bunch. I said sure, thanks. Then the three of us started chatting (social convention when someone gives you something and/or buys you a drink). We talked about work and where people lived and such. Then window guy fell asleep against the window and it just left me and aisle guy to either continue talking or awkwardly peter off into silence.

I probably would have gone with awkward since, but at that point my white wine in a plastic cup arrived (and aisle guy’s wine came too). So we kept talking.

I should probably clarify that this guy has a son who is my age and we were just talking good naturedly about movies, tv shows, books and living in different parts of the country.

Now anyone who knows me, knows I’m not a chatty-cathy type what-so-ever. But it was probably a combination of wine, topics I was interested in and the fact that I’ve really only had Justin to talk with for the past six months. But I talked nearly the whole time, all three hours. My mouth was dry by the time we landed because I’d been talking so much.

It was weird at first because I usually only talk to people who are very familiar with me, and I tend to speak in short-hand with them, so I’m probably not very comprehensible generally. When I’m talking to someone I Don’t know I am forced to complete all my thoughts and sentences out loud and in a way that someone else could follow. It was like a brain teaser. PLUS when he found out I was a writer he wanted to know all about that (he does…something, but wanted to be a writer too, he just never did and was very encouraging). So I was thrilled to talk about me (who isn’t? honestly). AND I was trying to convince him and his wife to start watching my favorite show ‘The Big Bang Theory’. Also, I got to suggest one of my favorite mystery series ‘Aunt Dimity’ since he said he was sad he’d stopped reading and really liked Agatha Christie mysteries.

I felt a little bit like my mom, she always has the best time talking to people she meets on airplanes (or anywhere really) and that’s a trait of her’s I’ve always admired. Most of the time it’s just that conversation, but sometimes she’ll hit it off with that person so much that she’ll make friends. Since my goal when we move back to the states is to be more sociable and make friends for me and Justin to have a social life With, well, it was good practice talking.

Bonus: one thing I discovered was, when I talked about my writing, I became more inspired to write. So, thanks random guys on an airplane for a) giving me an alcoholic beverage voucher and b) getting me excited about my work again.

P.S. my life sounds Really Cool when I’m just telling people about it, but in reality, day to day, it’s pretty boring. The best part of my day is when Justin comes home and we get to make dinner together.

12 hours

I’m trying to calculate how little sleep I’ve gotten since Tuesday. Well, Tuesday starting in Korea, I’ve had two Tuesdays in a row since flying east.

Starting with Tuesday (the first one) I really only got the minimum since I went to bed at 1:00 AM (I was packing). And the cat woke me up at 4:30 AM to get fed (since Justin was gone). Then I really got out of bed at 9:00 AM or so. So I got two, 4 hour segments of sleep.

Tuesday all day we (Gambit and I) were on the airplane and I couldn’t get any sleep at all. My internal clock was at about 6:00 AM when I finally arrived at the Berkeley house. I took a short nap then got up for dinner. So, let’s say 1 hour. It was still Tuesday.

Then Tuesday night, I should have crashed out and slept forever, but I was up until about midnight again repacking for San Antonio. I was tired but not really sleepy. I finally went to bed at about 1:00 AM and again Gambit woke me up for breakfast at about 4:30 AM. And while I usually would be able to go back to sleep, I just couldn’t. So let’s just round that to about 3 hours.

So the grand total hours of sleep since “Sunday” night (my first Tuesday =Monday) with today being Wednesday is: 12 hours.

I feel it, but I can’t seem to get enough rest. I’m sure the lack of cat-alarm in San Antonio will help. I just hope I don’t sleep my way through my time in Texas.

The Magic of Music

I don’t think I’ve mentioned it recently but- I have a deep and emotional bond to music. I don’t just mean listening to it either. I do enjoy the upbeat or sometimes melodramatic songs on the radio; and to be fair, that’s mostly what I have in my itunes catalog. But the music that always moves me, and can change me on such a deep level are naturally the classics. I mean, they wouldn’t have lasted for so long if they weren’t classic, right?

One of my favorite things to do when I’m alone is have classical music playing way too loud while I sit and am washed with the vibrations which ARE music. I haven’t done that recently. I’m not sure why, some combination of living where I don’t have public radio (my main source of classical music), and then just never having the right time while I was in the states, and before that I avoided music. I just couldn’t handle the way it moves my soul while I was putting my life back together. I must be in a really good place if I can withstand it now.

I’m not sure if it’s the same for everyone, but for me, if the music is made on a piano, guitar, violin or any stringed instrument it moves me more. Maybe it’s something about the way the vibrations are made, (and I realize that all sound and thus all music are vibrations, but the way that one note can overlap another while continuing a melody the way a piano can, is different then the one resonance chamber of any brass, or woodwind).

And it’s not just listening to music, it’s making it too. I have tried to learn a wide variety of instruments, none of them really stuck except voice. But that’s probably because you can’t really put that one down. (really, I started with the recorder then tried the viola, flute, saxophone, trumpet, oboe, guitar, piano and dum-beck(it’s a middle eastern drum). Singing is best for me because I’m not so distracted by my lack of skill as when I’m on an instrument.

But I’m shy when singing, the smaller the group the more shy I become. I often make my singing voice a little more plain than it really is when I know people can hear me. I don’t know why, maybe I’ve heard too many people that think they sound good and don’t want to come off that way. I just clam up if I know anyone is listening (even from another room). The shyness exception being singing in church and singing Christmas carols.

Also I have always mourned the lack of volume and umphf my voice has (or doesn’t). I wanted to be one of those big Broadway belters, or a sassy jazz singer with a voice like whiskey on the rocks. Also, not to sound pretentious, but, I miss going to the opera.

I have a fairly pretty voice, it blends very well, it’s mid range for a women. It really isn’t unique in any way, save I can stay on pitch while singing with others, or find a pitch in my head so I get my intervals right. The one thing I HATE hearing from choir directors or voice teachers is ‘you need to breathe more’. Really? You hear my speaking voice? I’m just quiet. And when I Do get some volume it’s not without it’s toll, I’ll lose my voice if I sing like that for too long.

But my voice aside, I have something in me that is happy when I make music, singing or otherwise. And I want to start listing to more classical music too.

Sunny Monsoon

It’s been sunny for the past two days. That’s impressive considering it’s monsoon season. The sky is a pretty blue and there are fluffy white clouds. Too bad it’s hot. Like oven hot. But when it’s raining it’s super humid, I wonder if summer is nice anywhere. At least there are no mosquitoes in the city. They were the bane of my summer existence in Texas. Well, they weren’t only around in the summer, they could really pop up any time.

We did have a nice long, cool spring though. I’d never had one of those that I remember. It was really nice. I’m used to the 9 months of humid summer weather in south Texas, with a short break of rainy and slightly cold for about three weeks.

I do kind of miss the overpowering smell of sunscreen and chlorine which was the only relief from the heat and humidity. Justin and I get to go to San Antonio for two weeks (for his work) and I’m fully intending to mooch pool time from our friend.

I've been planning our vacation for months now (and it was a little complicated so it needed lots of planning) but it's hard to believe that it's almost here! Justin flies out a week from today, then I leave Korea two days after (I have to stay to pay rent in person, how dumb is that?). Once I get to the states I won't be back to Korea for 2 whole months.

I feel like I haven't done too much since it's gotten hot and humid, I just don't want to be outside. I Have organized a book club, I am kinda proud of that. It's not a local book club, but it's with all the friend-girls I care about. (Is it just me, or is there no good name for a friend who is a girl. I don't like the term 'girl friend', 'Oh i just went shopping with a girl friend', it just sounds funny. anyway.). But it works out that no one in the book club lives in the same city. I think it's more fun to read a book at the same time as someone else, so you have someone to talk to. So I have done that.

Like I said, not much is going on. We're down to our last fridge food, trying to strike the balance of having enough milk for cereal but not having extra food that I'll just have to throw away before we leave.

I still have to pack, but I've been mentally packing my bag for weeks, so I think I'll be okay.

Cat Vacation

So our Gambit is going to have a comparably complicated summer too. The last minute TDY that Justin got which I'm accompanying him on (to San Antonio) made taking Gambit with me not possible. It was too late to schedule him as a carry-on pet OR a checked pet for my flight.

So in August when I follow Justin to San Antonio, Gambit will have to be pet-sat by my life saver, Ceci (and her husband Wayne), but for less time than she was expecting, which is good. Only... it's going to be earlier than they were expecting him too. I'm hoping they don't mind. But it's only for 2 weeks.

Then Justin will be back in Korea for 3 weeks and will take Gambit back to our place for that stretch of time. Then Justin will take Gambit as a carry-on pet in September when he flies to California. (yay!)

Gambit will stay at the Berkeley house with us the rest of the time we're in Cali, but he's going to have to put up with a variety of family taking care of him. Because Mom and I are going to an out-of-town wedding one weekend; and Justin will be out of town the same weekend. But my Dad is the cat whisper so I'm not worried.

The next stretch of time we'll be gone is when we go to visit Nick for about a week. All four of us are going and it's either one of my busy cousins or my grandfather taking care of them (the cats)... Maybe I'll ask Julia to take care of them, she's responsible and doesn't have too much on her plate right now I think.

THEN I have two carry-on cat spaces reserved for when Justin and I leave in October to go back to Korea. Right now my Mom doesn't want me to take Teddy to Korea and she's hinting that I should leave Gambit with them too. We'll see how the cats get along. But it's complicated.

Vacation!

Things are getting complicated. By things, I mean vacation. I guess vacations always will be complicated when overseas travel and pets are involved. Unless you have a dedicated house keeper who can run errands for you while you’re out of town for two months, and take care of your cat. (and I’m Not complaining, I’m so happy we get to travel home and see family and friends, and be in the US, it’s going to be awesome).

So the plan as of right now is this:

August 1-14:
Justin and Lucy fly from Korea to SAN ANTONIO. Justin returns to Korea for work (since this leg is on the government’s dime for him and he’ll be in SA for work). Lucy will fly to California for an extended visit.


September 5:
Justin will fly from Korea to CALIFORNIA


September 8-11:
Lucy and Mom will fly to MARYLAND for a wedding. Justin will fly to SAN ANTONIO to visit friends. Both parties return to California.


September 21-29:
Justin and Lucy fly with Rose Mom and Dad on a family vacation to HAWAII to visit brother Nick. All return to California (except for Nick).


October 4:
Justin and Lucy fly back to KOREA and are very broke.
***

That wouldn’t be so complicated in and of itself, considering we’ve been planning all the various parts of the trip and saving money (since January) to get us across the pond and back. BUT enter two factors:

1: we have to pay our rent and bills in person at the bank. So one of us has to be home at the 1st (rent) and 15th (utilities) of the month. OR figure out how to make arraignments otherwise (I’m working on it).

2: we have a cat in Korea (Gambit) that would need to be cat-sat for two months, or he needs to fly with us and stay mostly in California.

2B: I also want to bring my first cat, Teddy (who has been staying in California with my parents) back to Korea so we’d have BOTH cats with us when we eventually end up back at “home” in Korea.

So it’s a whole lot of complicated and involves a lot of who to what airport with which cat and when. But we're both super excited. I haven't been back in the states since January of this year. Justin has only been there briefly on TDY for a few days and before that he hadn't been back in the states since October of last year. So we're really looking forward to spending a longer amount of time back home.

Also, if you want to see me and will be in any of the places at the same time as me, email me so we can get together!

Natural Gas and Park Bunnies

First off, the way our apartment is set up has our kitchen window looking out at our neighbor's driveway and the side of his house. It’s not a very big gap between the houses, and we could probably read his gas meter from our sink if we felt like it. This is just an extension of the lack of personal space people give you here.

I guess our neighbor was having a problem with his gas pipes or something because there was a guy out there in a city workers vest on his cell phone talking loudly. Our window was open because it was a nice day and he was less than two feet from our open kitchen window…talking on his cell phone, way too loud. I closed it while starting straight at the worker and our neighbor. (the only previous interaction we’ve had with this neighbor is him telling Justin to cut our backyard grass shorter as he looks over our waist high fence, while Justin was out mowing the lawn.) The neighbor seemed confused while he stared back at me through out kitchen window until I closed the blinds as well, and I don’t think they even realized it was rude (to me). Who sings that song? Don’t stand so close to me? I realize it’s not the same sentiment, but I’d like to say that to people here constantly.

Then, later, we heard a knock at the door at about nine o’clock at night. Which is weird in its self because it means that the person already was let in through the gate without ringing for us. It’s the city worker who doesn’t speak much English but indicates that he wants to come inside. If Justin hadn’t been home and answered the door I would have never let him in. But he takes off his shoes and goes into the kitchen. He then turns on all our stove burners (they’re gas), testing them I guess, and then he turns off the gas to our stove and leaves! Umm, when can we turn it back on, who are you, what are you doing, what’s the problem? These are questions that are unanswerable, at least for us.

Just to be safe, we decide to leave the gas off until all the activity stops outside. The whole next day they're tearing up the driveway and street working on pipes and stuff. I'm assuming they've turned off the gas at the street, so maybe turning our gas off in the kitchen was just a way of explaining that we'd have no gas? I don't know, but it sure would have been nice to know what was going on.

***

As you know Justin and I take walks, almost every weekend to the park. We have a pair of bunnies that we always see and it makes me happy. I’ll frown at the Koreans who crowd the bunnies and make clapping or clicking noises trying to get the rabbits to look at their cameras, but I won’t do or say anything, because all they’re doing is scaring the bunnies away, but not hurting them. Today we saw a boy, about 8 years old running around off the path chasing the rabbits. His parents watched him calmly from the path and didn’t seem to think he was doing any harm. Maybe he wasn’t, as he would never be able to catch the rabbit, but it still pissed me off. A lot. Justin got a death grip on my arm and pulled me away from my desire to hit the child with my umbrella. I suddenly envied old ladies with umbrellas who could do such things.

On our way back out of the park I saw the boy chasing the rabbits again. But this time, his father was with him and they had one of the rabbits cornered under a tall bush and were on each side shaking the bush. I don’t know if they were just stupid or really trying to catch the rabbit, but it was too much. This wasn’t (idiotic) childish fun, this was cruel.

I could see the poor rabbit shaking from where I stood on the path. I started to walk over to them and using my best angry, authoritative voice shouted a sharp “HEY” at them to get their attention. Since I didn’t know if they spoke any English I just did my deepest scowl and shook my finger at them, arm at full length. The boy went around the bush to his father. I made a ‘shooing’ motion with my hands, telling them to leave. If people think I look mean when I’m zoning out and thinking, you should see it when I try to look menacing.

I walked closer to the bush, and the rabbit seemed fine. He started to munch on some grass as I stood guard over him while the father and son joined the mother on the upper path. I stayed there until they were out of sight. I was so mad I could have spit. I’m sure those rabbits get some unwanted attention, especially since some people bring dogs without leashes to the park. But it was the fact that it was an adult (supposedly) who was not chasing a rabbit, but cornering it. The rabbit didn’t even seem too concerned when just the kid was chasing it (even though I didn’t like it). But couldn’t these people just enjoy the rabbits without terrifying them?

***
These two events aren't related in anyway, just that they both happened this weekend.

Beijing, China (Sunday)

***
Sunday

I was planning on leaving at 8am, but left more around 9:30am. BUT I finally got down to breakfast. Nothing fancy, just cereal, a croissant and some watermelon (which oddly enough I'd been served every day in China). I said goodbye to Allie, they were leaving around noon, I wasn't leaving until 6pm. I left my bags with the concierge and set out for my first stop...To see some Pandas!

I took a taxi to the closest subway stop, it wasn't impossible to walk there but I probably saved 30 minutes of walking with a 5 minute cab ride. I felt pretty good about knowing where I was going. I got the right train to the zoo and only had a few minutes to worry about finding the zoo once I got off the subway. Turns out the ticket office was directly outside the subway stop.

I got to the zoo, bought my Panda special exhibit ticket, and went straight for the pandas. I know they have lots of other animals and exhibits, but I was trying to be time-wise. The pandas were spread out in several different habitats (because they're solitary) and it was great. Minus the crushing, sweaty throng of Asians. It was really only packed at one of the panda habitats. The panda had fallen asleep pressed right up against the plexi glass and you could see it really close. It was also one of two indoor viewing places, not that it was any cooler inside. But people were pressed up close trying to see the panda like it would save their life.I literally had to shoulder my way to the glass to see the panda, as there wasn't enough room to elbow my way to the front. I'm not sure those people knew there was more than one panda to see. I took lots of pictures, saw all the pandas, bought a few panda things, saw the red pandas too and left the zoo.

The next stop was the Lama Temple. I again had subway success but was a little lost when I got out of the subway. The zoo ticket office had been right there outside it's subway stop. But I had to walk a while to find the temple entrance. The whole street was lined with picturesque shops selling incense sticks wrapped in red paper, mini gold Buddhas, and colorful paper flowers.

I was getting a little worried about finding the front gate or Any gate and had just stopped to ask for directions when I saw the gate. It was impossible to miss, just farther down the block than I thought it would be. The lama temple was set up more like a mini forbidden city than I thought it would be...Meaning lots of gates and courtyards that go on and on, all along one axis. But the carved Buddhas were breath taking. They were in every building and there was thick incense in every courtyard. I sat on the floor of the largest Buddha room and just stared up into his face. The dim light and the statue's gold skin glowed in the diffused light and was mesmerizing. The incense smoke curled up further shrouding the statue in mystery. I walked through all of the lama temple a little like I was trying to keep up with "power walker"even though I was alone. It helped keep me on track. I made it back to the subway station and to Tiananmen square right on schedule.

***still sunday***

The next part of my custom plan required me to walk across the square and end up at a different subway station, which I would then take back to where the taxi dropped me off this morning.

Several Chinese people had been stopping me in the square to take pictures and a few wanted to practice speaking English with me. Some of them wanted me to come to dinner or tea with them so we could talk for more than a few minutes. I didn't mind spending a few minutes standing and talking, but I was on a schedule with a flight leaving at the end of the day so I didn't want to go anywhere with anyone. Also, can we say stranger-danger?

But, but...I was within sight of my last subway entrance that would take me back towards my hotel and a taxi stand when I got stopped again to talk and practice English. I had about 20 minutes extra so I didn't mind too much, and I stopped to talk to them.

It was a girl and her cousin who were from Shanghi and were visiting Beijing because the girl had just finished university. They asked what I'd seen so far and if I'd seen the old china street just behind the last building in the square. They were walking that way, would I like to walk and talk with them? okay. so we walked around the thousands of people and sure enough there was a huge shopping street that I wouldn't have seen. It's for pedestrians only and looked like it was newly renovated. They wanted my email so they could write to me and practice English. I have no reason not to give it to them. I take out my pen and the cousin ducks into a restaurant/tea shop to get paper…but then he sits at a table just inside the door.

I'm confused and ask him if he thinks the owner will mind us sitting down just to write out emails. He says no, and the girl and I sit down too. It's hot, and I have been looking forward to ice cream and want to get going. But I'm polite and chat while they write out their emails. They start to tell me about how Chinese people always get together with their friends and drink tea. And then tea is brought. Ugh.

Okay, I say, I 'll have some tea but I have to be back at my hotel by 3pm. No problem they say. We're sitting just inside the tea shop in front of a window that looks out on the street, so I feel safe, but I was getting annoyed. It was hot, I wanted to get an ice cream bar, not drink hot tea and I wanted to be alone. Not surrounded by people asking me how old I am and if I'm married. But I didn't want to be rude either, so I sat and drank my small cup of tea (and burned my tongue).

The cousin as telling me some crap about how if you drink hot tea when it's hot you'll feel cooler. Whatever, that's why ice-cream was invented. I finish my little cup of tea… but oh, we have to finish the whole pot they say, it's lucky they say. F%*@. I still have time, it's just that I don't want to be here anymore, where as before I was slightly enjoying talking to the locals.

So we finally, finally finish out hot pot of tea. And the cousin calls for the bill. I, being the polite person I am, reach for my wallet to at least pay for my part of the tea even though I was invited. But oh, the cousin's face lights up. You buy for us? he asks. He seemed thrilled so I was like why not, sure.

The bill was 450y!!! That's like 70 US dollars, for a pot of tea you'd get for free if you went out to lunch at any Chinese restaurant. So I pull out a few yuan and fake that that's all the money I had. I might have felt a little bad, but then the cousin presses, "Why not use your credit card". I say it doesn't work in China. "Why not use US dollars?" (I think he got a glance at my wallet when I took it out), I say I only have a few dollars. So he finally, reluctantly give the owner His credit card. Ha!

I say a quick thanks and book it out of there back to the subway, with the cousins trying to keep up with me, regretting my polite/friendly streak. They finally say they're going to stay and shop (as we reach the end of the shopping street) and tell me I should stay in china longer next time I come. I smile vaguely and speed walk back to the subway ready to speak Spanish to the next person who stops to wanting to practice English.

I'm so annoyed at this point because my tongue is burned and I wanted ice cream (it was Hot outside) and I'm running a little late now. I misread a subway sign and got on a train going the wrong way. I noticed immediately and it's a quick fix at the next stop where I get on the right train. But it's a sign of what the next few hours are going to be like for me.

I make it out of the subway and find a taxi. But I have to talk him into driving me to my hotel. I find it's best to get into the taxi first and then try to tell them where you want to go, then they can't drive away from you. While I'm trying to talk to a man that speaks no English whatsoever, another man is outside my window, talking to me, trying to get me to get out of the taxi I'm already in, and get in his car/unofficial taxi. I'm a female and I'm traveling alone at this point. No. Thank you. Plus I'd already used up all my 'Polite' for the day and I eventually got the real taxi to get moving.

I got to the hotel with no problem. I have no idea why the driver didn't want to take me there if he knew where it was all along. I got my bags from the concierge and change my last US dollars to cover the cost of a taxi to the airport. I got a good taxi from the hotel, he has his AC on (score) and it's 4pm on a Sunday so there's no traffic. I relax in the back of the taxi and unceremoniously repack my bag and change shoes (I would have liked to put on non sweaty/sticky clothes before I left the hotel but I packed so well I didn't have extras). We got to the airport sooner than I was expecting.

I checked in, as was asked if I wanted a window seat (thanks China Air). I got through security and was promptly picked up by one of those airport golf carts that gets old people to their gates on time. There was no one on it and the driver asked me which gate I was going to, E6, 'oh that's the farthest one, get on'. Sweet! But about two seconds into the ride he tells me it's going to be 10 yuan. I'm like, just stop the car, I can walk. He's like but it's only 2 US dollars. I'm like F you (in my head, I never Actually cuss people out), fine. So I ride the giant golf cart.

He takes me to the gate and I pay him. I have to then back track to the bathroom that we drove past and the duty free shops I wanted to look in. So I'm annoyed at him for being so pushy.

I stop on my way back from the bathroom to get a bottle of water from the vending machine. The water is 5y, the smallest I have is a 10y but the machine says there is a place for 1,5,10 and 20. So I put my 10y in and get my water.... and it keeps my change. grr.

Whatever, I finally got on the plane and just arrive at my seat when I look over at my "window seat" to find no window. Yes it's the inside seat and there are windows all up and down the plane and there Should be one according to the intervals, but there's just no window whatsoever. Not like it's half behind me (like southwest flights have sometimes) but there is just a wall. China Air:2. Lucy:0.

And that's how I feel like those Chinese people ruined the last part of my day.
And I still had to time change an hour later, wait for the post bus, get a cab from base to my home and take a shower. It was like midnight, but I was home <3

***

Since I don't want to end my blog post that way (and with people getting the wrong impression about how I feel about my trip), I'll admit that I was probably primed to be put in a bad mood, it was the fourth of a really long string of days, it was hot, I felt gross, I was denied ice cream by the gods and I kept dealing with little annoyances.

But looking back at the rest of my trip, I saw some pretty amazing things. I'm So grateful I was able to have this chance to see a lot of beautiful and historically significant places. I'm amazed that I can now say I've been to the Great Wall of China. I saw Pandas in China!! (I LOVE Pandas). I made a huge leap and traveled pretty much on my own (this from a girl who has never been to the movies alone). I also packed lightly!! (I Always over pack). I feel pretty awesome about myself and very thankful that I got to travel to China.

Beijing, China (Saturday)

***
Saturday

Well almost sleep. Allie's roommate came home and started snoring, maybe 2 hours after I went to bed. A few hours later I woke up because Allie finally came back but only a few hours before I had to wake up. So much for my full night of sleep. I didn't wake up in time for breakfast again and had to settle for more granola bars. I got picked up by a different tour guide but the same driver. We only had seven of us on this tour (we had ten the day before), but I liked small tour groups. We had one mixed Asian couple, one older British gent named Geoff, and three new graduates from UC Berkeley! Those girls were fun but it took us a few hours to warm up to each other. They were traveling together across China as a graduation present.

Our guide's name was "Power" we called him Power-walker. He walked so fast he constantly lost our small group (where HE would be the only one not with the group). We went to our first stop, the Summer Palace, it was crowded and the tour of the Palace felt rushed. But it was still beautiful. We got dragged to a Pearl Factory and had a surprisingly good lunch there. We all ate too much because we didn't know the next time we'd get good food.

Then we went to the Forbidden City (call thus because the only person who could come at go at will was the Emperor, once you went inside you were never allowed out, don't ask me why). Well we tried to go to the Forbidden City, this turned out to be harder than it should have been. The gate we were supposed to enter had a looooong line (which we didn't know about until we got off the bus and had to run to catch as it was idling in traffic). We finally got power-walked to a golf cart thing that took us to a less crowded gate. We then got power-walked through the Forbidden City in about half an hour (this place is huge too). But we didn't get to see Tiananmen square.

We then got hauled to a silk factory, which was actually slightly educational, but I was getting annoyed with all the factory stops tours seemed required to make. We finally got taken to the Temple of Heaven. It truly was a paradise of the day. The sunlight was just lowering to the golden hour and the overcast day cleared up. An evening breeze cooled everything off and the colors and shape of the Temple appealed to me on every level, the colors (blues and gold) the shape (round), both my favorites. We even got to skip the power-walking and got set free for half an hour. It was probably my favorite monument after the Great Wall. It even felt alive in a different way than the other over crowded palaces. There were dozens and dozens of retired people sitting around playing card games, or dancing, or singing, some were selling little things they made, but not in an obnoxious way. It felt real and alive and like I was actually seeing part of the city and not just a rush of tourists.

We were all tired and looking forward to going back to our hotels, but no, we got taken to a tea tasting instead. "Power" walked us right past our bus in the parking lot to this tea house (also in the parking lot). *Groans of tiredness* We at least got to sit while they showed us the different teas and had us try them. In truth it was the best factory tour we'd had. I enjoyed tasting the different teas and even bought a few tins of tea (maybe because they looked pretty too). And I got a free cup.

We finally, finally we got taken back to our hotels. There was another note on the bed when I got to the room saying Allie had gone to dinner. I'd missed them by half an hour. Again. I took a shower (happily, you get so grimy on all day tours) and went to dinner alone again in the hotel. I was too tired to explore for food.

I also talked to the concierge to plan my Sunday and met the famous "Storm Li" that all the hotel review sights rave about how good he is. And he was. He saved my Sunday. He found out the remaining things I wanted to see and showed me on two different maps (marking and letting me keep them) how I could take myself on the subway. He then wrote out step by step directions of which stop was which and where to change trains etc, and every detail I needed to know to rule the subway.

I talked to Allie for a short time when she got back from dinner. She has badly hurt her foot on Friday night and had stayed in the room Saturday. I packed and planned my Sunday more than I normally would because I had a plane to catch that Sunday night and didn't want to miss it. Blissful sleep.

(see next post)