Unhyeongung

운현궁

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The Tall Comma

My pre-kinder kids are learning about contractions in Phonics class (how old are kids in the US when they learn this??). I've never had an opinion - good or bad - about contractions before this week, but now I love them. I love them because I get to hear 11 little children try to say "apostrophe."  Apparently, this was a new word for my class. They just called it a "comma" and made gestures to show me that it belonged on the top part of the word. I can sympathize with my kids when it takes 10 seconds to sound out a new word. That's what happens when I try to read Hangul. And 98% of it still means nothing to me, even after I sound it out.  Some Hangul letters cover for a couple different English letter sounds. Korean also doesn't cram together as many consonant sounds as English does (like the "str" in "apostrophe"). So, for my little kids, "apostrophe" comes out more like "uhh-potrow-pee." And whenever one st...
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Yeti

For now, anyway, my favorite restaurant in Seoul is an Indian place. I went again with some coworkers tonight. This restaurant has the music, the decor, floor seating, and even an Indian movie running on one of the walls. (The Korean employees seemed out of place at first, but now they fit right in.) The samosas can't compete with anything made by a De (or Charpie) or Mohinani, but I still get unnecessarily excited about them. Same goes for the naan.  I ordered milk tea this time. It was also super, though its super-ness had less to do with its taste and more to do with what it makes me think about. I haven't been homesick yet...not even close really. But if any one thing in Korea can possibly make me homesick, it's gonna be the milk tea. At the same time I'm thinking of my favorite people in Minnesota and Texas, and I find myself wishing I could stop by Kerala for an afternoon cup of Molly's amazing tea.
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Graphite Chopsticks

We ate lunch outside in front of the coffee shop that gets a decent chunk of my income. I had tuna bibimbap . Like most rice dishes, this one is supposed to be eaten with a spoon. I was too lazy, however, to pull out chopsticks AND a spoon. A few minutes into my lunch, one of the baristas came outside, stuck a small plastic spoon in my bowl, and returned to her work.  When I arrived in my first grade class, quiet Shiyoo proudly held out her shiny, gray fingertips for me to see. She used her break wisely to color them with her pencil. Jason did the same but clearly forgot about it. He didn't make it ten minutes before his cheeks and nose were varying shades of pencil gray. 
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