Charpie's Travels

The census lady came to my house today. I'm pretty sure she came two other times... but I didn't answer the door. I don't like answering even when I speak the language of the person on the other side. I am far less inclined to respond when I'm in a foreign country. And it's evening. And my door has no peephole. And I'm wearing my pjs.  I felt bad for Mrs. Census Lady. She had more questions than the SAT, and I only understood pieces of a few of them. I suppose she had to keep asking anyway. I also felt slightly bad about the hamster. It'd been rolling around in its ball and was quite attracted to this woman. Sadly, the feeling was not mutual. I put the hamster away.  Fortunately, Susan answered her phone and took care of a lot of the woman's questions. And fortunately, the bathroom floor was only wet and not flooded when Mrs. Census Lady wanted to use the facility (every time I use my washer, my bathroom gets about 3 mini-floods). I do hope Susan t...

In case you weren't aware, Seoul is a big city. It's a big city with all sorts of wonderful things. There are sweet buildings and public transportation options that, amazingly, manage to keep me from missing my truck. There are coffee shops galore and endless entertainment options. There's a beautiful river running through the city. There are stores and restaurants representing nations from all over the world. There are ridiculously smelly trees, countless and fabulous variations on rice, and great songs about odd things like "fantastic elastic." And there are people. Swarms of people crowding into elevators with me and pushing past me to get on the subway. People sporting headphones who are transfixed by their fancy phones and portable TVs. People walking into me. People seeming to not notice me but also watching me when they think I don't see. People conversing all around me who might as well be speaking jibberish. Some days I'm acutely aware that I ...