Bugger

I hate living in the boonies sometimes. Most of the time. I walked a ways for the bus (instead of the closest stopm for extra excercise-why can't I spell that word?), grabbed it for the express purpose to go get a mocha at Bay Wabin (Bae-wah-bean) and I got there and she was there, but closed. Brought stuff so I could hang out and write, which takes some doing for me here. It takes a while before I feel comfortable enough to hang out alone in some places here. Back home, no sweat, but here, people just don't do things on their own. Many restaurants, the minimum order is a double portion. So, some places I feel OK, others not. Not a safety thing, but a social thing. Hard when you only know so many people, and most don't want to come all the way out to your neighborhood. Grrr.

Yesterday I went downtown and bought some candles-chinese style ones with Chinese script on one and some really neat drawings on the other two. I am sure they will look really beautiful as the flame starts to get lower into the candle, backlighting the design. I'll have to send some home, for sure.

In the end, I managed to get the house cleaned up and laundry done, and I ran into Jane: she walked out of the elevator while I was waiting to get on with my clean laundry. It was kinda funny-we looked at eachother kind of suprised for a minute. Then she gives me a big hug. Her closest friend lives in my building, Je-hae, on the sixth floor. Je-hae is very nice, but her English is a lot more limited. So, Jane had to go into Family Mart to get a toothbrush and I was telling her about a funny misunderstanding on my part with the guy working at the counter. But, I say, he's a nice guy, even though we basically don't understand anything the other says. So she apparently told him in Korean that I like him. All I can say is, I hope it doesn't have the same double meaning in Korean as in English. All I need is a 19 year old Halla student thinking I've got the hots for him!......wait, maybe that is all I need...;)

I have pictures. Maybe tomorrow I will be motivated enough to show you. Just some shots of downtown. When you really look, you realize how different, small, thrown together, and often, dirty, it feels. But it is different from home, and that is part of why I left.