Letters and Laundry

(This post will be pretty random, so enjoy the ride...)

On Tuesday, four first year students, Emily and I had an hour photo shoot for the school's brochure.  It was outside.  I was instructed to wear professional looking clothing (translation: no jeans, please).  It was hotter than blue blazes outside.  I began sweating immediately, to the point that my makeup was all streaky and gross.  We took several different pictures at several different locations.  Fast forward to this morning at school.  The first thing I heard today at school today was the teacher who had taken the pictures saying to me, "Uh, Noelle Teacher, we need to take picture again.  The principal no like face.  Sorry!"  It turned out that some of the faces were blurry or covered by shadows, but at first, I thought he was telling me I was too sweaty in the pictures...  No. Big. Deal.

Classes went well today, except for one.  In the future, discipline measures WILL be taken with the first section of my first year students.  They are positively unruly.  All of the other classes were absolute peaches today.  I loved them!

Lunch left much to be desired today.  It consisted of seaweed, a bean/mushroom/onion (?) salad whose texture weirded me out, (the clincher to the gross factor:) boiled kimchi with boiled fish (the kimchi was okay but the broth that was created from the kimchi juice and the fish was not delightful... dare I say, delight-less?), rice, some sort of seaweed and chicken soup and kiwis.  So, I wrapped some rice in the seaweed (which was AWESOME!  It was tasted salty like popcorn!) and ate the kiwi.  Emily was equally as disappointed in the lunch today, so we "ran an errand" (which was accurate because this morning I had forgotten to buy candy for my class...) and went to one of the street vendors that caters to the school girls and grabbed a quick bite.  (This sounds questionable, but it was quite tasty!)  I had a deep fried rice cake (of the same gelatinous variety as the dukbooki from Monday's culinary adventure) on a stick, which was rubbed with a tangy not-quite-barbeque-but-close sauce.  Emily had deep fried chicken on a stick with a very spicy sauce.  I felt like we were at the state fair...in Korea.  Quite delightful!

After lunch and before our errand, a girl stopped me in the hall.  She handed me an envelope.  I looked at the envelope.  It was quite colorful and it had my sorority's letters on the outside.  I got a huge smile on my face and jumped up and down.  I looked at the girls and said, (or shrieked, rather) "This is my first mail!!!!!!!"  They were far less impressed and excited than I was.  They starred at me a little and walked away.  They couldn't ruin my excitement though!  Inside the colorful envelope was a hand-colored, hand-written note from Ryan, one of my beloved Iowa State Thetas!  (Thanks, again, for the card Ma'am!  You made my day!)  FYI:  It appears to have been postmarked on August 30th or so, and it arrived on September 9 (Korea time) via air mail, so I guess it takes about 10 days for letters / cards / envelope-type mail to arrive via air mail.

After the last class today, we had a mini-photo shoot (in the library...no sweat zone!) to redeem ourselves for the brochure pictures.  This time, the principal came in to set the scene and pose us.  The picture taking involved three of us sitting in chairs and three people standing behind us.  The girl sitting in the middle held a book and I pointed to a picture in the book and said something that was obviously incredibly interesting so that the camera could capture the captivating looks on our faces, thus enticing students to understand the incredible intellectual energy surrounding us.  I'd say the photo was a success...  (I wore jeans today.  So much for professional attire for the photo...  Oops.)

After school, Emily came to my apartment with me to show me how to work the mysterious Korean washing machine in my apartment.  After a comprehensive lesson, including the help of some cell phone translations, I am all set in the laundry department.  My bathroom has been taken over with my drying rack and hanging clothes from the rod that would house a shower curtain if they were a fixture in Korean bathrooms...  One delightful discovery about Korean washing machines...or at least, mine: it spin dries to the point that my clothes are almost dry.  I couldn't be more pleased.

Thanks so much for all of the e-mails, Facebook messages and wallposts, and blog comments.  Your correspondence truly brightens my day!