"Them are ma secrets."

Dear old lady at the fruit stand behind my apartment,
Thank you for being so amazing and saying goodnight to me every night that I walk by you. And thank you for the free fruit you gave me last week, you pretty much make me love Korea more and more each day.

This is going to be a short one folks..mostly because my week wasn't extremely eventful due to being so sick and taking the bus to work everyday instead of experiencing daily adventures of "the streets" on my walk. Here goes nothin:

So, I woke up Monday morning to weather that dropped at least 20 degrees overnight and sinuses that were so plugged I felt like I was drowning when I was in the shower. So this sickness still continues on as I am writing this, however on our way home from church we stopped at this pharmacy and this Korean got me some powder that I have to put on my tongue like 5 to 6 times a day and supposedly it will help me with this wicked cough...some Korean remedy or something...im hoping this will clear it up, if not, then I will be experiencing my first trip to the doctor's office..and im guessing it will be a blogworthy experience.

Nonetheless, this week still had it's interesting moments. Such as on Tuesday, I was walking to work, in my usual state with my headphones in, gettin' pumped to teach English when I was stopped by three Korean women. This is how our conversation went:
them: "hello, you speakee Korean?"
me: "No, sorry."
them: "ooooooo...you christian?"
me: "yes."
them: "you believe heaven immortal?"
me: "Im not sure I understand, but I AM going to heaven."
them: "Mother God, tea time"
me: "Mother god tea time? What?"
*then I was saved by the little green walking man on the sign..
me: "Sorry, I have to go to work, have a good day."
Yet another interesting situation I would only experience by walking to work on a daily basis.

Something else, one of the nights last week, I was eating my dinner after work and watching a Korean basketball game on TV. I noticed both teams had one tall black guy, I'm pretty sure there are rules of only having one foreigner allowed to play at a time. Anyways, at the end of the game they were interviewing the black guy via an interpreter..he spoke English and definitely sounded like he was from Gary, Indiana or something..the situation just spewed awkwardness and then the interviewer asks what the player will do when he matches up against players that are taller than him and this is how the black guy responds, "Them are ma secrets, I ain't gunna tell no body." That was followed by a really confused look on the interpreters face and nervous laughter from everyone else..it was pretty hilarious..lily and I had a few good laughs.

So, midweek I asked my Korean adult students what I should do about my cough and they said to do my laundry, turn on my heat, and lay all the wet clothes all over my floor so the heat from the floor will cause some kind of dehumidifier effect. So, I finally did laundry for the first time...now you may be thinking to yourself, "Hasn't she been there a month, how on earth did she have enough 'unmentionables' to survive her." The answer is NOT that i turned them inside out to conserve water and keep my water bill down, it is simply that I packed a whole heap of delicates..anyways, I did just that and I slept like an elementary school student after their first lock in..it was wonderful...i would have taken a picture but i think you know why i didn't.

I got a cell phone this week..finally, that was a hassle, like i said in the beginning got some free fruit, and lastly, Lily and I had a little incident. While I was skyping with my friend Aaron, I was attempting to take her out so she could say hello to him too, when I suddenly remembered I hadn't really fed her that morning..The "suddenly remembered" happened when Lily had sunk her little teeth into my hand..yep, she bit me. But by the end of our skyping conversation, I fed her, put on a glove and manhandled her right out of her cage. We aren't fighting anymore and I think I've partially gained her trust back by giving her many sunflower seeds. And I cleaned her cage yesterday for her, so she is one happy little dwarf hamster.

And to close out the week, a group of teachers and several guys from the airforce base went to this place called Naejangsan National Park...the leaves were turning colors and the mountains were so beautiful! We played some frisbee, hiked a little, ate, and just enjoyed Korea's great outdoors..Here are some pics from the day..they were taken by Jon Casebolt and if you wish to purchase one, please send us BOTH your credit card information and bank account password ;)I'll post more pictures from this day on facebook later this week. Goodnight everyone and don't forget to vote on Tuesday!