Teacher, Bug!

Dear bike master who lives below me,
Thank you for fixing my bike for free AND giving us rice cakes!

Well, this past week was more eventful than I thought it was going to be. Up until Thursday, everything went as usual. Like I said, I've been trying to remember what my students say to tell you about it, but since they are really caught on the word "dung" which i found is basically the Korean word for poo, I figured I'd spare you the details.

Thursday came and it was really quite a day full of unexpected happenings. The morning class was it's same ole same ole. I love that class. We now have 6 regular adult students coming. The orginal 3 and then 1 other middle aged woman and two college aged girls added the class. Mr. Che is one lucky man.

Then I went on to the company class. On my way out of the class I ran into this white dude, and we were both like, "what?" So, we got to talking and turns out he's from Holland and is actually an employee of the company. His name is Floris and he is 1 of 2 foreigners. At first I was struggling to understand him. I mean his English was basically perfect and far better than a big majority of Koreans I've talked to these past 9 months, but he had this European accent and he actually used prepositions and articles. I felt like I had forgotten English myself when we were talking. Anyhow, It was nice to see a little diversity for a change.

The afternoon classes started out with one of my younger students dropping a glass container full of beads on the floor sending glass and beads everywhere. That was a bit of excitement, and it didn't stop there. The very next class, I walked in and one of the students, shouted, "Teacher! Bug!" over and over again, he shouted this. You would think this would spark some kind of reaction from me, but since for the first 2 minutes of class, this particular class shouts random things like this in English, it didn't really phase me.

A little later, after I quieted them down, the little boy got serious while he took out his pencil case and said, "teacher, bug." I was like, "Seungwon, I don't understand." He didn't really say anything so I turned around to write something on the board. When I turned back around, there was Seungwon holding this "bug."



They all got a good laugh from my reaction of a gasp and eyes bulging out of my head. Turns out Seungwon found him in the park behind our school and had been carrying the lizard around all afternoon in his pencil case. The boys all took out their small box cutters (I have no idea why it's a requirement for elementary students to carry around box cutters, but it is) and wanted to cut it's tail. Obviously, I would not allow this.

Today I walked into the same class and asked Seungwon about the lizard and he says, "Maybe die." I was like, "What, did he die?" He shrugs, pulls out his pencil case, opens it and exclaims, "No, it's not die!" Boys will be boys no matter the country.

The excitement of Thursday finally ended and the weekend was here. This past weekend was the 40th anniversary of the church I've been attending here. I think I've mentioned it before, but I go to a church here called The Haven. It's an English speaking church with an American pastor and really, it's purpose is for the guys on the American Airforce base, but there are Koreans, teachers, other random foreigners who are apart of the church too. So, it was a big gathering this weekend with many people sharing about their experiences from being at the Haven in past years and talking about how much it has meant to them. It was really awesome hearing all the stories, and I think I have come to the realization of how much this church and the people in it mean to me. They have really become my family these past 9 months, and it's been hard saying goodbye after one of them has finished a contract or their year service. But the pastor, his wife, and those that are still there continue to be such a comfort to me when I'm feeling lonely and homesick. Although no terrible or depressing event has taken place thus far, I know that if something did, I would have this incredible support system to stand with me. The church is such a blessing.

Well, I figured I'd keep this one short. There are a few other random things like riding around Gunsan on this ghetto bike that I inherited and still getting asked as I speed by the masses of Koreans, "Hello, how are you? Where are you from? What's your name?" or going to Lotte Mart and seeing that they are selling the iPad2 or seeing, also, that they are selling bug nets that are supposed to go over beds to keep the bugs out during the summer (uh oh, I foresee a blog about REAL bugs coming soon). The weather is not too hot, however, my apartment is a sauna for reasons I don't understand but it's almost June 1 so I will start using the A/C soon! Yay! That's all I have, hope you are keeping cool and enjoying your summer!

Arm Fur

Dear sleep,
I'm sorry we couldn't catch up this weekend.

This past week was EXHAUSTING! We even had a "sort of" holiday on Monday. It was Teacher's Day. However, this was the first day I was to start my new company class. So, I did have to go to this one class right in the middle of the day. However, after this class, I decided I wanted to do something to treat myself. I called up Mr. Oh, the old man who used to drive me to church, and we went and saw "Thor" in 3D. It was sweet, and Mr. Oh was pretty floored to see his first 3D movie.

And so, my schedule has changed. I've tried to see the positive in this new schedule, but the biggest negative of all is really getting the best of me. Because of this new class, I am unable to have lunches or other random adventures with my morning class. I'm really going to miss that.

Now I work in the morning/afternoon until later at night. It's a split shift and I pretty much spend my whole entire day at work with a little break to go to the gym. Like I said, it's exhausting. BUT these students are very nice. I am now spending everyday from 11:40 to 12:30 at a company called Tata Daewoo. I teach 2 groups, a beginner class and an intermediate class. They are all very great people and very eager to learn English. Getting their names has been a little difficult, but I always have those students who try to make it easier when they tell me their English name such as "Spring" or "Rain." They probably didn't know what to choose so they just looked out the window for ideas.

The week was busy busy busy. I leave the apt at 9 a.m. and don't get home until about 9:30 p.m. Lily must really miss me. Classes were the same ole same ole. One funny moment was in my 4 oclock class. We were talking about things that are soft and the word, "fur" came up. They apparently never heard it and so I was explaining it to them and they say, "oh, I understand. Fur is on teacher's arm!" then they all start touching my arm hair and saying, "oooooo." Koreans don't really have hair on their arms, AND they only need to shave their legs like once a month. Why, God, why?

The weekend came and it was probably more exhausting than the week. It was my wonderful and beautiful friend, Elizabeth's birthday! I wanted to make it special because it's really hard to be away from home on special days like these. So, I was planning a surprise birthday party, and as you probably know from stories I've told, I am an awful liar. So, it's a good thing, Elizabeth and I mainly contact each other through the internet. Friday night I spent the whole night making this little scrap book thing of all of our adventures thus far in Korea. It was really great going back and remembering everything we've done here, I'm excited to someday look back on this blog, and be like, "What the? Why did I eat that moving octupus tentacle?" Although it was fun reminiscing, I stayed up way too late and then spent all of Saturday running errands, finishing the scrapbook, making those who shall not be named feel guilty about eating dog, and crossing other various things off my to do list.

Well, she loved the scrapbook, and she really was surprised when she walked into the party. About 14 people showed. We ate chili cheese dogs with baked beans, potato salad, veggies, and cherry tomatoes, just like good Americans we ate until we felt like we were going to explode. We also had this awesome ice cream birthday cake from Baskin Robbins, yeah, we actually have 2 BR's in Gunsan! Here's the pic of the birthday girl, and her cake.



So, Saturday was a really late night as well. On Sunday afternoon, I went to help one of the guys from the airbase clean out his room since he's leaving this Thursday. I'm really sad he's leaving, but very happy that he's going to be able to be reunited with his family AND also, he gave me his bike, bike pump, a pan, and ALL these amazing groceries! Hello, Hamburger Helper! And after Thursday, I'll be cruisin round Gunsan on a ten speed, oh yeah.

Sunday evening, we had a little going away thing for the Airman and another teacher who is also leaving on the same day. Goodbyes are pretty hard here, because it's almost like we are living in a whole separate world from what our lives used to be and saying goodbye feels like your saying goodbye forever. BUT I must think about how fun it will be to reconnect with these people in different parts of the world or randomly run into them at Disneyworld or something :) This also made me realize how truly difficult it's going to be to say goodbye to my students and people that have become such a huge part of my life. *sigh* I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Well, that wraps it up. I'm worried my blogs might start getting dull since my life is pretty consumed with work these days; I'll probably be writing more about the funny things my students say. The things that come out of those kids mouths are just so....for example 2 hours ago, I said, "Sky, are you finished?" and he says, "Yes, teacher, I'm dung." (on purpose) And then the whole class erupts in laughter. They love the word, "dung." It's a little gross, but it could be worse right?

O.k. hope you are all well and that you didn't fret over the ending of the world this past week :)

"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come." -Mark 13: 32-33

Locker Room Lunch

Dear locker room ladies,
Why do you do the things you do?

This past week seriously felt like 3 weeks had passed. I think it's the holiday that gets me. Korea celebrated Buddha's birthday on Tuesday, so everyone had the day off work. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. My week was packed full of fun, interesting, and disturbing situations.

On Monday, Mrs. Ko invited me and Mrs. Nam over to her traditional Korean house for some tea. The traditional house was very very neat. When you walk in the front gate, it's like your walking into a court yard from Medieval times. There is a stone wall that surrounds the yard until it ends at the small hill. On this hill she had planted tons of Azaleas and on top of the little hill they had planted a bamboo forest. It was beautiful. The pictures don't really do it justice. The house is a little hard to explain. Basically it is one story, fairly long, somewhat narrow, and the doors are made for very very short people. Here are some pics:

This is the view from the back gate

This is the front gate. On the other side is the driveway. The room to the right is the laundry room, the room to the left is a wine storage room.

The house is to the right and the little building right in front is a little porch. Notice the large, decorative kimchi pots to the right. You could play a mean game of hide and seek with access to those things.

The front of the house.

Inside the house..I tried to capture the shortness of this door, I don't know if I did. This was definitely not made for the average American.


The hallway
Tea time with Mrs. Ko and Mrs. Nam!

Tuesday was Buddha's Birthday. Several teachers and I went to the base to play some racquetball and eat some lunch. Watch out, Abby Bentle, I'm taking you down when I get back! Nothing like celebrating a Korean holiday surrounded by America's finest and chowing down some Taco Bell. Outside of base, all the Buddhist temples serve a free lunch of rice and kimchi, I didn't take advantage of this at the time, but little did I know I would have quite the scarring experience with rice and Kimchi on Thursday.

Wednesday came and went, but Thursday was quite the day. After you read these next few paragraphs, you will quickly understand why I do not have pictures to go along with this "first."

I think I've told you this before, but the locker room at the gym I exercise at is a pretty liberal place if you know what I mean, and the time of day that I exercise is at about the same time as roughly 15 middle aged women. Let's just say my eyes are glued to the floor as much as possible when I walk in those doors. This actually reminds me of a story I forgot to tell you last week.

A couple weeks ago, I walked into the locker room and I first noticed that the women were actually fully clothed while doing their hair and putting their makeup on, then I noticed a man who was working on the water cooler. That explained the unusual modesty of the women. But then, unfortunately, one of the women did NOT notice him and right there for the world to see she whipped her top off (all parts of her top) and all the women in the locker room gasped a little and the man said, "Omo" which means "Oh my!" She finally noticed him and was soooo embarrassed while all the women just laughed and laughed and laughed. Clearly that water cooler worker got a little more than what he was being paid for.

So, you catch my drift right? The locker room is not for the faint of heart. So anyways, Thursday's workout was a little odd. I don't know what it is about Koreans, but they barely sweat. Maybe it's because they spend the majority of their time doing crazy stretches, but I definitely stand out with the amount of sweat that I disperse everyday. Thursday, while I was doing my last weight machine this lady gave me an enzyme replenishing drink. I thought it was pretty humorous but also very nice.

I was noticing during my workout that not many of the women were around. I was also noticing a strong food smell. I finished up and walked into the locker room. In the locker room I saw about 12 women standing around the bench area in the middle of the room. On the bench sat the biggest bowl I have ever seen filled with rice in this spicy red sauce with sides of Kimchi. I was a bit taken aback. These women, half of which were topless and the other half just in their full out birthday suit, were chowing down right there in the locker room. I thought I could just get my stuff and high tail it out of there, but they would not have that. Instead, a lady in her birthday suit came over and tried communicating to me that I should come and eat. I tried to refuse, but I didn't want to risk more of them flocking over to me. This was definitely going to be a first. So, I wedged myself into this awkward circle of women and started eating this rice and Kimchi. It was pretty spicy, and I had literally just come out of an hour and a half workout, so I tried to eat it quickly. I finally had about 1/4 of it left in my bowl and thought I was home free until another lady gave me a huge spoonful of rice and more Kimchi. ugh. But I finished it off like a good foreigner.

The whole time I couldn't really understand this situation. Where did this food come from? Why did they bring it in the locker room, isn't this kind of gross? How did they get that huge bowl in here? How are they eating this right after working out? (biggest question of all) WHY ARE THEY ALL SO NAKED? They tried talking to me, which was nice, but from their odd gestures, I'm kind of glad there was a strong language barrier. Anyhow, I thought the weirdness was over, but on my way out, I said thank you to the ladies and one of the older ladies just slapped me on my behind like we were a couple of high school boys in a basketball game. Weirdest workout for sure.

Friday came and I was ready for a little normalcy. But that was not in the cards. I was walking to work and this lady came up to me and was speaking Korean like we were BFFs, it was a little strange, but she seemed nice. I ended up taking the bus, and I said good morning to the bus driver and enjoyed the 5 minute bus ride as opposed to the 35 minute walk. When I got off the bus I was walking away, pretty close to the front of the bus when the bus driver honked. It startled me at first, but when I turned around the bus driver was waving goodbye. This also was a little strange, but nice. I was the first one to work, and already was a little jumpy from the bus incident. While I was sitting alone in the teacher's lounge, the fire alarm went off very very loudly. I nearly jumped out of the 4th story window it shocked me so much. Turns out it was just some testing the fire department was doing.

So Friday was also a bit unusual but at least I wasn't forced to eat spicy food in a lockerroom full of naked bodies. Friday night, Elizabeth, Hwa Jeong, and I went to a Jim jil bang. This was actually pretty neat. These jim jil bangs take up a whole building. There are saunas, bathhouses, a gym, a TV, massage chairs, sleeping areas, sleeping cubbies, a snack bar, etc. It's a pretty cool hangout spot. Many people spend the night at these places, on the floor, in the wide open spaces. I'm not sure why they want to sleep there in front of strangers, but people do. It was definitely a first and I could see it becoming a second as well.

Saturday was such a great day. The pastor of my church took a small group of people fishing at this nice lake outside of the city. Due to my past failures, I wasn't expecting much, but I DID catch a goodlooking bass which we ended up cleaning, frying and eating for dinner. For lunch we ate MRE's which stands for "Meal, Ready to Eat." It's what people in the military eat when they are at war. It's actually pretty cool and if I had more time I would explain it in my own words, but if you are really that interested you can read about them here.

So, the week came to a close. It was a very long, yet eventful week. I hope I didn't bore you too much :) Have a wonderful week!

Happy as a Clam

Dear all mothers and fathers,
Remember when your children would always say on Mother's Day or Father's Day, "but why can't there be a Kid's day?" And then you answered, "because everyday is kid's day." Well, well, well, you neglected to tell us that basically every other country does in fact have a day designated to giving money, food, toys, etc to kids. Beware, I'm bringing this holiday home with me!

May 5th was Children's Day here in Korea. And it's a legit holiday. It's not like they say, the second Sunday of May is a "holiday." What good is that? It's a Sunday, you don't have to go to work anyway. No, Children's Day is always May 5th in Korea and it's always a day that everybody has off of work (most people), kids or no kids.

Apparently, the "kid" age is from 0-12 and these kids get some sort of gift or money on Children's Day. Many of my students got bikes or money. And if you're an older kid,you would spend the day with your family anyway either going to the movie theater or going to the beach or park or Emart. It was nice to see everyone out and about with their families.

It's an interesting thing. I'm so used to a Monday to Friday work week that I just assume that it's the same around the world. But from what I've observed and talking with a couple of people from different companies, I've come to understand that many working Koreans will work 6 days a week or even 7 days a week with like 12 hour shifts. It seems most companies do not guarantee a Saturday and Sunday weekend..I mean, even the kids go to school every other Saturday and a good number of kids also go to extra schooling on Sundays. SOOO, you can understand having this one day off for Children's Day was a big deal for most people.

Well, seeing that I am childless and away from my family who would have surely showered me in gifts on this day, I decided to go with Elizabeth's school on a picnic. What better way to spend Children's Day than with a bunch of little children? The school took their kindergartners and a few older students, along with all the kiddie's parents to an island off the coast of Gunsan. We got to this island, Sunyu Do, via an hour long ferry ride. It was such a perfect day to experience another "first."

The weather was wonderful and the ride to the island was surprisingly smooth. We got to the island and our group of about 85 hopped into these little golf cart type vehicles and toured the island. Our driver, who was one of the fathers, was especially adventurous. He was quick to ditch the rest of the carts and cross bridges that maybe we shouldn't have crossed? Well, we survived and took many many pictures. I'll show you a few pictures but I took so many and I put a bunch up on my facebook. Here's the link. Click here.

After our adventures of touring the islands in the cart (One in which involved witnessing a small whale that was unfortunately beached and very very dead :( , we made our way to the beach area. The tide was out, so our next activity fell right into place.

We went clamming. This was my first time clamming. There were no instructions, apparently, everyone knew what to do. However, I did not, but this is how the process works. First, you must have the right tools. These are: sandals, a small shovel, a bucket, a bag of salt, good hand eye coordination, and patience. Second, you must scrape the wet sand about a half inch. Third, you must pour a little salt in the clam hole. (Note: you must not pour salt in the bazillion air holes that you will probably think are clam holes and will find out an hour later that you've been staring at an air hole for the past 5 minutes in great anticipation.) Fourth, you must resist the temptation to grab the little clam on it's first appearance from it's hole. Fifth, you must grab the clam by it's shell and pull when it shoots itself out of the sand on it's second appearance. Sixth and final step, you must not drop it but you must put it in the bucket with the other clams.

(Why salt you ask? Well, I was told that you pour salt in the clam hole so that the clam thinks the tide has come in and thus it will catapult itself out of the sand to feed...instead they become our feed..muwhaha)

I did not get the memo about bringing salt or a small shovel. So, I found an ajumma who was clearly an experienced clammer and she let me and a 10 year old girl follow her and pluck out the clams. I was so excited when I uprooted that first clam, but then Elizabeth informed me that it didn't count since I was simply following this expert clammer around. So, although, as you can see in the picture that I was happy with this first clam, I knew I must catch my own clam before the tide came in.
Elizabeth was gracious enough to let me use her tools and I went huntin'. Unfortunately, a long while later, the ajumma who had been observing us got someone to translate to Elizabeth and I that we had been pouring salt in air holes. She said we needed to look for oval holes. So, we did, and finally we were so close to catching one..there was small crowd of people around us and an old man was telling us that the clam was about to come up and then....the tide washed it away. Elizabeth had already caught a couple on her own, so she went in and I decided to get a good distance from the water and try one more time. Finally, after pouring salt in numerous holes, a little clam revealed himself to me and I snatched that shellfish like there was no tomorrow. I shouted, "Elizabeth!" She was nowhere to be seen. There was only a cute little family who was clamming close to me, they politely clapped for me and then took my picture for me. It was quite the experience.


I gave my clam to someone else. Ever since my last lively seafood dinner, I've decided to take a temporary rest from trying new seafoods.

After the clamming escapade and lunch, we were able to rent some bikes. One of the girls had never rode a bike, so we rented one of those tandum bikes. So, I guess another first was accomplished this day. I was the "driver" for this girl who had never rode a bike. It was way harder than it looked. Maybe it was because the girl didn't really have the balance concept or maybe she was kickin' her feet up and not peddling at all whatsoever, but going uphill was basically impossible. Turning was pretty difficult too, there were a few times I almost lost her.

The day ended with only a few minor mishaps. One, two little girls crawled into the cart and drove it into the a pile of cement. Two, a boy named Dave was temporarily missing but soon found trying to drive a boat that was on shore, and a slight mishap in the moving cart that involved one teacher falling out (but tucking and rolling quite nicely and thus avoiding major injury).

After getting back to the apt, I decided to walk over to Elizabeth's to get some of her pictures. I've noticed several times on the walk from my apartment to her apartment there is a Golden Retriever that is always tied up on someone's porch. So, I decided that it would be a perfect Children's Day if I ended it by petting a Golden Retriever. The owner spotted me from his house and I politely bowed, smiled and kept petting the dog I decided to name "Cami." Here's she is:


The rest of the week was fairly uneventful, and on the weekend I was hit pretty hard with a sore throat and stuffy nose. With the help of my friend Nyquil I slept the weekend away! It was pretty relaxing, but I still feel a little under weather. It could be this sudden burst of humidity that makes living life slightly uncomfortable and smelly. I am not looking forward to the rainy season, but I am looking forward to another holiday this week, Buddha's Bday! Hope all is well, and Congrats to all those ONU graduates! Oh I forgot to add I was able to watch all my ONU friends graduate through the livestream Olivet had on their website...it was very very difficult to stay awake, but was way worth it! Love you girls!

I'll leave you with a picture of me and this adorable child. Happy Children's Day!

#58 Learn to Knit or Crochet or Both

Dear employees of Emart,
Thank you for your effort.

How could I possibly top last week's blog? I can't. Last week was a bit of a "downer," so this blog might seem like a downer at first. Of course my students never cease to make me laugh on the inside and my daily adventures in the supermarket are always highlights, so stick with me.

Last weekend was the peak time for the Cherry Blossom season here in Gunsan. I was sad to see them go last week, but at the same time, a bit relieved. I love Cherry Blossoms so much that I feel like I needed to skip school and just lay under a Cherry Blossom tree and stare at it's beauty for hours and hours and hours. It was kind of stressful. Every time I was indoors, I felt like I was missing out. Now that they are all gone, I can be somewhat content with staying indoors.

I mean look at this beauty, isn't it stressful?


So, I had these plans to move in with a friend this next week, but our plans fell through when my apartment was sold to another owner and my director signed a 4 month release just a couple weeks ago. Bummer. I guess my market hasn't seen the last of me. Bring on the Kimchi stench on my balcony and several months of summer fish stank that will no doubt come wafting through my door.

Also, last week, I was told starting May 16, I will most likely be taking on yet another class. Bummer. This class will be a company class. I haven't really experienced company classes yet, but I hear they are some work. I will be going everyday from my morning class to the company, tata Daewoo, to teach an advanced 50 minute advanced conversation class. Although I'm not looking forward to leaving my apartment at 9 a.m. and not getting back until 9:30 p.m., I am looking forward to meeting new people and teaching more advanced students. I think it will be a good experience to teach this business type student.

And on the homefront, all my incredible friends finished up their college careers at the end of last week and began their senior week. A week that if I were anywhere close to Bourbonnais, I would be joining them in the celebration, but I'm about as far away from Bourbonnais as I could be...bummer. A few weeks before I boarded that Asiana flight that dropped me off here in Korea, I sat at Lowell Park and made a long list of Pros and Cons about this job in Korea. Number 2 on the Con list was that I would be missing the monumental moment of college graduation in most of my friend's lives, and since they made my graduation sooooo special last year, I wished more than anything that I could do the same for them. So, currently, it's been a little bit of a rough patch being so far away from those college friends who are no doubt, at this moment, participating in corny Olivet senior week activities that if the price was right and I had the vacation days, would be there right along with them!

The weekend came, and I was so ready. We had been planning for a long time to go to Everland Amusement Park in Seoul. It's this big amusement park similar to Disney World or Six Flags, but less extravagant. But once again, things were not going my way. They called for rain the whole entire day and strong winds. So, the trip got canceled. Bummer.

With the cherry blossoms leaving, the "moving into a bigger and better apartment with a roomie" dream was crushed, the added class, the "homesickness," and the canceled weekend plan, it really was not a top notch week.

Although the word "bummer" was a consistent thought, there were still some humorous moments. For example, one situation involved one of my little students named Mingi. This boy is so cute. I really should take his picture, but his personality is even cuter. He's 12 years old and pretty good in English. He and his friend like to make trouble while I'm writing on the board. He's always the one to apologize to me right away, or if he knows he really upset me, will stay after and apologize after class. On Thursday, his friend, Hyun soo, was leaning back on his chair and I told him in a very teachery stern voice to bring the chair down. He immediately brought it down, directly on Mingi's foot. (I have this rule that they MUST never speak Korean in class) So, at this sudden pain in his foot, Mingi shouts, "TEACHER, MY FINGERS! MY FINGERS!!!!" while holding his toes. It was pretty hilarious and I was quick to correct him, "Mingi, do you really mean fingers or do you mean toes?"

Saturday, I was a bit bored. The plans to go to the amusement park fell through, and I was having a hard time reaching anyone who had time to chat on Jacksie (the name I gave my magicjack). So, I was reading my bucket list and saw #58 is "learn to knit or crochet or both." So, I thought, yes, why not today? So, I thought, surely LotteMart will have what I need and if not, Emart will come through for me. After exercising and watching Elizabeth get a haircut, I walked to LotteMart ready to conquer #58. Although I did find a cute shirt on sale, there was no knitting or crocheting gear in sight. I even was brave enough to ask one of the workers, who said, "we no have." So, I had time, why not try Emart as well. So, I hopped in a taxi and drove across town to Emart.

And although I did find a cute sweatshirt, skirt, AND shirt also on sale, I could not find what I needed to cross off #58. So, I decided to again, attempt asking an employee in English about knitting or crocheting materials. This employee was very nice. I approached her in the kitchen department and tried to show her with hand gestures what knitting meant. Like I know what hand gestures to make. So, she said, "oooooo, okay." and then she motioned for me to follow her. I was like, "score!" But then we rounded the corner and she said, "here." We were standing in the aisle full of the feminine products. I politely laughed and said, "ani" (no). And again tried with the hand gestures, after finding an employee who was willing to practice her English a little, she understood and informed me that Emart does not carry the things I needed. It was a bit of a bummer, but I did get a new outfit out of it.

So, it was a week of ups and downs...but mostly downs, yet I still enjoy this country and these people. Hope you are doing well..it's been quite an eventful few days of news and I must say, I'm proud to be an American!