New stuff

After refusing to eat the larva on grounds of being a vegetarian for 18 some years, I figured it was time to really delve in and try something new.

First on my list is language lessons. I’m off to a great start, as in I can almost read, though I don’t know what the words mean. I can even kind-of count, though 80 always sounds like, and comes out as “Pile Shit” instead of some version of what it should be. When I say 18, I sound like I’m saying “fuck” in Korean.

Next is Tae kwan do class, which is the national sport of Korea. Five days a week I go and kick things, usually the air, though sometimes I miss. I’m not bad, for having done it for four times. I look pretty silly in the white uniform and I don’t scream ”Hi-Ya” which gets me in trouble.

Finally, as a direct result of the cold, and the facts that muscles I didn’t even know I had have been aching for the last four days, (I am assuming from my adventures in kicking air), I also adventured off to the local spa. The spa is another great Korean tradition directly resulting in their desire to be clean and that in the past many homes didn’t have baths or hot water. Similar to Eastern European spas (minus the mineral water), you lounge in a variety of heated pools, saunas and steam rooms. Here, though, you are segregated and naked, which has its advantages except when the 9-year-old girls want to practice their English. Then the naked thing is a little weird.

So, that’s my first month.