Socks My Students Gave Me

Cute, don't you think? And soft. They're super soft.

Another Solid, Satisfying Meal from Scratch

I decided to whip up something new tonight. Unfortunately, the “one carrot to one potato” ratio turned out to be quite lopsided.



It's alright, though. I decided to save some of the carrot to put in a fresh salad in the morning. To that end, behold my ever-improving multi-tasking skills (boiling an egg for said breakfast while cooking chicken for said dinner)!



Meanwhile, the veggies wait their turn:



First the potatoes...



...then the carrots.



Like everything that I've concocted here, it tastes much better than it looks.



I overcooked the meat and undercooked the carrots and potatoes, but that's certainly the preferable imbalance out of the possibilities. Eating the chunks of carrot between bites of blander things even made the carrots taste all sweet inside my mouth. So nice.

Apparenty All Women Find This Irresistable

I succumbed to gender stereotyping and got the salad bar tonight.

The Airbase

I went to the U.S. Airbase for the first time yesterday. It was totally surreal.

The last time I'd seen so many Americans or heard so much English must have been back in America, over a year ago.

I was struck by how familiar it felt, too, though. So many of the buildings reminded me of the base I frequented in Germany when I was a kid.

The BX here had a stand with comic books, even Sonic the Hedgehog, which I used to buy in the mid-90's at Rhein Main. It had shoes just like Walmart and NFL apparel.

The food court even had Anthony's Pizza, which we ate at a few times in Germany, too. There was no Frank's Franks, but there was a Taco Bell!

And the money...the money was all green. The prices were in U.S. dollars and for the first time in over a year I saw all kinds of U.S. bills.

I ate at a buffet and immediately remembered upon entering that many restaurants in America have carpeting. I hadn't even known that I'd forgotten that until I went there yesterday. Korean restaurants just have tile or wooden floors.

The restroom on base had hot water and no trash can by the toilet - because you can flush toilet paper! In Korea the toilets are high-tech - some even have heated seats - but most restrooms aren't equipped to handle flushing paper down the toilet. Also, for some reason, most bathrooms in Korea aren't heated. That includes the water. Let me tell you, washing your hands in a public restroom in the winter here is anything but fun! And the base restroom had both paper towels and a hot air dryer. Many bathrooms in Korea have no way to dry your hands.

I was super fascinated by everything I saw yesterday and hope I can go back again. I would love to eat at Taco Bell next time!

New Address

So, by now I've been at my new job for a week. I watched for three days and taught for two. I'm still getting the hang of things.

But I did find out the address of my new school, and I did successfully receive a package there just yesterday, so I can vouch that it's a valid address.

I'll give it to my parents, and any of you who know me in real life may feel free either to ask them or to e-mail me directly. I love getting mail, so please feel free to write!

Making “Toasts”

This is what I made for breakfast today.

I want to say I'll quote my dad on this, although he hasn't actually said it yet. But I'll take the liberty of quoting him anyway (or is that artistic/literary license?), because I'm pretty sure he would say something just like this.

“What a bunch of cute, wee little French toasts!”



But now the question is...would he capitalize that F or not?

What Sweet Hearts!

Remember the girl who gave me this?

Well! On Sunday she gave me these:



And oh my...you wouldn't believe how good they were even if I got it notarized and apostilled. Wow!

Needless to say, none of them are left.