It's Been a Long Time, I Shouldn't Have Left You...

I bet you all forgot this blog even existed. Or at least I’ll tell myself that so that I feel less bad about letting it fall to the wayside so completely.

I’m sitting in a newish Angel-in-Us cafe after randomly sharing a dinner with two middle aged Uzbek men. I’d decided I would go to the Russian/Uzbek resto downtown for the second time ever. I really liked it the first time but it’s a bit hard to find. Case in point – I actually went by it and made a big circle trying to find it this time. When I went in, two men by the window motioned me to join them. I refused a couple of times but then I remembered that I need to be training myself to talk to strangers more due to my upcoming travels (more on that later) so I went over. They were quite pleasant, even though we could only communicate through my limited Korean and their even more limited English. They also ensured that I ate way too much food. I ordered kebabs (like the Pakistani kind – just big chunks of ground, spiced meat, but fatter and in a light sauce) but they also insisted I had some of their rice pilaf and an entire lamb skewer. So here I am in Angel-in-Us drinking Rooibos and trying to stave off the effects of overeating. I’ve been working on PhD apps all week and tonight is my single night off. In an hour I’ll be off to see Das Racist (a new York based hip hop act that pepper their vulgar and often hilarious lyrics with references to people like Arundhati Roy, Edward Said, and WEB DuBois) perform. I’m pretty hyped about it.

On the topic of apps – I hate doing them. I wish schools could just know how obviously suitable I am and accept me :P I’m applying to 6 schools, two in Canada and four in the States. It should be all done by December 1st assuming I get some lame GRE business worked out. I can’t wait. I’ve vowed to buy myself an ice cream fondue set (yes that exists) from Baskin Robbins in celebration. Then December will be a month of doing everything I haven’t gotten around to while I’ve been here. Also, I’ll be hitting up Shanghai to visit some lovely friends from the Guelph days of yore. Very excited.

As for post-work travel plans: they are very exciting. My plan is to spend a few days in Osaka visiting with some lovely folks from university and high school before coming back to Korea to catch my flight to Delhi. I’m in India for six weeks during which I hope to make my way down the west coast before crossing over to leave from Chennai (Madras for anyone stuck in the past). I fly to London with a short stopover in Bahrain (so I’ll be able to technically claim I’ve been in the Middle East even though I’ll only see the airport). Then I spend a month in Europe, over 10 years after I went for the first time. It’ll be cool seeing it as an adult this time. I’ll be visiting friends and fam and friends of fam, so it’ll be a nice follow up to the aloneness of travelling India solo, though I am really looking forward to my first time travelling completely solo. While I’m in Europa, I’ll be seeing Berlin for the first time as well as seeing Paris properly (since last I was there, I slept through it and was only awake long enough to see the Eiffel Tower). Then it’s time for home sweet home. I’m really excited to see everyone, eat all the food I’ve been missing, and just being back in my sweet city once again. Living in Korea has taught me that I’m not built for homogeneous living. My next post (yes, it will happen) will probably be really restospective and “what did I learn”-y so I shan’t do any more of that now.

For now, some anecdotes:
For a long time, I would walk by this one elderly fellow every morning on the way to work and I always felt like he was staring at me. But somehow, one day, I ended up smiling at him (cuz I’m just that kind of gal) and he stopped to talk. There was minimal talking due to the language barrier, but now, everyone morning, we shake hands and say anyonghaseyo. He’s very sweet. One thing I really will miss about Korea is the vast numbers of beautiful old people. Some of you know, Asha loves the old folks. A lot. Their faces especially. I’m pleased to have acquired a Korean grandfather.

This morning I woke up to find the half of my left eyebrow closest to my nose inexplicably disappeared. I look so crazy. And I have literally no idea how it happened. I don’t have a single plausible theory. It’s very bizarre. It’s also made me realize how much I use my eyebrows since I’ve been hoping my glasses will hide the missing hair but my excess of facial expressions is making it difficult.

Anyway, time for me to go get down at the show.

Love love love
AAA