tea diaries ~~~~~ groooooovy

Seoul, South Korea

I'm writing this from QUITE posh little motel room in Seoul ... with it's own internet! It's bitter cold outside and Jennifer and I are huddled in here, playing cards and listening to music and chilling out. It's been a crazy couple of days. Made it out to the airport to pick up our young intrepid traveller from America - only to find only her, and not her luggage. We still haven't found it. But we haven't let that ruin anything. :) It's been wonderful to look at Korea through the eyes of someone who hasn't experienced anything yet - my weeks at orientation in Chuncheon were like that, constant wonder and amazement at the smallest things. Eels in tanks on the side of the road, old men hand wheeling carts of cardboard, cell phones from what could only be the near future ... I love getting a bit of that amazement back, just watching her. And of course, feeding her all sorts of Korean surprises. :) We had galbi and samgyapsal, bibimbap, mandu, and kimbap already ... and I think we might just be brave enough to eat the live octopus when we make it down south to Mokpo.

So today marks the first of probably many days in which I will wash my clothes in the sink. I ... only brought one pair of pants. Yep. Two tshirts, a few layers, but not much. After hauling pounds and pounds of all sorts of business I didn't need around Europe, I decided - never again. This month will be a meditation of glorious minimalism. And the soft drippy drippy of all our clothes will lull us to sleep in these cold night hours. :) Tomorrow we're heading right to the shopping district, and buying big wool coats. Like whoa. Living on Jeju has made me real soft against this thing called "winter" ...

I hear they don't have it down in Thailand. ;)