Ketchup On Your Chores

Tonight I went out with some girlfriends

to see a late showing of Les Mis.

Rolling Into the house around midnight,

I was hungry so I threw together some

artichoke bolognese pasta

to cure the rumbling tum-tum.

Delicious

Of course, that gave me a little

time to kill, so I pulled out the ketchup

and started polishing the silver...

This is why you don't leave your silver unattended.

No this is not a weird dream sequence,

it's just Thursday night.

I turned the every few minutes to get a full soak.

I know what you're thinking,

"Why are you using ketchup?"

Ok, let's be honest,

you're also thinking,

"Why are you making bolognese at midnight?"

"Why are you carry silver around the world?"

etc.

Since these questions are trickier to explain,

I'm going to stick to the ketchup 

as the weirdest part so... 

Tomatoes plus oxygen eat metal.

Which why you should never leave them in a can

or metal pot in the fridge, and why they say cook 

tomato sauce with non-metallic spoons.

Ketchup is a smooth tomato paste.

It rubs on easy and I use it to also

create a polishing bath

which takes some of the work out of the process.   

My poor babies need a lot of love.

I still need to do the last bit for work 

to really make them shine,

but they are well on their way to recovery.

So remember,

next time the silver in our backpack 

is looking a little drab

just ask the natives for some ketchup.

  (keep in mind, ketchup cleans all metals.

So if you have antique things 

or old crusty metal fixtures, 

this is a safe cleaning agent to try.) 

As for me,    

this summer I'll be enjoying

my morning espresso on the roof

with jam and crumpets.

    

Just because I live abroad,

is no reason to live like a savage. 

Gone Country

Sometimes you gotta go back to your roots.

I didn't move to Korea to forget,

I moved here to start over with what I had.

Good or bad,

I fell in luv with a country boy.

And like every good country boy, 

the first big thing he bought me

were my own boots.

Unfortunately, these boots were made for walk'n

and he's been chasing after them ever since.

From Nashville to Korea

and someday - maybe - back again.

That's the way it goes when a county boy

falls in love with a hippie girl.

She will carry those around boots forever,

but they will probably be made of Spanish Leather.

Home Grown Korean

My students creating my daily lesson plan.

 Learning to speak a language "fluently" is a beast.

It's so much harder than just memorizing vocabulary.

You have to learn new social rules, 

new assumptions, 

new gestures,

and new ideas.

It's an entirely new way of thinking about the world.

Right about the time you think you are getting ahead,

something happens that knocks you back a bit.

In short, its a long climb up a long, hard hill.

Which is why I study Korean 

rain or shine.
My kids face this challenge every day,
and I need to face it with them.

Recently,

after suffering from after holiday mind mud,

I found myself searching for direction,
in both teaching English and learning Korean.

What I found was the awesome:

www.memerise.com

TOPIK vocabulary list

Memerise makes studying vocabulary
 rad, cool, awesome and fun.

They link learning to the concept of gardening.

Thus creating the best tool, by far, 

for getting your head back in the game of learning.

It also has something other study systems don't have:

A built in system for 

systematically reviewing 

vocabulary over time.

This feature is a huge deal,

it ensures you truly know your stuff!

It might also give you great ideas

on how to make learning more fun for your students.
Come on now,
it's time your language skills grew up.

"Yes"terday's Dinner

One of my all-time favorite shows is "Being Erica".

It helped give me the idea 

of moving to South Korea in the first place.

In the show there is a total tosser 

who writes a book called "The Power of Yes".

It was so ridiculous, but it got me thinking, 

"Why not?" 

Why not just say, "Yes" 

to everything I am offered?

So, for the last three years I've done just that.

This last weekend -

as I bit into some of the best 

meatballs, braciola, and Italian sausages

I've had in my life - 

I realized they tasted like, "Yes."

Each bite made you feel like life was 

easy, exciting, and rich.

Each mouthful made me want to say,

"Yes", to family.

"Yes", to friends.

"Yes", to adventure.

"Yes", to risk.

"Yes", to reward.

I know. I know.

That's a lot to read into a meal,

but when people cook you can taste who they are 

and/or who they want to be.

If they are afraid... you can taste it.

If they don't care... you can taste it.

If they are exhausted... you can taste it.

  

but at the same time

If they love... you can taste it.

If they dream... you can taste it.

If they live... you can taste it.

So, although I have only just met my lovely hosts,

I think they must be amazing people, because 

last night "yes" was rolled into every spicy 

meatball, braciola, sausage and rice ball.

Only Linda Ronstadt Really Gets Me

Oh, look at poor old pitiful me.

 There is no doubt 

my drama had gone stale.

The plot lines had dwindled 

and no cast had matriculated.

Sure, I could blame it on Korean's being cold,

or ex-pats being a bunch of twats,

but that's the easy way out -

blaming others for my isolation.

The truth is that I stopped trying.

I stopped reaching out.

I stopped going out.

I stopped planning things.

I stopped doing things. 

I had other priorities and it got out of hand.

However, for a moment I felt the blame trickling in.

For a minute I felt, "Poor me" settling into my constitutions.

"Poor me" I don't have any friends.

"Poor me" everyone left me.

"Poor me" it's so hard to meet people with the same interests.

"Poor me" I have to do everything myself.

So I called "Bullshit".

There is no poor me.

There is just me being stupid.

There is just me being selfish.

There is just me expecting other people 

to solve my problems.

 

I took responsibility.  I reached out.

Within minutes my life was booked out for months

because my friends are many and they are wonderful.

There was never any, "Poor me" 

there was just me being a dip shit.