Whole Day Off (May 28)

• Slept in nice and late today...ahhh, days off :)
• After a while, I decided to give myself a nice foot bath. We walked a LOT this weekend and my feet got extra dirty being in the city. It felt really good (and my soap smelled nice)...and then I stepped onto my floor and realized how dirty it was. Boo :/
• If you think you are good at Sudoku, I challenge you to try a Squiggly/Jigsaw, Color puzzle. It seriously throws your brain for a loop.
• I met up with Abby and Ashley for wandering downtown. First, I stopped in the bookstore and bought The Gardener, Snowy Day and Goodnight Moon for myself in Korean. I know I can't really read them, but I think it's fun to have both the Korean and English versions :)

Then I met them at LPM, where we realized that the large Korean woman who sells the sparkly hair pieces looks exactly like the matchmaker from Mulan. AHH! And I bought a cute umbrella:

After that, we walked around the stream and made our way to Cafe Sueno, where I inquired after a sandwich once but have never actually had coffee from. (On the way, we ran into Ah Yeong, one of my 6th grade students! I heard "Teacher!" and then she tapped me on the shoulder. It was so funny seeing one of my students outside of class! And it was kind of difficult to remember that she doesn't speak English very well, when I usually spend all of my time outside of school with native speakers or Winter. Nonetheless, it was fun to see her and talk with her, and she held my hand as we talked, which was so cute. Even if she has skipped my class for the last week.) The cafe was really good and also really big! There were so many cozy places to sit. Loved it! I told them about Japan and we talked about all kinds of things; it was nice to see them after not getting to see them this weekend.

• I made my way back home, with a pitstop at HomePlus. I got lots of fun things for my apartment:

Yep, house slippers. With my windows open for
ventilation and as a dryer, my apartment gets
dusty/dirty very easily. Now my feet won't get
black just by walking from my bathroom to my bed!

I keep running out of mugs. And, obviously, the best
solution for that is not to wash them but to buy
adorable new ones :D

Also, I definitely needed this small plate after I broke my 
only one. Plus, it matches some cups I already have ^^b

Also to help with the dust problem, which is the worst
in my laundry room (where the biggest window is).
It's got the HomePlus ladybug on it!

• Tonight I got to Skype with Liz and Robert and Rachel! It's crazy how much older they seem already (well, Robert and Rachel ;)). Robert talks so much, and so well, and Rachel sounds very grown-up when she speaks. She told me that they decided to call me because they figured I was missing camp this weekend :) They told me about the parade and school (Liz: "Robert, who is your best friend?" Robert: "Mason! Mason tries to step on me.") and showed me their new toys, and I told them a little about Japan and showed Rachel my new coffee mugs. In between, I got to talk to Liz a little about Japan and school (she said it sounds like working in public school...oh joy). And Liz and I tried to explain to Rachel about saving money for things you really want/need, rather than things that catch your eye at the store (life's tough when you're saving up to buy a broom). It was great :)

•  Today, I got a chance to understand what Christmas is like for non-Christians. We had the day off work/school to celebrate Buddha's birthday. I enjoyed the celebration I went to for it last weekend, but was mostly excited for the time away from work. I ran errands, met up with friends and worked to prepare for classes this week, but I didn't go to a temple or do anything to honor Buddha today. It was really funny to be on the "other side".