Kimchi, not for me

• Home-schooling (most recent, my sister and I were just discussing it on AIM)
• Islam
• Muslim countries - is there such thing as a theocracy that didn't turn into a dictator-type state? (emphasis on the word type)
• Afghanistan - looking at a website today where the slogan was "Afghanistan: the friendliest country in the world, possibly even the universe" They also sold shirts in the I-heart-NY style that said "I heart Afghanistan."
• The exorbitant cost of international direct-dial phone calls (Ron White's diamond slogan "Diamonds: that'll shut her up." is applicable to direct-dialed phone calls - or perhaps just to the phone bills.)
• The extreme frustration that comes from the language barrier
• How efficient so many organizations/institutions in the States are - and how spoiled I've become to that - being laid-back is a requirement in both countries I've been in, and getting uptight and freaking out is not only entirely abnormal, but it really doesn't accomplish anything
• Missions and how grossly horribly unprepared I am for any such work
• Student loans and how much my life is/will be restricted by them
• The war in Iraq - read an encouraging column in the International Herald Tribune today with an honest and refreshing perspective on it
• Marriage (is it really so difficult and complicated as our world has made it to be? it's existed forever, and lately the mood of the entire thing seems to be different from what I've heard it to be in the past hundreds of years )
• Singleness (I'll confess it - I wonder if I'm going to be single all my life - though perhaps beneficial, still the thought strikes me as a little sad)
• Plumbing problems (actual plumbing) My sister just told me that my nephew Cameron thought the reason you couldn't flush the toilet when someone was in the shower was because the "poop water" (what he calls it) would come out of the showerhead. Of course, my dear sister didn't know this until months later, Cam flipped out because he was in the shower and someone flushed the toilet. That's good stuff. Though when I was in Israel, I was having SEVERE problems with the plumbing in my apartment. One morning I flushed the toilet and stepped over to turn on the water in the shower, and I saw water bubbling up from the drain in the shower stall....rather than gag (which was Plan "A") I calmly walked away and called my landlady. It all worked out, but it was DISGUSTING in the meanwhile. The plumber had to open up the pump (building so old pump was installed in the ground under the doorway to the bathroom, covered up with a delightful slab of concrete) and it ended up that some tree roots were seriously disturbing the whole system. The plumber, being the clever guy that he was, asked me if I was Jewish. I said no, and he was quite disappointed. "Ah well," he said, as he threw the roots out into the grass in the back of the building, "I was going to say that these were your roots, but you aren't Jewish, so never mind."
• The pathetic state that is my mind, that after addressing some of the really important human rights, political, religious issues of the day with a sentence each, that I spend a long paragraph discussing plumbing problems. I'm in a very discouraged mood right now - not about life, just about me.

Koreans seem to have this thing about fresh air. The windows in the stairways at school are usually cracked just a bit, which always has confused me considering how freakin COLD it has been. It's a good day at work when my fingers aren't numb all day. Anyway, in the office yesterday and today I remember thinking to myself, "Wow, it's nice and toasty warm in here. It's not too warm - it's just right." And someone opened the window! It snowed yesterday! What?? Then all the toasty warm went, literally, right out the window.

One of my sixth graders today had a needle with him in class. A needle. I asked him why he had it, and he said he had accidentally taken it from his friend's house. (Worry not, it wasn't the shooting-up kind.) I asked him why he had it, and the entire class tried to explain. I still don't understand entirely, but I think it had something to do with accupuncture. They said something about eating rice too fast, and then either throwing up or having heartburn, and you use the needle to prick your thumb, which somehow helps. I made him put it away, obviously. After class I told the Korean teacher that this student had a needle. She was, of course, entirely unphased. So I had to explain how incredibly severe the punishment would be if a student in the States brought a needle to school. I don't think she understood. But seriously, it's a totally normal thing for kids to use razor blades to sharpen their pencils here. Nothing is thought of it at all. So strange to me though.