Kimchi, not for me

Here I go. One last valiant effort. If it erases it this time, I'm quitting for a few days.

All right. Everything I have to say is really quite unimportant in the big scheme of things. Unimportant, yet somehow also worth sharing.

First of all, I have been listening to a lot of Country music lately, through Launchcast. I don't know if it's because I never hear it over here, because it reminds me of home, or because (so far) I haven't been exposed to a Korean version of it (PS - Google "Korean rap video" some time just for fun...see what turns up - not sure if you'll be able to find anything as entertaining as what I see over here, but it's worth a try). Nonetheless, I've been listening to Country, and have fallen in love with Rascal Flatts all over again. I've decided that owning their CD that came out last year ("Feels Like Today," I think is what it is) is absolutely vital for my existence. Enter the problem - for some strange and inconceivable reason, Rascal Flatts isn't huge over here...and if I were to buy the CD online it would cost more to ship it here than the CD itself cost (that is, assuming I wanted the CD to arrive before the end of the year). I even made an attempt at the whole "illegal download" thing...all to no avail. Thwarted at every turn...ah well. My dear friend should be arriving within the week, and I am trying to think of how I could bribe her to bring me the CD. Hmmm...

Second, I wanted to introduce the idea of "continental claustrophobia." As far as I know, it's a nonsensical phrase I made up a few months ago. My apartment in Tel Aviv was three blocks from the Mediterranean. My home in Graceville/Dothan was less than two hours from Panama City Beach (and the Gulf of Mexico). Jacksonville was close to the Atlantic. The house I grew up in was about 20 minutes away from the Gulf of Mexico. It's not so much that I take part of some sport and/or activity that requires a large body of water. It's just that I think living in the middle of a continent would quite probably make me feel incredibly closed in and trapped. So perhaps I'll stick to the coastlines...or at least within a few hours of them.

Third, my first is reading a book entitled "Dave and Jane's Band."It's a little storybook about a band made up of these beatnik cats.Dave plays the guitar, Jane plays the drums. Their band is called"Dave and Jane's Fat Cat Band." Obviously, the rest of the band ismade up of fat cats. The entire story is basically the band gettingready to play on the "main stage" (working on long A words) and thenJane and Dave play so loud that the Fat Cats run away (into the rain,no less). The book ends with these words: "No fat cats? Let's fixthat! No fat cats? What a shame! Dave and Jane's band has a brand newname. 'Dave and Jane's NO Fat Cat Band.'" Aside from the obviousconcern that the book encourages kids to do their own thing andexclude all those who don't like it completely, the book is entirelyold to me. The fact that the cat's name is Dave has truly been thebane of my existence. I was trying to make up some homeworkworksheets, being SO careful to spell the name correctly (and not likemy dog's name is spelled ) and of course, when I showed thefinished product to the Korean teacher she was like, "Umm...Teresa, you misspelled Dave." And surely enough, there it was, plain as day "DAIVE." Nice. Also, the first page of the book says, "Dave is in a band. Dave likes to play. Dave will play his guitar in the band today." Same time, working on the homework sheets, and I happened to glance up and see that I had typed, "Dave is in a bank." It was definitely about this time that I just completely lost it and died laughing. No one else in the office understood why "Dave is in a bank," was so funny, and I'm not entirely sure I know why...it was just one of those times where, even if I wanted to, I could not have stopped laughing.

For the record, there is one other time that was hilariously funny to me and incomprehensible to everyone around me, and just for my own sake, I think I'll put it in here again though it was absolutely nothing to do with Korea, my life now, or anything like that. It was when I was working at Banfield in Dothan, I was talking to Dr. F about how my friend had ordered this new diet program. The program was "Michael Thurmond's Six Week Body Make-Over." I was interrupted mid-conversation (you know, some client had the audacity to make me do my job), and when I went into the back again later, Dr. F, said, "Tell me more about this Jimmy Stewart body makeover." Of course this made me laugh rather hard. It was even more later, when we were all standing around in the back eating ice cream (we DID work sometimes, I promise) and I was trying to tell everyone else about the joke, and about the diet program. I introduced it by saying "Yeah, so she asked me to tell her about the Jimmy Carter Body Makeover," so not trying to be funny...and Dr. F interrupted me to tell me, rather kindly, that I was an idiot, and correct what she said. I had to sit on the floor I was laughing so hard...Jimmy Stewart and Jimmy Carter are two of those entirely unrelated names that I always get confused, and I just could not get my composure. (And see, it's not funny at all now...so tragic.) Another pair of james I get confused are Jesse James (the old cowboy, not the motorcycle guy) and Jesse Jackson. It's sad, isn't it? I'm a reasonably intelligent person and can never remember the difference between an actor and a former president, and a cowboy and...well Jesse Jackson has a few different...forget it - I just don't know, actually.

So school today seemed long. By the time it was time for my sixth grade class, I was in a totally foul and wretched mood. And considering how hyper and irritating the majority of my sixth graders are, it was just not too good. I'm sure a few of them think I sit around dreaming up new ways to make them hate me, but I really don't. I try to explain to them that if they didn't act like wild, uncontrollable, little beasts they wouldn't have extra homework, but they just don't seem to get it. Luckily, sixth 13-year old opinions mean very little to me.

I have an amazing story I'm going to try to post in the next few days. Should be enjoyable for everyone. So keep an eye out for it! Good night all!