day 74

I've been dragging the last couple days with a mild cold. It hasn't been enough to prevent me from working, fortunately, but I look forward to feeling better.

My housewives' class insisted on treating me to lunch after class this morning. One housewife volunteered to offer her house as our eating place. Her adopted English name that she's used for several years is Lena (Yay! Grandma Sanders and Malena) We had kimbop, rice and meat wrapped in dried seaweed - one of my favorite Korean dishes, and lamyun, comparable to ramen that everyone knows in the States but oh, so much better and much more than just a cheap cup-o-soup meal.

I neglected to mention how they thoughtfully presented me with some gifts last week before my birthday. They gave me a slice of chocolate cake, some homemade cookies, and three pairs of dress socks. The cake, which I ate later, was awful; the cookies, which one woman proudly made in her oven - a novelty appliance for most Koreans, were decent, and the socks were EXACTLY what I needed as I've, quite shamefully, been wearing white socks to church lately. Regardless of the taste of the cake or whether or not I needed socks, could you possibly be more touched by the thoughtfulness of the showed? I pretented to get all teary-eyed in class and said I felt so lucky to have so many "mothers" in Korea. Oh, they thought that was funny! (Most of the women in class are closer in age to being older sisters to me rather than mothers.)