My Vegan days are over






Well it lasted 6 days, until SOMEONE had to go and send me a huge box of chocolate. My greatest weakness. I came into work and found 2 big boxes on my desk. One was full of Pepperidge Farm chocolate chip cookies and m&ms (melts in your mouth...mmmmmm!) along with Lipton Tea bags and expensive clothes. (thanks Kathy). Ya know people, if you keep spoiling me like the little American girl that I am, it's not gonna be the livin' rough experience I was going for. I thought I was coming here to live in a hut and eat rice, but I'm in a nice "western style apartment" and have all these freakin' kind people sending me stuff I love. JEEZ! Speaking of which, someone just sent me a RIDICULOUSLY nice gift. The best possible present ever! I was shocked to open that other box on my desk and find a DIGITAL CAMERA!!! Along with all the equiptment (cable, memory card, photo cd's, batteries) Wow. I will be putting such great photos on here now & filling up your email boxes with cute kids and oriental images.
My first pictures were of my student's piano recital. John is such a great kid, really smart, around 9 years old. He told me he had a recital Saturday morning and wrote it down in Korean for me. A Korean teacher (my friend Allie) said I could just show that piece of paper to a taxi driver and they would take me, but that I shouldn't go b/c it was a 20 or 30 min. ride. SO? Well that was nearly a fiasco. I was 20 minutes late after taking 3 different taxis and calling everyone I knew who spoke Korean. I walked into a huge hall full of young children who all turned and started whispering b/c a white lady walked in. Seeing some of these kids reminded me of a beauty pageant mom put me in when I was 7. I showed up with my blond curls and simple cotton dress (blue with white poka dots). Then I walked out onto a stage full of girls in Cinderella dresses. They were wearing extravagant silk and lace GOWNS and had talents. The judges in the back room had asked me if I spoke any other languages or played any instruments and I told them NO but that I was in brownies and that one day I was gonna take a BIG truck to New York City and feed all the homeless people peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches. They didn't care & fortunately I didn't care about being the odd-one-out with the dress. I probably liked being different. But mom felt bad. Well anyway, this saturday there were kids there in jeans and t-shirts and there were kids who wore tuxedos and ball room gowns. John and his friend wore suits (and light-up sneakers). When I finally spotted him he was looking all around the hall, turned around in his seat. I'm assuming he was looking for the white girl who came to see him play. His mom seemed happy when I approached to say hello. You have no idea how sad I would've been if I missed that. And you have NO IDEA how talented these kids are. Playing classical masterpieces like they've practiced for years. Everyone here seems to take piano. Wish I did. Always wanted to - on my list still. A lot of the kids played the same songs (Mozart, Beethoven) but one kid really impressed me. Skinny little thing in a poindexter get up (red bow tie, tux pants too short, hair gelled over) approached the piano with a "shit-eatin' grin" on his face and I couldn't help but laugh when he busted out with "Oblah Di Oblah Da, life goes on". Classic.
So I didn't miss his piano moment, John played very well. I'll add pics as soon as I figure out the software program for my camera .....
And I'm a sucker for milk chocolate.