Not Japan Part 1

• I know everyone is expecting me to post stories about Japan but I can’t yet. I didn’t have time to write about my Korean adventures before leaving for Japan so I need to take the time to do it now before I start sharing about Japan.
• So I decided to go back and visit the facial and massage place near my house. Its only 30$ for a 2 hour pampering, and ever once in a while I needed to treat myself. This time I was more observant of my surroundings and found the various jars of what look like Plaster of Paris. So that stuff she smears on my face that feels like cupcake frosting is most likely a powdered mud or even more likely, actual plaster. This time, the face-frosting smelled like Strawberry Bubblicious Gum! Mmmmm. Once again, I feel asleep on the table, under my heated sleeping bag as I waited for my Bubblicious face-frosting to dry.
After I was done with my facial and massage, and had come back from the locker room dressed and ready to go home I was surprised to find my masseuse with a camera. Apparently, this masseuse was not the same masseuse I had visited before, and I was her first ever foreign client so she wanted to take a picture with me. Whether this was to prove that she actually had a foreign client, or because I was so beautiful (no snickering!), or because it was so rare to find a foreigner willing to put up with the Korean abuse called “a massage,” I will never know. And yes, I did take a picture with her. I only regret that I didn’t get a picture of her with my camera so I could post it on here.
• I did however get a picture of the lunch lady at my office cafeteria. I came down to lunch on April Fools Day, and she handed me a giant bag of popcorn. I was so confused, I just wanted some lunch and now I had enough popcorn to feed an army! She had to show me that I was the 176th person to get lunch that day and therefore had won the bag of popcorn. Apparently, as it was explained to me much later by Sunny, the Korean word for this type of snack is similar to the Korean word for ‘fool’ hence handing out ‘fool’ food on April Fools’ Day.
I had so much popcorn I didn’t know what to do with it all. I took computer paper and rolled it into a cone shape, stapled it, and then filled it with popcorn. Then I went around handing it out to everyone on my floor. Many of these people had never spoken to me so when I came over to their desk and handed them a cone of popcorn they were very surprised. I could only hold two cones in my hands at a time so I had to deliver the cones and then return to my desk to make more. Every time I came back, and I mean every single time, the person I had just given popcorn to walked away from their desk to share the popcorn with the other members on their team. Maybe they were assuming that I was not coming back with more popcorn for everyone? It was really strange! I would show up at someone’s desk ready to give them a cone of popcorn and they would already have a tissue with popcorn on it or a few kernels of popcorn in their hands.
Even though I handed out popcorn to everyone working on my floor, I still had more than I could eat by myself. So when the opportunity to give it all away came along, I jumped at the chance. One night after work, the office hosted another movie night. Since it is still not spring time (it snowed the other day) it was held in the basement of the office instead of on the roof like last time. So I brought my big bag of popcorn to the movie night and donated it. I was happy to be rid of it before it went bad and was wasted.
• I got the cutest ear buds ever!!!! They are little bumble bees!!! Buzz for Bazant!!! They were only 10$ and are nice and comfy in my ear holes. I got them from the Lotte bookstore when I went shopping for Lucas’ birthday presents. Of course, you go to get someone a present and you end up buying things for yourself! I did end up getting Lucas a really cool gift there.
I found a pill bottle with 100 pills for your heart. However, these pills are not really medicine. Instead, inside each pill is a blank scroll for you to write a message on. So I spent hours taking pills apart, writing little love notes, and reassembling the pills. I did this 100 times! But it was worth it, Lucas loved it. Plus, it was a unique and heartfelt gift. Awwwww, so cute!