Drama in the kitchen...

Ok, my "post-marathon" goals stood for all of...one week. But there is hope! I've had a stressful time at school this week, and it's been exhausting, but...don't worry, I'll be back to true form soon! Spring break is coming up...yay!

In other news, yesterday I went on my first legitimate run (meaning, longer than 10 minutes) since the marathon. It felt really good. The weather was grey and drizzly, just the way I like it. When I got back, I ran into a cluster of my co-teachers gathered around my friend Min's new dachshund, Lucky Guy. He was shivering and sneezing, but very appreciative of the attention.

At this very moment, I am in the middle of making biscuits. Thanks to my mom's rudimentary cooking skills (just kidding, Mom! I love your food!), Bisquick arouses a strong sense of nostalgia. The first batch went swimmingly, but in the second batch, where I was attempting to be daring and make "cheesy" biscuits, I distractedly added way too much milk. (Funny how 2/3 and 1 2/3 look almost the same when you aren't paying attention...) So, in order to save the biscuits, I had to turn into into a double (and them some) batch. The only problem was...I had run out of cheese. Well...I had run out of THAWED cheese, that is. Luckily there was some in the freezer, but let me tell you...grating frozen cheese is a challenge.

They are cooking right now, and look decidedly more amorphous and blob-like (are biscuits supposed to jiggly menacingly? I don't think so...) than the first batch, but with cheese, butter, and garlic salt, how can you really go wrong?

Update: The biscuits are out. Verdict? They taste cheesy so...Success!!

I love frosting!

Yesterday we had a "PD" (professional development) day at school. Normally, the teachers all get frustrated and grumble because we have a lot of productive discussions but feel like our input is ignored by the school's administration. Add a megaphone and some donuts, however, and it's a different beast! The highlight of the day was when we had to walk through a firedrill and discovered that the only way to escape from the third floor (guess who has a classroom on the third floor?) is by a very crusty very frayed rope-swing pulley system. Oh, I love Korea!

But...PD day was not the most significant event of the day. That honor goes to the two tubs of rich and creamy triple chocolate fudge chip frosting (supplied by two very special moms). My roommate and I used them to make cupcakes, frosted cooked, and a "Power Brownie" (dubbed so by one of my co-teachers because of its excessive school spirit).




You'll have to excuse my confusion about the color scheme of St. Patrick's Day. Resources were limited.

More photos of our domestic achievements are can be found here.

Last night my principal held a party at his apartment, and I got vomited on by a baby! Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

Alice is right!

Alice, my personal shoulder-angel, has oh-so-kindly nudged me in the direction of posting again. While there is too much to get you all exhaustively caught up on (Ummmmm...I went to Hong Kong to run a marathon, I took my kids to a Model United Nations Conference, I got my brown belt, I spent the weekend in Cheonan dodging snow and taking pictures of myself on circular matresses and among giant anthropomorphic bottles of soju...for starters), I will give you an offering:

New photos on Flickr! Yay!

I still have many more to upload (and when will someone gift me a paid account--ahem! mom and dad...just kidding!), but right now I am limited to 200 viewable photos at a time, so I figure they can wait. Until that day...Check out the crazy pictures from Hong Kong (floating trees, fat greedy pig-men, ferries, laser light shows, something is afoot at the Circle K...).

I've started a list of post-marathon goals, one of them is to update this blog TWO times a week! Wow! So...we'll see how that works out.

An anecdote, to get the ball rolling:

In Korea, the customary gifts to bring to a house-warming party are laundry detergent and toilet paper. This is not because detergent and TP are useful (though no one can deny that they are), but because Koreans love symbolism and puns. Laundry detergent represents wealth, because by giving someone a box of powdered Tide, you are wishing that their money multiply like so many bubbles in a washing machine. Toilet paper, on the other hand, is for mediating problems. The word for "unroll" (as in unroll a roll of toilet paper) is the same word, phonetically, as the word for "solve." So, my giving someone a roll of bathroom tissue, you are saying, "may all your problems be as easy to solve."

Also...last weekend in the hotel Diana and I stayed at in Incheon, there was a gigantic vending machine containing snacks, beer, condoms, underwear, and panty-hose. Oh, Korea!