picture it:

I'm standing backpack-laiden on the subway on my way to dongdaegu station to catch a train to seoul, and this boy, just as cute as he wants to be, gets on and sits down in the seat next to where I'm standing. I do the whole "I'm not gonna look at you because I'm trying my best to act like I don't notice when I see another white person" thing, and then after about two stops he says "where are you going?" I turn and tell him I'm going to seoul, and as he says "oh, dongdaegu?" I notice: he has some white substance akin to baby spit-up appearing to dribble from his mouth. I briefly consider saying "hey, you've got something on your face," but really, how do you do that gracefully? instead, I pretend it isn't there, and smile and laugh when he tells me that he forgot his camera card so he only has 60 shots, but assumes that he can find one in china (where he's going) since they're made there. I'm already imagining his embarassment when he finally realizes that he has this stuff on his face, and again I consider saying something. but then it occurs to me that usually one does not have that amount of a thick liquid substance on one's face without being aware of it. unless one is too high to feel it, and therefore too high to have noticed in the firstplace that one was spitting up on oneself. so I arrive at dongdaegu, and he says "well, as they say in some country, anyongi kasayo," and I say "it's this country," and he says "oh, it is. I thought so. have a nice trip." I say "you too," and leave, marveling at the fact that half of the cute ones always turn out to be junkies. later, when I told the story to tricia, she introduced the possibility that he might have just brushed his teeth and it might have been toothpaste. which, I concede, is possible. I'll never know.
I met up with dinah in seoul, and it was a fun weekend. it was really nice to have a change of scenery, but it was COLD. it reminded me of the time that theresa, her brother and I went to toronto for spring break and ended up being there on the coldest march 3rd EVER. at least on record. but we managed to keep warm enough. lots of time was spent sitting in coffee shops or restaurants just talking, since both dinah and I love to run our mouths. we're a good conversational match. on thursday she had an appointment to get her hair braided, which took about five and a half hours, so I wondered around itaewon while she did that. itaewon is the foreigner district of seoul. things are in english there, and there is an english bookstore, what the book, where I spent about an hour and a half. after dinah was done, we had indian food in a restaurant just called "foreigner restaurant." on friday we went to a huge mall, which was really just like a mall in the u.s. except, in true korean fashion, bigger and more modern-looking.
friday night I rode the train back to daegu, and for some reason it was the nicest train ride ever. just perfectly peaceful and comfortable and lovely.
on saturday I slept and watched s.v.u. all day. then on sunday, I went for a walk by the river. the weather was glorious on sunday, absolutely springlike, and it did that thing that the first warm days of the year do to a city, making it feel like a completely different and magical place.
sunday night tricia and I tried to go to a movie, but the only english movies playing right now are cloverfield, which we saw a week or so ago, and charlie wilson's war, which dinah and I saw in seould. I enjoyed it enough to see it again, but by the time we made that decision, we would have had to wait two hours. so we took a taxi over to sugar joe's, in hopes of having cheeseburgers, but it was closed. then we decided to go home and have a bacchanalia of pizza and chicken while watching wonderfalls, so that's what we did.
now it's monday, and in a little over two hours I will be back at work.