CFA=me old

Something about studying for the CFA causes me to age thirty years. Instead of going out every night, I come home have a glass of wine and go to bed by 11 (keep in mind I work at 12 or 1 everyday). Instead of staying out late on the weekends, I come home by midnight or 1 and wake up the next morning at 10 to go study. Who have I become!?

Well it's been good for my productivity at least. I've been waking up by 9 or 10 everyday, studying, running (well once), and preparing for work, which I have a bunch of all of the sudden. My new class with Ms. Han and Terry is awesome. They met in Japanese class a year ago. Ms. Han was the teacher. Now they're onto practicing English. We use a book and just chat for an hour every Tuesday and Thursday morning over coffee and then they take me out to lunch. Last week we had dakdoritang (spicy chicken soup) and today we had budajiggae. Budajiggae is a relatively new dish in Korea, and I have spent my past year avoiding it. It's basically American soldier scraps soup. Back in the 50s when the Korean people were starving they would go through the military trash and dig out whatever food they could; spam, hotdogs, ramen etc. It's a poor man's dish that is now widely popular. The thought of spam and hotdog soup never really struck a chord with me, that is, until I have it with Ms. Han. This stuff is delicious! I know my tastes have totally changed in the past year, foods I used to hate i now love and crave, but can meat!? Mr. Kim, who joined us for lunch today, calls it piggy soup. Well in that case, Oink Oink.

Valentine's day in the cheon was fantastic. I was surprised with an eggs in a basket breakfast, which Paul and I followed with a walk up to Namsan and a trip to the top Seoul Tower. We brought mini champagne bottles and had a toast as the sun set over Seoul. How cute are we? On actual Valentine's Day, my sweet sweet student Vallery brought my a little goodie bag of treats; peanuts, a walnut (in the shell), kisses, snickers and chocolates. I love her!!! School actually hasn't been that bad recently. Perhaps because I know it's coming to an end in a few weeks, or more likely because the enrollment is so low, it's become a lot easier/less annoying. I don't have to scream as loud when I'm only trying to yell over 3 kids. It's been a blessing for my voice this winter.

Countdown is on. Thailand in T-17 days.