My Korean Mom

First off, I need to stop eating banana chips. I have a full on addiction, perhaps to replace my waffle obsession. But, I have recently learned they are deep fried in coconut oil. Not exactly the best way for me to get into bikini shape. Although I have been running! Well twice this week...

Anyway, on to the real post. So we all know how near and dear Ms. Han is to me. She really is my Korean mom! After our Tuesday lesson she had plans to go out to lunch with friends. She called and asked if I could come...and poof I was in. We went out to an apparently famous galbi tang (pork soup) restaurant near Insadong. Her two friends spoke zero English. Every once and a while they'd try out a word or expression, but it was a lot of nodding and smiling. Then we got hotteokks on the street (fried awesomeness) and went for tea. It was a lovely day so we sat at a place with an awesome outside balcony. This place was pricey ($8 a tea!) but of course I never pay, for I am the young one! Then the translation questions came. "Why leave Korea?" "Why not learn Korean?" "Will you come back? Ohh, when." They are crazy proud of their country and couldn't quite understand why I would want to leave this paradise. Don't get me wrong, I love Korea! but working in a corporation as a woman, much-less foreign woman, is not the ideal situation. Trust me, I've heard stories. Anyway, from this little outing the man wants me to tutor his daughter. Asa more tutoring.

Flash forward to Thursday's class. Mr. Pang wasn't here today because he had a funeral to attend, so it was just Ms. Han and I. She's been telling me for months how stressful work and life are. She's told me her husband annoys her, and she's even mentioned divorce before, but hasn't gone into too much detail. Today she told me of the huge fight they got in last night. She, I guess, has been telling him since this summer she wants a divorce and she's finally had enough. They work together so he takes advantage by coming in late and being overall lazy. She straight up told him she wants him to quit the job and she's sick of living with him. Poor Ms. Han. She's working her ass off, raising two kids, and he's along for the ride spending her money. So I don't know if it's really going to happen, for Ms. Han was interrupted by a call from a client in Japan. When she got off the phone she started tearing up and excused herself. I guess some asshole client called her and basically yelled at her and insulted her pride. She was so upset. We went out to lunch after and she just kept saying she wanted to call back and tell him to f off. She didn't use the f word, but she knows Japanese so I bet she would! But she eventually decided to exercise patience in order to keep the client.

I just want to give her a big hug, but we don't do that in Korea so I just ate my rice. I'm trying to get off early tomorrow so we can go out to magkeolli and just drink the troubles away....that always helps, right??