dear friends

hope you are all doing well and not living in mold infested houses like we are here. because of the rainy weather, the old housing and lack of dehumidifiers we have recently had a huge mold problems in our little ghetto apartments. it sucks.

i have been having a hard time coming up with exciting things to write about lately. that combined with my laziness and allans computer, that shuts off whenever it wants, has made this blog go down the drain in a big hurry. i mean it was never that good to begin with but it seems to be on a downward spiral lately. i'm wondering if i've become so accustomed to korea that i no longer find as many things crazy and outrageous so i feel uninspired to write here. i dont want to bore you. but that kind of scares me. am i going to have culture shock to my own culture when i get home??? from a few friends that have gone home and since returned they said the first thing that they noticed at home was how fat people are! i often feel kinda tubby here are most people have the bodies of 12 year olds. i think i have mentioned before how many sales people wont let western people try on clothes. they will also say "big size?!?! nooooo" and give you a big X with their forearms. its a little discouraging. i cant wait to get home where im average sized and not seen as the fat foreigner. another comment that i have heard is that overhearing peoples conversations has become annoying. i do enjoy sitting on a bus and not knowing whats going on around me. i can fall asleep much easier when im not trying to not overhear what people are saying....
that being said i need to come home immediately because my english has become so poor that i cant even make coherent sentences anymore!!

so, i will now continue fro where i left off last time- kyoto with my mother. it was fantastic. so beautiful, so clean. we saw some geisha which was really neat as they say that their numbers are decreasing dramatically. unfortunately we didnt manage a good picture as they were all walk-by's. we tried some saki which was quite embarrassing. we were at a very nice japanese restaurant and the only foreigners in there. we asked for some saki, they brought us a cup and saucer and began to poor. first the cup overflowed and then it spilt into the saucer, which she poured until it was to the brim. there was even a meniscus. (impressed?) but this left us with now way to drink it. either you lap it up like a dog, or you spill it all over yourself as you try to lift the cup thats full to the brim. i think it must have been a joke that they played on us cause i didnt see anyone else drinking like that. if you have ever tried saki like this, please fill me in on the secret!
there was some great shopping there, and it wasnt as expensive as i thought i was going to be. i think my sisters got more from there than i did though! we met a ton of students who had projects to interview foreigners. my mom managed to steal a poor girls homework and she will probably get zero now. good one mom!!! but they were all very polite and super cute. we got a few personal tours from people that were either very nice or wanting to practice their english skills with us.
all in all it was a fantastic trip and i would recommend it to anyone!!!