KPop and Talks on the Train

This is the trailer for the first Korean movie I ever saw. (Or was it Shiworae?) Its commercials looked sappy, but I found the theme song addictive. 

A Millionaire’s First Love 
I know a lot of you are shuddering. But goddammit, it made me cry.
But I do have some good films waiting in my apartment. [...]

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Wine, Cheese, Whine, Cheese

Had a great time at my first wine and cheese party. It wasn’t as “adult” as I feared–everybody brought their own coffee mugs.
I donated a beautiful, plum-colored, fruit-covered cake from Crown Bakery. I should have taken a picture of it, because everyone was sorry to cut into it. We ate it on paper towels. Such is [...]

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Love on the Fingertips

While I was visiting an orchard on a field trip, a mother of one of my students collected these flower petals and leaves for me.
The Koreans believe that if you dye your fingernails with these petals, you will receive your true love when the snow first hits the ground.
Because of the language barrier, I don’t [...]

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I Dance Too, Baby

One day after meeting my supervisor’s friends, and one has already sent me six text messages and an email.
I tell myself that giving him a chance might be good for me. I can’t do this lovelorn shit anymore.
So I pined and mooned and it didn’t work out. Whatever. The Instructor doesn’t speak English and I don’t know [...]

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Boiling Kettle

“You don’t know how sexy you are . . . That mole below your eye? It looks like a teardrop.”
What bullshit.
I roll my eyes and take another sip of soju kettle, which tastes awfully sweet and lemony. It’s my fourth glass, and the only reason why I let these stringy foreigners practice their pick-up lines [...]

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Tethered

 Is it possible to have feelings for someone you barely understand?
Last week I told The Instructor I would not leave my job after all.
“Sabunim,” I said, as his younger students made kissing noises behind his back. “Me, Pia, no go Ca-li-porn-nia.
Pointing at the ground: “Here–yogi–yes.”
I hooked my thumbs together, made flapping motions with my hands, [...]

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Tiramisu

When I was nineteen I worked for my university’s cafeteria.
On orientation one of the most gorgeous Filipino (and half white–why are mutts always so pretty? Seriously, someone tell me.) men I’d ever seen sat next to me. He was tall, tanned, lean-muscled and had these large, soft, almond-shaped eyes. I was instantly smitten.
We hung out in [...]

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Wonder Woman

“I look at you and get so angry,” M’s husband tells me Saturday night.
“Why don’t you have someone?” he asks as I rest my head on his shoulder. We’re in the apartment after my dinner with Zach, reclining on the stiff orange sofa and eating sliced pineapple with chopsticks.
M had tucked in a while ago, most likely bored from [...]

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Instructors

As I sat in the lobby, lacing up my sneakers–I never wore my shoes in the dojang, although I had a nasty habit of letting my toenails grow out–The Instructor joined me. He crouched near my knees, watching my dry, cuticle-ridden fingers.
"Sabunim?" I asked, uneasy.
He held his hand up for silence, his eyes low. Deep in [...]

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Full Moon, Part Five

I'd found and lost the perfect man, and I knew exactly what went wrong. We'd divulged too much. Within a matter of hours I knew the NYer's weaknesses and he knew mine.
It was like catching each other naked by accident. The whole experience had felt great at the time, but after it set in we [...]

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