Meet the Parent

Normal work week, with the exception of the an introduction to Gorilla Burger, a newish restaurant that serves ridiculously large, savory, and delicious burgers at a decent price. It's unheard of in Daegu, but nevertheless, they are there. I had my first taste and David, Doug, and I have agreed that eating there is to become a weekly event.

Juan is coming this weekend to stay about a week. I'm hoping it'll be a great time. My dad's coming three weeks from today, so I'm also looking forward to that.

Jenny and I are doing well these days. We saw the movie The Reader on Saturday. Not a fan. It was absurd to me and not much romantic at all. I was dumbstruck by the selfishness exhibited by the characters, which while quite realistically depicted, was frustrating and exasperating to watch. Plus it was a little creepy. Oh well. I met Jenny's mom on Saturday night at a coffee shop. She was a stereotypical Korean woman: well-dressed, polite, direct, observant, and faintly formal. Though Jenny translated all our conversation back and forth, I could tell she studied my words and face with scrupulous attention. Jenny told me later that her mother, who had never before seen a foreigner up close or heard one speaking to her, was surprised by my "yellow eyelashes and strange eye color." Apparently my appearance was too alien for her to adjust to comfortably, but I expect comfort will come with time. After all, I hardly notice I'm surrounded nearly exclusively by Koreans. It just seems normal now.

I finished Song of Solomon (did I mention that already?) and am now halfway through The Painted Veil. I'm looking forward to finishing it and moving on to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night but I'm enjoying Veil for now. It's just a little too normal to enjoy, considering what I've read recently. My mom's also sending me Moby-Dick in an Easter parcel which I'm greatly anticipating (for many reasons) and I'd like to cracking on more of these books that I've got on the shelf, although it looks as though April may not be my month for getting lots of personal time for reading.

There's more to tell but I don't know that it's necessarily suitable for the blog at this point. But I can tell the next month is going to be fantastic, and May even better...