Making a house a home

So, our apartment is finally beginning to feel like a home. We have plants, candles, incense, things on the wall. It's starting to smell like home, and not like that weird, empty apartment smell. It's a place I want to be in, now. The other day I felt it for the first time--yes, we're in Korea and everything is still strange, but this little place that we're making our own feels perfect. This makes me happy. Of course, the downside here is that now we never want to leave our apartment because we like it so much. (This might also have to do with The West Wing and Big Love episodes that we've downloaded and are obsessed with watching).

We were supposed to go to the Busan International Film Festival this weekend, and aside from not knowing if we could actually get any movie tickets, we just got really, really lazy. Getting to the train station and taking the hour long train ride just seemed like the most arduous journey ever. Lazy. And besides, we figured we'd just have a blast together in our city or in our apartment, so there's no need to leave. Hmmm. This makes us sound like crazies. We were this way in Chicago too...we worked really hard to make our house feel like somewhere we wanted to be. Problem was, that's where we always wanted to be. Maybe we should make our home feel uncomfortable so we are compelled to leave. Nah, I'll take the comfort. When everything else is so strange and new, it's nice to establish something that is remotely familiar.

We haven't been total hermits, though. We explored the Keimyung University campus recently, which is about half a mile from our apartment. It's a beautiful, sprawling campus. It's got a great track that I've already enjoyed running around. We also have gone to two operas at the Daegu Opera House. This whole month is the Daegu International Opera Festival. We've seen Faust (Koreans singing French) and Onegin (Russians singing Russian). The tickets have been so cheap--$10-20. These are the first operas I've ever been to, mostly because the Lyric Opera House in Chicago charges extortionist rates for tickets. Art should be accessible to the general public, not just to the elite. That's my two cents on that.

Oh, and this last week, I had to watch students while they took exams. One teacher stood at the front of the class, and I sat at the back, and we stared at the students for 55 minutes as they took their tests. Borrrring. This is what is known as invigilating an exam (according to the teacher who sent out the invigilation schedule). Invigilating. Sounds like some kind of torture method the Puritans did to "witches" in Salem. "Are you a witch?" "No, Goody Proctor, I'm a seamstress." "No, you're a witch. You must now be subjected to invigilation." "No, never! Not invigilation!!!!!"