Last night, I went to kumdo for the first time in a little over a week and when I walked in, all the kids started yelling my name and welcoming me back. It was really nice and I imagine that's what some of you are doing right now as you read this (...I hope!).

Life's been busy lately. I was sick for the entirety of last week, which was not fun. I'm having spring allergies for the first time in my life and I place the blame totally with flippin' yellow dust. It's gross and I hate it. I hate the way it coats the apartment with dust, I hate the way I hack my lungs up all the time, I hate the way it ruins the city view I have in the morning on my way to work. It's plain depressing and without a doubt my least favorite thing about living in Asia. I've been popping vitamin C and taking antihistamines, which are making me super sleepy all the time, in the hopes of being 100% healthy. Perhaps it would help if I laid off the Cass on the weekends but c'mon. Let's not get crazy.

Yes, yes speaking of weekends, I really shouldn't paint a picture of Nicole as the this invalid hobbling around Seoul. I had quite the time at Steve's birthday celebration. It started at Hooter's and ended at a bar that serves drinks in a bucket (have I mentioned this place before? I have! Monkey Beach reared its ugly head again!) and at the end of the night, yours truly tried to insist that the street outside her house was a perfectly good place to go to sleep. Goooooood times!

In other news, Stef, my house mate, has a gig with her band soon. It's the first one for them and I'm super excited. They came over to the house last week for an impromptu jam/scarf dance party and they sounded great just messing around. The show is at this new-ish club in Hongdae called Free Bird so of course I'm going to be the a-hole in the back yelling "play Free Bird!!"

About the picture: This is my favorite student, Juwon, holding a picture she drew of me. I think she really captured my je ne sais quois, don't you think?