Now Playing: Sufjan Stevens, "Seven Swans", "The Dress Looks Nice On You."

This morning my mother took our cat, Annie, to be declawed. Here is the offending creature herself. She may look innocent, but she has become more and more nasty, scratching ankles/arms of people she decides she doesn't like. This evening I came home from work and discovered her sprawled in a corner of the study behind the sofa, still heavily anesthetized, with blue booties on her paws. She looks pathetic.

Since it's been just barely above freezing, the streets have become a mess of slush. I drove to the gym this morning, the car waffling slightly, and then to work later. Work was slow today.

As soon as I got home, I had to turn around and leave again to meet my Korean student, H, at the FRC. She had invited me to meet her family today, so when I arrived at the FRC, I found she and her husband waiting for me with their minivan. They live in one of the new blocks of married student housing buildings--brand new apartments. Culture shock number one, of course, was that I forgot to take my shoes off at the door and had to be prompted by my hosts.

H introduced me to her husband and her three children. She had prepared a delicious meal for us: sweet potato noodles with vegetables and a big dish of white noodles with shrimp, broccoli, and peppers round the edge. It really was delicious. We sat round the table and carried on a sort of conversation. When I asked them what their favorite Korean food was, they told me that it was kimchi. "Would you like to try some now?" the daughter asked. H immediately went to the fridge and brought out a bowl of the stuff--pickled fermented cabbage soaked in chili. It looked something like this:

  

(Thanks to the wonderful Wikipedia). Slimy at first and then just spicy. They laughed at my attempt to use chopsticks and were thoughtful enough to provide a wee fork, though obviously it would've been much, much easier to use chopsticks to eat the sticky noodles. Actually, despite the awkward silences, it was a pleasant time. They were friendly, we laughed at our attempts to communicate, and in the end I learned about them and their culture. After an hour, H and her husband drove me back to my car, and I went home.

At home I sat in the study and read a letter from Laura--almost as hilarious as listening to her talk. Completely hyper. My father was working on papers, so I sat and talked to him.

We all ate tea together, an unusual occurrence that happens about twice a week. After tea, we watched a Foyle's War episode, III.1. Laura rang in the middle of it, so we chatted with her for a bit. Family worship after. I just barely remembered to rescue my wash from the dryer. 

White rabbit, by the way!