Well let's just get this out there.

Honestly, my life changes little: it's eating in ways most people probably wouldn't even consider eating, working out, cooking, sleeping, & being @ work with great kids & coworkers & enjoying my job, just not the rest of my life so much. WHAT a switch!

But one great break in the routine this week... ok, there were a couple tiny things that are still news to you. FIRST, I took my sample to my doctor to check for SIBOs (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth), which is common for both people with Hashimoto's, & people with rosacea. Did you know it can lead to food sensitivities?? IMAGINE THAT! We'll know the week after this Tuesday.

Also, my friend Rin is getting kicked out of her apartment. Mainly because she's a slob. I can't honestly say I blame her landlords-- her housekeeping skills are college-dude-clean. Given that she has to be gone by Dec 1, I realized she wouldn't want to go to Costco. Seeing that the membership is less than 1/2 what I expected, I decided I'd just get my own. Naturally, my first inclination was to do this online. Which I TOTALLY managed in Korean, until it was time to pay. Can an expat buy a Costco membership online in Korea? HELLLLLL NO, not even if you did the King's Quest for your bank & spent 2 weeks downloading certificates & programs on your computer to get a FUCKING CREDIT CARD YOU CAN USE ONLINE. EVEN THEN, you cannot order your membership online. FORTUNATELY, I've been told the people @ the Costco I go to have English speakers, so Tuesday I'll get there early enough to do the paperwork & then get my meat & pistachio fix (my addiction to their salted pistachios, SALTED PEOPLE, YOU DON'T KNOW HOW RARE that is here!) fixed.

So there's that. Lastly, friends from Chicago, Shana & Josh, rock stars that they are, not only came to Korea, but made plans for us to meet so I could meet their 3 month old daughter.

Now. Josh & Shana are great people, so it's worth any sacrifice, really, to get to talk with them. But their daughter Sylven? A SWEET, ADORABLE ANGEL. I don't just say that because I found out Shana ACTUALLY reads my blog! Oh no. I've wanted a niece & Sylven fell under my Tyler-induced baby love spell. She is laid back, SOOOOO CUTE, & sweet & fun. I loved talking to that little angel & making her coo. I especially love doing that because since becoming an aunt, I got an eyeful of what being a parent is like, so whenever I can give the parents maybe a few minutes of not having to worry about their baby, I'm all about helping, The fact that I get to have fun with sweet baby angels who are RIDICULOUSLY BEAUTIFUL, is an extra extra bonus. So, between the awesomeness of Shana & Josh as company anyway, PLUS an ADORABLE baby that I'm smitten with, well, it's just win-win.

It's now Saturday night here. Tomorrow, I'm going back to Laura's for Thanksgiving dinner + her birthday dinner. Tonight was wine night, & before it I got a message from a girl I just met there a month ago whom I liked right away:

Hey I know you said you were a maybe for wine night tonight but really hoping you can make it!! It was really great talking to you last time so hoping to see you again tonight Unfortunately I can't make it for dinner tomorrow and I know lots of people are opting for that instead.

WHO sends awesome messages like this?? There are people who LIKE ME! It's fucking crazy & awesome. Mark, YOU'D even like this girl, so you know she isn't some crazed lunatic.

Tomorrow is a potluck. Thinking ahead, I volunteered to make gravy & pumpkin pie, because gravy's made with milk & flour, & pumpkin pie, I mean OBVIOUSLY. Milk is the ONE THING that my skin does NOT freak out over, but I still wanted to make a gravy I could slather shit in. Laura's not making stuffing (:-() but she is making green bean casserole WITH ALMOND FLOUR. She's likewise making pumpkin bread & almond chocolate chip cookies so *I* can eat this shit. People down here take my FUCKING RIDICULOUS FOOD ISSUES into consideration & cook around them, no problem, no complaint! I am continually stunned by the great, great people I meet abroad.

Speaking (previously) of my skin, I'm still not ready to go on record about my doctor, regular doctor mind you, giving me natural supplements that my skin FUCKING LOVES, but I will say that those prescriptions, plus oil cleansing plus my inhumanely restrictive diet plus rose water makes my skin fucking happy as hell. So, I've recovered from the grapefruit soju, & am sometimes amazed my skin looks THIS good.

Speaking of good, I'll close with what I overheard a student explaining that I nearly lost it over. I so wish I could have filmed it. My higher-level class were conferring to discuss the Speaking Contest. Charls (some American asshole actually spelled his name this way, which is another example of why I fear Americans coming to teach here), said with all the DRAMA of Korean students, "I am SANTA CLAUS. I am HANDSOME, sparkly, shiny, & CUTE!"