I’m more than half-way through a semester of teaching online, and daily doing my best to keep to a schedule that balances my work with hobbies, exercise, and contact with the “outside world.” By outside world, I mean my little neighborhood in Korea, as well as electronic links with friends and family in many different parts of the world. Since I won’t be doing any long-distance traveling in the next several months to visit my loved ones, I might instead bring you some stories of my past trips in a few upcoming blog posts, and we can travel down “memory lane” together.
Meanwhile, I am making progress on my crafting, including the test crochet I was asked to do for a bright young American designer. You can see a sample of the hydrangea-pink garment below, which is now blocking, and will be ready to photograph and finally display the first week of June. I’ve also taken on another upcycled denim jacket project, and I think I’ll be heading in a more tonal direction than the more edgy one I made in January for my niece. I’m starting this new one with lots of blues, white, and a touch of neon yellow.
Getting outside on my daily walks with Bodhi is a high priority. Weather these days is balmy and there’s a touch of the monsoon feeling in the air. Korea does have a monsoon season, which spans roughly from the end of June through the beginning of August, so we’re not quite there yet. I’m glad to be able to enjoy more of the floral transformations for a bit longer. I found another place on campus with poppies of many shades. I was thus inspired to buy a couple of small gardenia plants from the traveling plant-seller who stops periodically in our neighborhood; I tucked them next to some of the herbs on my patio and they smell amazing.
On the way home from our walk yesterday, while at the edge of campus, Bodhi and I met a Buddhist nun, simply clad in gray, who stopped to pet Bodhi and ask me about him. We ended up having a wonderful chat (in English), despite our faces being masked. She was a new doctoral student at the university where I work, and described to me her travels to Orlando and Disney World, the meaning of her Buddhist and given names, and her experience on campus so far. These days it is incredibly rare to have a spontaneous conversation on the street with a stranger, much less a beautiful, interesting individual like her. I’m sure our paths will cross again one day.
That’s it for today! See you again soon.
The Frill Seeker 
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