File Under "Would Never Happen in NYC"

I was so excited to see my handsome husband when he got back from the field last weekend!  I hurried home from work on Friday and got everything together--stuffing the big pillow I'd made to match custom duvet into a plastic bag--and hopped on the train, thinking I'd have plenty of time to get up there before he had to go to a Battalion function that evening.  And I probably would have, except I realized about half-way up that I had forgotten to bring something he'd asked for, which he really needed for another event that weekend.  Dismayed, I hopped off the train, dialing Mike to let him know I'd be late.  It wasn't until I was about to get on the train going the other direction that I realized I'd left the pillow on the top rack of the other subway car.  Sigh.

I set off to find the subway office.  I knew from experience, having once left my backpack with laptop inside on a train, that someone there could probably help me.  But I was unprepared for the level of customer service I encountered.

I walked into the office mentally rehearsing how to say in Korean, "I'm sorry, I've left my bag on the train, can you help me?", and was greeted in English by one of the staff members.  I said my Korean sentence, and she replied in English, "Oh, you've left your bag?"  She asked what car I had been in, and when I couldn't remember she suggested we go down to the platform so I could make a better guess.  But she wanted to be able to call ahead to a station down the line before the train got to that station, so she said we had to hurry.  No kidding, we ran through the subway station so I could guess and we could get back to the office.  She called.  We had to wait a few minutes, during which time she gave me an iced coffee.  Yes, the lady actually prepared and served an iced coffee.  In the subway station office.  While I was waiting to hear the status of the pillow I'd stupidly left on the train.

The pillow was found after a few phone calls, and recovered after I made a short trip to another station.  And while I was a few hours late arriving in Dongducheon, I arrived pillow-in-hand, and very grateful for the lady and the crazy-awesome customer service experience I'd had.

This and That

My hardworking husband has been in the field for the last month or so, so I've been trying to keep busy.

It's gotten hot here, but there's been enough of a breeze that it's tolerable without A/C in the ah-pah-tuh if I keep the windows open.  The only downside to this is the noise--which is surprisingly loud, given that I live on the 34th floor.

I've been up to see Jihyun Unnie and the boys--they're getting so big!

And up to see Kyoungmin Unnie and Komo, who taught me how to make soondubu with beef and white pickles.  Yum!

I tagged along with one of my Korean friends from work to her riding lesson out in the country: 

And I finally took my new sewing machine out of the box and fought with it until I had a reasonably decent pillow cover.  Turns out cutting and sewing in straight lines is harder than it looks.

I also had a couple of the girls I work with over to bake.  We made zucchini bread, tofu chips (surprisingly yummy, probably because there was just as much flour as tofu)...

and a diaper cake (non-edible of course, but with a bottle of wine in the center) for a coworker whose wife had just had a baby.

Girl time's been fun, but I'm more than ready for my husband to come home!