Mandoo or Don't?

After church I went to dinner with five girls. A few of us wanted steamed dumplings (mandoo), but the waiter said they took a long time. How long? we asked. Twenty minutes, he replied. Since we weren't in a rush, we ordered them anyway. Within ten minutes, all the entrees came out, including the mandoo, which caused us to wonder if maybe the restaurant staff just didn't feel like making up new batches of dumplings... Other events surrounding the dinner played like a slapstick comedy -it really felt like we were in movie- and we all had a good chuckle. Nice way to kick off a new week.

On the train home, I was reading my Bible and working on my BSF lesson. The subway car was relatively empty, and I was able to land a seat. At one point during the ride I became aware of someone standing unusually close to me. I ignored him until the moment he pointed to, then grabbed my lesson. I'm not sure what he was trying to communicate, and he definitely made me a little nervous. I had to remind myself that I was south of the DMZ where it's legal to openly read the Bible. Eventually another man came up and shooed away the overly curious one. I silently thanked him with the most appreciative expression I could muster in my slightly-rattled state. Episodes like this generally don't occur often here, so I'm always perplexed when something like this happens.

I've spent the last 2.5 hours working on students' grades; not quite finished but hoping to wrap them up tonight so that I can enjoy my day off tomorrow. It's a national holiday to recognize Koreans' peaceful resistence against the Japanese.