3. Is it spring...already

The window was open even though it was barely past Valentine's Day. The heat was off but it was still hot in her studio apartment. The sun had let itself in through the east window earlier, and set fire to the place. Jane lay pressed against the wall trying to escape the heat, wishing she had chosen to take the west side apartment.

It was peaceful, the land of morning calm was once more living up to its name. Birds were singing as though it were late June, and everything else was quiet. No cars were out bumping around yet, children were still indoors finishing homework, even the church goers were still thinking about whether to shower first or get up for some tea. It was as though everything had been forgotten. The fog of the night before had been burned off with the morning sun, and all that remained was a blue sky. Jane sat up and leaned against the wall. She looked at the unfinished painting on the floor across from her. Her eyes were red and swollen, her face was stained with tears, and her head was buzzing. She had looked up into the night sky, at the half moon, and cried. And screamed. She had pounded her head and heart, the bed and walls. And now all way quiet. All was calm.

Jane pulled herself out of bed and went to the sink for water. The tap water was warm and tinny, but the bottles were all empty. Jane looked at the plants all tipped on the floor, and the broken mug that lay near the window.

Could it be time to go home? she wondered. But where was that anyway?

Jane returned to her bed with the cup of water and looked again at the painting. What had possessed her to create it. The black and white scratched across the canvas. Harsh jagged lines that outlined a woman's body. She wished she had finished it in one fit. She didn't want to go back there, but she didn't want to leave it either. It was beautiful, wasn't it.

"It's no use," she finally said. And trumped off to have a shower.

2. Does it snow here?

Jane was putting her socks on, trying to register a pero in her mental dictionary as "the other side", or "the other way." Or maybe it just means the other, she smiled to herself thinking about the appropriateness of Edward Said in Korea. She felt calmer, the class had been good, hard work, with challengin poses, but good ones. She felt relieved. And now she could go home for the evening with a clear conscience, she had done something other than sleep or work today.

"Janie," the instructor was trying to get her attention, "do you like ah, mashit-go" The woman paused trying to remember the English word.

"Drinking?" Jane offered.

"Ah, yes. Here. Will you come?" Jane looked at the duk in the woman's outstretched hand.

"Where are you going?" she asked, hopefully.

"Um Chinggu-wa to Beer Cabin. They are nice to meet you."

Jane, still feeling quite Jamesian, agreed to go along. She walked out of the health centre, and joined the group of students from the Yoga class with the instructor, to walk down the street to the Beer Cabin. She listened to them jibber and babbel merrily about probably clothes and boots, a few times she thought perhaps each trying to get another to have enough courage in her English to talk to the Weagook. They offered her drinks and food silently, gesturing and smiling. She figured she should break the ice.

"Mekju chuseyo," she said softly and nervously. The women laughed, and said something that Jane imagined was ooh, your Korean is very good. The started asking questions Jane caught a noun here and there and put together some broken responses in the polite form. Trying to explain she only knew the polite form.

The girls laughed and encouraged her, relieved they didn't have to put on the same specticle in broken English. After a couple dishes and some soju cocktails, it was time to turn in. Jane walked to the station with one of the other students.

"I didn't know you spoke Korean."

Jane smiled, "I didn't know you spoke English."

"I suppose we are even then."

Jane looked puzzled, "You speak very well," the girl blushed, and Jane rethought her words, "I don't mean to compliment, rather to ask, hmm."

"Ask what?" the girl prodded.

"It doesn't matter really. Where you learned, but Korea...probably, maybe with time in Canada or Hawaii or something like that."

The subway was just steps away, and Jane was mad at the girl for not speaking up.

"Will you still come when Uhn-hi returns?"

"Who, Nina? Yes. But next month I will work in the evenings, so I will go to the afternoon classes."

"Oh."

"Well, I take the subway from here."

"Yes, it was nice to walk with you Jane." And with the the girl continued off down the street. Jane watched her before descending into the station.