haircut, etc.

Don't worry, I don't think I caught bird flu. I did get downtown on Saturday to get a haircut. I picked a random place on a street where most of the people speak Korean. They started out by shampooing my hair with no water and no sink. They just poured some shampoo on the top of my head and made an increasingly bigger shampoo cap on my head. They added moisture by strategically squirting it on, then they took me to the back to wash it out. They had to move me around until they found a sink that had hot water working, but thankfully they weren't completely out of hot water. They then straightened my hair, layer cut it, and finished it. The whole process took more than an hour, and only cost 20 kwai, or about $2.50. Amazing. The cheapest cuts here are only 5 kwai, less than a dollar. I almost went for one of those, but I figured an extra buck or two might be worth it. It was. I have a really good cut now, and with the layers, it takes much less time to dry, which will be handy for the winter when (I've been warned) there's the possibility of it freezing when you walk out the door, even if you don't go outside.

I spent the rest of Saturday back at home, under the covers reading. I imagined that the heat I trapped under the covers would make the achy body go away, and it did. I felt much better Sunday and this week even though I don't feel normal, I am doing well. I borrowed a small pile of fiction from a friend, and got a whole book read on Saturday and Sunday afternoon: The Secret Life of Bees. It inspired me to make some corn fritters (the first time ever) and cornbread for an office birthday lunch on Tuesday. We had chili, cornbread, corn fritters, and cupcakes. It was a near perfect lunch, just missing some sour cream to top the chili. One person even commented that perhaps cornbread is meant to be made by southerners, it was so good. I have to say, though, that after the frying those fritters and getting oil popped on my hand, I don't want to fry anything again for a long while.