I finally got to wash my hair today (Wednesday), and it felt sooooo good. Because all the scary chemicals needed time to sink into my hair, I couldn't wash it for two days (which really meant three days, because I didn't wash it before going to the salon) and I still can't tie my hair back for two more days (lest it leave a permanent crimp).

The (unpermed) Ringleted One tells me that $400 is the asking price for a straight perm in the States. So if any of you are thinking you want to wake up in the morning to perfectly blowdried hair, methinks that you should take that $400 and put it toward coming to Korea (in the off-season, you'd practically cover the entire ticket; also, because of SARS, travel to Asia is really cheap right now), where you can get your hair done for a tenth of the price.

I mentioned before that my hair looks very similar to that of a work colleague named Soo-yun, and today someone did say to me, "From the back, I thought you were someone else -- I thought you were Soo-yun!"

Okay, ENOUGH hair talk.

Two
Mia is going to Thailand tomorrow, where she'll be for 10 days before she comes back to Korea. And then leaves for Toronto, her home town, on July 14. I've spent a lot of time with her lately, and I think she's wonderful. She's sincere and silly and kind and funny and asks strange, probing questions and notices things like the wind moving in the trees. She's extraordinarily verbally emotional -- one of the first times we spent any time alone together, she told me that she'd written to a friend, "I've met two people here, and one of them is Helen, and I think they're both going to be important to me during my time here, and if they can be in my life for a long time, I'll be really happy." But she doesn't sound inappropriate when she says stuff like this. She sounds like she's opening her heart up.

I'm really going to miss Mia in the next 10 days, and even more so after she leaves. I hope we'll keep in touch. I plan to.

The other person I hope to keep in touch with is Lewis. Lewis and I aren't friends the way Mia and I are; he's more of a social butterfly, and our interactions have been much more superficial. But you know how some people can make you feel happy just be being around? Lewis puts people at ease immediately, and his cheerful, easygoing nature has the effect of brightening the day. We've been in the same class for six months, but have only recently started hanging out socially. Lewis hasn't "hand-picked" me the way Mia says she did; I'm one of many, many friends who are drawn to him. I'm not even one of his closer friends, I don't think. But I'm going to miss him nevertheless.

Lewis is leaving at the end of the week to spend the summer in England, helping to restore a 17th century house. He plans to come back in the fall, to complete the language program.

These two people both have a special gift of being able to make people happy; Lewis simply by virtue of being around, and Mia by virtue of reaching out and really trying to connect. In the last week or so, in great part due to the time I've spent with these two people, I have felt happier than I have in months. I feel so fortunate to have been able to spend time with them; they have made all my other interactions seem more joyful. They have made my life feel more joyful.

I'm still listening to Coldplay when I walk, and there's a line in "Green Eyes" that I heard tonight and thought, "Yeah."

I came here with a load
And it feels so much lighter
Now that I met you