Asian Flower Design Class

Well, it has been an interesting day. The flower arrangement in this posting was designed by me (with assistance from our teacher). I am thankful that Bev mentioned that I may be having my class today....at OUR apartment! I had it in my mind that the class would start next Wednesday....7 students arrived to our place ready for some learning...and I am really glad that it worked out. You should have seen the bundles of flowers, containers, tools and general equipment that the teacher and her daughter brought! Of course when purchasing our trimming tools...I had to pick out the fanciest and brightest pink tools! Today the goal (I think) was to understand the triangle shape for your arrangement. We performed a lot of prep to the branches and flowers prior to placement in the container. You avoid the same height flowers and maintain that triangle shape throughout. Openness in the arrangement is encouraged. Our instructor brought handouts with the exact angles for each part of the triangle. It was amazing. She did a little critique and "tweaked" the arrangement for each student. There was quite the variety of students...Michigan, England, Nigeria (I think the Ambassador's wife), Brazil, India and England. Everyone was very nice and did not seem to mind that I wasn't fully prepared for the 'hen party' as Chris called it. All in all it was a good learning experience and I was pleased with my arrangement. I took pictures of everyone with their creation. To be honest, I almost cried when they all showed up...but decided the show must go on...and it did. :-)

After the clean-up I filled Chris in and headed to Itaewon....yes, to the Turkish Kabob place (Sultan). We tried to go yesterday (Tuesday) but they were closed. When I arrived it was like a homecoming! :-) My favorite gal was there and really seemed pleased to see me. She is deaf and mute...but for the first time she made some sounds and tried to say some things to me. She wanted me to write my name...so I wrote it in English and Korean (I wasn't showing off...I wasn't sure if she read English) then she wrote her name in Korean! I believe she is married to the owner...she also wrote both their names in Korean . When I first walked in she brought her husband from the back to say hello...she then proceeded to tell/sign to the fellows working the Kabob stands (her husband had a phone call) to make the Kabob's BIG! All of the workers are Turkish except for her...she is Korean. She made me laugh signing that her husband can eat 7 Kabobs and appears to be getting chunky (that's my interpretation of her signing). The one guy asked me if I wanted spicy and what items....she looked at him... and made a motion like "I know exactly how she likes her Kabob's...just follow my lead!) I would have to say she is probably one of the kindest people I have met....there is something truly special about her. I wish I could communicate better with her...but it is amazing how much info you can gather just with hand gestures. Visiting with her today was probably the highlight. I almost felt choked up as I walked home.....