I played some old time music this evening with a banjo playing US soldier stationed here, it was a good time. He seems like an uncommon career soldier--in addition to playing the banjo, he plays the fiddle, guitar, and bagpipes (both Scottish and Swedish). He has built his own set of Swedish bagpipes, using military grade cloth for the bag, hand carving the chanter, and using reeds he made himself from reeds growing along the Han River here in Seoul. In non-musical moments he makes mead and does silversmithing. It is nice to learn that the US has this caliber of multitalented soldier here in Korea.
CHAOS WASHING MACHINES
My apartment comes with a washing machine called, imposingly, a Goldstar Chaos Hi Tech Washing Machine. I thought it was a dryer too but that doesn't seem to be the case. Korean apartments have these alleys between the living areas and the outside wall in which clothes are dried. There are sliding doors between the apartment and the alley, and large windows between the bedrooms and the alley. I thought I wouldn't have to use it but if the washing machine is also a "hi tech" drier I sure can't find the right combination of buttons. Not that I haven't looked. I tried to decipher everything with the help of my dictionary and limited knowledge of the hangul alphabet (which includes only a dim understanding of the actual letter order--still working on that). The word pronounced (I think) "saw" is a simple two letter word. But according to my dictionary, it means, "a cow, a bull, an ox" or "dressing, stuffing," "little, few,
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