Are you cow?

That's how my name translates into Korean. One friend informed me of this fact after another had already written the characters across my notebook.

See for yourself:

In all fairness, she hadn't recognized the translation. Probably because "Are you cow?" isn't a common Korean phrase.
Also, the heart at the end isn't a character. It's just a heart.
Actually, the heart does serve some sort of mysterious (to me) purpose related to saying the name.

And in the continued interest of fairness, this same friend also wrote me a very useful guide to writing my Chinese name. The Korean language uses a lot of Chinese characters, so my friends have no trouble writing them. I, on the other hand, would never have learned my name without help from the below scrap of paper.

(my name/are you cow? is written along the top)

Previous attempts at learning my name had ended quickly in a sigh of defeat. No longer!

I also began yoga today! My friend and I missed the last class because of the HK ID card appointment, but so did three other girls so I felt better. Our instructor = amazing. She switched seamlessly between Cantonese and English (I'd been worried about being a burden/not being able to follow along) and her sense of humor kept us from feeling like failures even as we toppled out of ridiculous poses. And I always thought I'd had somewhat good balance...I guess my legs and abs must be weaker than I realized.

My favorite pose? The resting one we used for catching our breaths. So wonderful...

And I left class feeling in tip-top shape. Actually, I'd felt tip-top before class too--it was a fabulous weather day. I could enjoy the sunshine without melting and every now and then a nice breeze...

In the evening I watched a couple of the races in the huge inter-hostel swimming competition. There were crowds of people, loud cheering, a winner's podium, flags and large cardboard letters representing the hostels, the national anthem, medals, and everything.

Then at 10 (p.m., because everyone stays up late; including me, apparently) I met with my group for a preliminary planning of our subprime mortgage presentation. Yay!...except not.

On my way back to the hostel, I ran into some friends and tried a Korean snack. Kind of like crunchy cheese curls, but seafood flavored, so my hands didn't turn a disgusting shade of orange. Yum!