Oh, puhleez.....don't remind me of that. I have a Korean neighbor. She's a very sweet and friendly lady.I ususally get to see her when am at the kitchen sink and she is at her's. That's because our houses are adjacent to each other and our kitchen windows are kind of parallel to one another.With hardly any friends around, I perk up when I see her and display my best wide toothy grin and wave to her, hoping she would gesture to meet out on the deck to strike up a conversation.But alas! She couldn't take my peeping anymore and decided to block the window with curtains.Now, I hardly get to see her.

On one of those curtainless days, we grinned, waved and met outside on the deck. Communicating with her involves a lot of hand movements and brain usage in trying to interpret what she is actually trying to say. So a five minute conversation usually lasts for about twenty minutes.At the end of which she said:



Korean: "You...know....kimchee?"

Me: "Kimchee? Yes, I've heard of it...."

Korean: "You like kimchee?"

Me: "I don't know, I've never eaten it..."

Korean (gestureing with her hand): "Come come...I give you some...come."



A hop, skip and a jump later, I was in her kitchen. I made some fresh kimchee today, she said. She opened the fridge and removed huge containers filled with kimchee. I asked her if that was vegetarian and she said "Yes...radish....you like?". I wanted to be polite and said, "Yes". Big mistake.Poor thing, she filled a big take out container with generous helpings of kimchee. I thanked her and told her she is the nicest person I have ever met and hopped back home.



I thought A would be delighted to see all that Kimchee, but he made a face and said "Kimchee???" I opened the box to taste some and I was engulfed by the strangest smell ever. Something horribly sour made me gag. I imagined it would taste like rotten cabbage mixed with bat's barf and tossed it all in the bin. I usually don't like to waste food, especially when there are millions of people starving and struggling for a day's meal, but Kimchee is a big no no. The smell is enough to drive me away from earth.If I were standing on the edge of a cliff and you brought kimchee near me, I would be more than happy to dive down, which I wouldn't do otherwise!