I am not a picky eater. At least not anymore. (Though there are times, I’m sure, when my “I’ll eat just about anything” fiancé would beg to differ.) Over the years, I’ve learned to eat and often to actually enjoy many of the things I once found gross. Like lettuce and tomatoes (since age 7 or so), spinach (since about age 13), brie cheese (since age 18 or so), certain kinds - okay one kind - of kimchi (since about 6 months ago). And many more.

But there are some things I stand my ground on. Like the vast majority of nuts. And what some cultures call bacon but is really just slabs of gushy gross fat with no meat whatsoever. And cilantro. Really, I get that some people like nuts, particularly since I’ve experienced the yumminess of Bavaria’s fresh warm gebrannte Mandeln (candied almonds). And maybe people who like that pork-fat stuff have some kind of dietary fat deficiency. But seriously, people, cilantro? There’s really no excuse. I absolutely don’t understand it. If I wanted my food to taste like a perfumey version of iron filings, I’d include that ingredient. And the fact that cilantro is the “in” thing lately, that it’s become so pervasive as to often be unavoidable, is really just too much. Well, it turns out I’m not alone in feeling this way, that there’s a whole bunch of people who are even more worked up about it. There’s a whole website - it’s amazing. And a little scary, even from the perspective of someone who agrees thoroughly with much of what is said. Funny too, though. Check it out here.

. . . someone comes along and lets you know you’re not completely crazy to not be in love or even in like with this job. That you’re not way off-base or simply being difficult. That it’s not a simple matter of having a bad attitude like everyone has been telling you. I’ve talked about it before, both here and much more extensively in private conversations, but it’s always been only me. Now, a kindred colleague in Japan has admitted to being in a virtually identical situation. The major difference is that she writes about it more eloquently and adds another, more objective element: parsing out stress and discontent in this job as it relates to Myers-Briggs personality types (for those who are wondering, me: INFP; visa work at this post: ESTJ). It just makes so much sense. Sad sense, the kind of sense of things that are unfortunate yet unalterable, but a whole lot of sense nonetheless.

I took advantage of a Korean holiday to take a four-day trip to China with some colleagues. We visited Shanghai (the futuristic juxtaposed with the old), Suzhou (famous for its gardens and canals), and Hangzhou (its placid lake said to be the most romantic place in China). A few of the highlights:

Not enough photos? Plenty more here.