Neighbors, Food, and Mind Reading

A while ago, a friend of mine posted the following note online: "I just answered the door to a huge bang. Shoved into my hand was a giant packet of toilet paper and a phone. The woman on the phone says, 'Construction will happen and it will be noisy. Please accept the toilet paper as our way to say sorry.' Classic Korea!" Rapid construction, consideration for the happiness of another, and the gift of toilet paper- her tale summarizes so much of what makes Korea so lovable.

The interactions with my neighbors have been slight. Aside from hearing the occasional light switch turn off, or a cough or shout, or passionate love-making session that echos through the shower drain while I'm quietly brushing my teeth, I rarely see the people with whom I share my paper-thin walls. There is, wonderfully, one exception. My landlord's mother lives on the third floor of my building, and her knowledge of my whereabouts leaves me almost certain that she monitors the security cameras.

My security camera theory explains her quick appearance at my door after I've just returned home for the evening, though it's only an easy explanation for the curious actions of this adorable little woman. With an almost perfect record to date, every (truly, every) time I've decided to splurge on a heap of tomatoes, cucumbers, -you name it-, she brings the exact food item to my door as a gift. It's happened with an uncanny variety of food, and it's not as though both of us are making only the most in-season selections.

Her thoughtfulness is so appreciated, and since buying food for her seems odd (particularly since I'll have to assume she already has whatever I choose), the best I've given her is a little card with a painting of a flower I made. I'm due to give her another gift, as one of our funny exchanges happened again only a few hours ago when I returned home with the first large bag of apples I've purchased in a month. What did she hand me? The most delicious, giant apple I've tasted in recent memory. If only we could speak the same language, I think we might have more in common than an odd habit of purchasing the exact same food on the exact same day. I'm very happy to enjoy this much, anyway!