My cabinets are stocked with spices from India--cumin, cardamom, curry, garam masala and fenugreek and as I walked into my apartment this evening after work, it was these aromas that filled my nostrils. I wanted to be organized this week, so to save time I spent some of yesterday afternoon cooking two dishes that would be ready to eat for dinner this week--yellow lentils and chicken curry. The lentils are from a fellow teacher friend who, upon preparing to leave South Korea two weeks ago cleaned out his cabinets and gave them to me. I seasoned them with curry powder, flavored them with fresh ginger, garlic, spicy green Korean peppers, onions, lemon juice and salt. My chicken curry is a personal favorite of mine, one I found in a lowfat Indian cookbook. It's made with cubed chicken breast pieces, yogurt, onions, cumin, slit cardamom pods, ginger and garlic and garam masala, which is a mix of spices consisting of black pepper, cloves and more. I listened to the dishes simmer and smelled their scents as I lounged around my house on New Year's Day, feeling more at home in it than I had just a couple months ago. I took some time to decorate the place a bit and was it ever worth it. Now, instead of looking at blank walls, I've got a family photograph up,and a print of flowers painted in joyful shades of yellow, blue, red and green above the kitchen table. I've also got a funky, thin neck scarf with concentric circles draped in front of my circa 1985 eyesore of a television set and some postcard size black and white and color prints on the wall above my bed. The print in the middle depicts one of my favorite things--flowers. Three close-ups of roses--one white, one pink and one red. One of the black and whites is of Bulguksa temple in Gyeongju in the winter and the other is of a plank extending into the middle of the ocean. My place is beginning to have the warmth of a home.