Concerning WINTER

Today, it was about 40 degrees outside which was a total heat wave compared to the previous week. Last monday, we got a little snow dump which made the sidewalks lethal through today. Given my coordination, I'm pretty happy to have only fallen once so far (and that was in 5 inch boots so I had it coming). Despite the treacherous traction, the snow was kind of magical when it did fall down, I had a very Christmas-card moment with NYU watching it through the window. Speaking of, graduation preparations are well on their way for our kindie program. At the end of February, all of the classes move up and the 7 years move out to elementary school hopefully augmented by our afternoon program. Columbia is doing a little song called "These are my hands" that goes through all of the functions for each body part and is pretty cute. NYU is my territory and I've got them doing paragraph long speeches complete with a rendition of "We Are the World" choreographed with sign language. For kindergarten. Hold your applause, welcome though it is haha. IF we pull it off (and with 6 weeks to go there's hope) then it will be darn impressive for all of those parents so I think it will go well.

In other news, besides being done with the first week of our intensive month (extra classes), the week was fine. I forgot to mention an odd circumstance last week though...now that new year is done, I am officially 24 here. I'm 22 at home. Hmmmm. The weird thing is that I will never again say 22 when someone asks me how old I am (even though I still have half that birth year to go) because by the time I get back home, I'll already be 23 in American years. The discrepency is for two reasons by the way: 1.) Koreans all turn one year older at the New Year, not their birthday. 2.) Koreans start counting age in the womb. So, either way, my young 20s are quickly running dry. As I am the youngest person here but one, there have been no crises yet but I make no promises, haha. Oh and I'm also SLOOOOOOOWLY learning more Korean. I now can say hello, hello on the phone, goodbye, thank you, understand?, big sister, big brother, mom, grandmother, grandfather, I'm American, go right, go left, I'd like, I'd like to go to, stop here please, and excuse me. Better! Well, going in the right direction at least. My new goal is to learn the characters so I can properly read. I actually feel slightly motivated which is a nice and welcome development.

Anyways, I tried a new food this week- Korean porridge. Yummy! I didn't try a terribly traditional version (it was chicken and cheese) but what I had was good, it is basically rice soup with fabulous salted beef as a side and spiced cold fruit tea for dessert. Friday night was English club yet again. During the discussion about New Year's resolutions, one of my Korean friends said that last year, he wanted to hug his mother for the first time, which he did end up doing. Let me preface this by saying that this friend is young, outgoing and playful. He said that she was absolutely shocked but also pleased. Because he's from the country, his village is incredibly conservative about physical expressions of affection. This absolutely floored me. I knew Korea had and has different customs, as well it should, but I think living in a city, it is all too easy for me to forget that I am not in the United States. I've had those realizations all throughout my months here but this was the first time that I had such an ingrained assumption completely overturned. I simply cannot imagine a society where people have NEVER hugged their family members. I know, of course, this in no way reflects the amount of love or intimacy in his family but just their completely different manners of displaying it. Speaking of family, at the bar afterwards, one of my Korean friends and I decided to be "little sister/big sister" which you do if you are close to someone here- you call people uncle, or older brother or sister or grandma or grandpa. It is very sweet though, so now I have an "unni". I also met another very nice Korean woman who said that my eyes sparkle when I talk about my kids and that I look exotic. I must say, I'll miss the steady diet of ego-boosts when I leave here.

Saturday, I woke up too early to go to Jeon-Ju with Renee. We walked all the way to the east side of government complex (which translates to really far for anyone who doesn't know Daejeon geography) and met one of her friends who works at another branch of my company. We walked around their really decent shopping area, scoped the blatant knock off designers in the store and I bought "Dracula" in the book store there. I swear books are to me what shoes are to most women, I am so hopeless in the face of a display of pretty colors. Oh well, I can justify it because it is somewhat educational and because that particular one is a classic...right? AND, at least my addiction is $7 a pop, not $100. I think I've just about rationalized it to myself. Afterwords, we went and got bibimbop which is basically spicy rice stir fried with egg and vegetable. Jeon-Ju in particular is famous for having invented it. To be honest, and this is a little embarrassing given how worldly and mature and cultured I like to seem, I kind of prefer our kindergarten's version. I think that amounts to a hanging sentence to admit that here so I'll confine my opinions to cyberspace. It wasn't bad as such, but it included some funky sides and had a ton of weird vegetables in it.

After lunch, we checked out a gate, an old Christian church where lots of people were martyred (most of Korea is actually Christian go figure) and then the famous Hanok Village. This is a pretty cool find as it is basically a whole neighborhood of surviving traditional houses that just bleeds out into the city. We wandered around and saw some paper making shops, some old royal quarters, an old wine museum (where I purchased some cheap mementos- it is kind of like runny port) and wandered around the alleyways. My favorite part was when we climbed this little hill smack dab in the middle of the city- not even a hill, more like a stubborn mound that juts up with no preparation. On the very top, there was an open air pavilion that was about 5 ft off of the ground. It was snowing and I was the only one to go in it and it was amazing- the hill fell off sharply to either side so it felt like I was floating above the town. Down below, I could see all of the gorgeous tiled roofs of the traditional huts and, along with the appropriately peeling paint and age worn wood (most of the shrines are new and garishly restored in neon colors), it made it really easy for me to get a glimpse into what Korea might have been like. The sharp wind came up through the pillars and it was an impressive moment. I feel like a huge reason for why it has taken me a lot more effort than I anticipated to connect to the culture here is that the culture itself is extremely elusive. Korea has been Asia's punching bag for about a thousand years, caught in a near constant tug of war between Japan and China, so it really has not had comparable opportunity to define or project its identity. This does make it all the more satisfying when I do recognize a glimpse upon seeing it.

After finishing with the Hanok Village, Renee's friend took us to the first authentic feeling coffee shop I've yet seen here in an old traditional house with all these nonsensical rooms and crannies and with messages and doodles covering every wall. I had some fantastic cheesecake, seriously NY quality, and then we caught the bus and came home. I was still in a mood to keep going so I treated myself to a movie and was slightly disappointed in "Nine"... I did like Fergie's song "Be Italian" but it was a flop. Nevertheless, my movie craving was appeased and I passed out when I got home. Today, I finished my second Korean drama and was literally cheering and clapping at the screen-- after a disastrous bout of amnesia (don't we all hate it when that happens??), all ends as it should. I also watched the first episode of "The Bachelor" which YES, I unabashedly love, and then did dishes, worked out, and got groceries. Chad came over for pizza and "Amelie" so another decent weekend to put in the books.

That's all for now. Love to all and again COMMENTS are the price for reading this blog!

B