sollal

year of the dog

deery-lou.
sunday, january 29 is sollal "seol" [lunar new year]. being a korean holiday we naturally get monday off. yeah!!! unfortunately, yours truly was struck down with a slight bug on friday: sore throat, running nose, achy body, and very sleepy. it never fails that i seem to get sick whenever there's a three day weekend. go figure. most of the children were very excited for sollal, since it means getting money from their grandparents. check out this site korean festival:lunar new year for more information about the holiday. it actually felt like christmas on friday. i received several gifts from students and co-workers: cookies, oranges, a case of pears, rice wine, socks, lotion and cologne set, jug of honey, and same pieces of candy. had i not felt so rundown it would have been a great day. my whole day felt slightly off. it all started with a phone call from my mom. she wanted to let me know that my grandmother was placed in a nursing home. by the time i got off the phone i had 1o mins to shower and catch a bus for taekwondo class. in my sickly state i had to have a test on my poomsae and kicks. needless to say i wasn't quite all there. i messed up a few times. i'm not really sure how bad they thought i did cuz i couldn't stick around for the entire class since it was running late and i had to be at school. the school day seemed to creep by. its a good thing fridays are speech test days. i have my students working on the "noun" song from school house rock. i've broken it down into several parts. today was part 2 with the "oh, i took a train" section. it's actually quite amazing how most of them memorize it. once we are done learning the song i'm going to show them the video. paris, who's in my first class, wants to give me a speech test. which consists of learning the korean alphabet. i told her i'd play her game. although i banged out on friday since it hurt to talk i promised to give my speech the following friday. we'll see how that goes. i've spent most of today and last night laying around watching movies. so far i've seen aeonflux, crash, harry potter, and elizabeth town.

a couple of days ago i was in the local corner store. i saw a candybar that i thought said "hershey's smores" so i was like "yum" and decided to buy two. it wasn't until i got home that i noticed it said "hershey's & more marshmallow, crunchy cookie bar". ok. it'll still be good. of course what i thought was going to be marshmallow was actually some kind of creamy carmel tasting thing. do they not know what a marshmallow is! come on people. don't be saying marshmallow when you actually mean some weird cream thing. although it was quite yummy. so i reallly shouldn't complain. i'm drinking some green tea in the mug that misty gave me for christmas. its the picture of misty, kate, derek, and i from the photo booth in korea. i noticed that the mug was from thailand. so basically the mug has gone from thailand to the u.s. from the u.s. to hong kong. then from hong kong to korea. its definitely a well traveled mug. so seeing that i got i giant jug of honey i've been trying to figure out what to do with all of it. i added two giant spoonfuls of honey to my tea. last night i was dipping my pear in honey. and it still doesn't look like i even put a dent in the giant jug of honey.

while flipping through the korean herald this week i came across this photo.


apparently some children got to ice skate with a monkey in seoul. how bored does the monkey look. very! you've got to love it. and the outfit. come on! had i known about this earlier i so would have gone. skating with monkey = fun.

all right time to return to my bed for more movie watching.

today's tips
on being a lady
no complimentary makeup application ever looks good, especially when applied by a gypsy woman with an outdoor cart. derivative lesson: the perfume she sells is probably watered down.
— the mystery of the trolling bell, nancy drew

on survival tactics
to fake emotion, holding an onion in each hand will make your eyes red as if weeping.
— the shore road mystery, the hardy boys

be well…