Lily's in a Tight Spot

Dear puffy vest designers,
Thank you for creating the zip up hood and making it popular, it brings me much laughter now and then.

This is Jeung woong..one of my middle school students..English name: Dan. Preferred name: Mr. woong.
This past week was such a good week. I don't know if I was just feeling very appreciative that I didn't have to take the other foreign teacher's classes anymore or if it was my superb teaching ability...probably the first suggestion :)

Actually, I do know why it was such a great week. It's because of a boy named George. He is my new favorite thing about Korea and the cutest little Panamanien/African American/Indian boy in the whole entire world. Yogita and Jemal came back from India and brought back with them their 8 year old son who had been living in Alaska with his grandparents. He is so sweet, so well behaved, and so extremely cultured. He lived and went to school in India for a year. He is going to grow up a very rounded young man AND from the looks of things, quite the little heart breaker :) Here he is gaming it up..just like his daddy:


I foresee many lunches and dinners eaten with this little man sitting next to me.

Another possible reason for my week of many smiles was finding out another little fact about Korean cosmetics that's just so completely opposite of American cosmetics. One of the Korean teachers bought this lotion from the cosmetic store across the street and I asked to look at it and on the back it said the ingredients in English, "This contains natural tea complex, and white flower complex," WHITE FLOWER COMPLEX you ask? Yes, white flower complex. They want to make their skin white like we want to make our skin tan. In our lotion it probably says something like, "this contains a moisturizing substance and brown sugar complex." While I was explaining our obsession of being tan, she says, "Is that healthy?" At least they don't kill their cells like we do by going to tanning beds..they just lather themselves up with white flower.

Yet another reason to love last week was that this Korean man told me at church that I looked like Brooke Shields..hahaha..it made me laugh out loud and probably offended him, it was my curly hair and blue eyes...I guess we all look alike too.

And lastly, I finally captured Lily in what I find to be her most amusing past time. I think I have described this multiple times, but have never got a clear picture. Lily really enjoys wedging herself between her "bedroom" on the second floor and the top of her cage and gnawing viciously on the bars on the tiny bars that separate her from the rest of the world. Maybe this is a cry for freedom? I don't know, but I think it's really cute and quirky.

Here she is laying on her back and enjoying an afternoon "snack."


Although my week was really great and positive, Friday, Japan suffered a catastrophic earthquake that triggered a tsunami and has left thousands dead. If you are just finding out about this tragedy now, shame on you. The devastation is unreal, and this morning as I was walking to work, I could not help but picture my little coastal city of Gunsan going through what those coastal cities in Japan have just experienced. As I watch the footage, it really is strikingly similar to where I live. And it makes my heart drop a little when I compare all of the old ladies and men who stare at me every single day to the old men and women on the t.v. who have just lost their homes, spouses, children, or even their own life. However, Korea, I've been told, is a very safe place and hardly experiences earthquakes or tsunamis. Japan is our buffer. All we have to worry about is our cooky Northern nuclear neighbors.

I wondered when this tsunami happened what the older generation of Koreans thought of all this. The late 60ers and 70ers all remember when the Japanese were occupying Korea before WWII. I've heard stories of the Japanese raping the Korean women, cutting out tongues if the Koreans wouldn't speak Japanese, cutting off fingers if there was disobedience in school, and ruling, even my city of Gunsan, like it was military..people weren't allowed to leave their homes unless given permission, they were never able to visit family who lived in a town over, etc. So, today and yesterday I've been asking people about their thoughts. I talked to someone who said he really didn't feel all that bad about the tsunami because he remembers the hell the Japanese put his family through. At first I was taken back, but I don't think I can fully understand that kind of torture and I shouldn't be so quick to judge. But many other Koreans are very sympathetic to Japan right now and, I think, Korea was the first country to send rescue teams. And as for the kids, one of them said nervously, "I think nuclear gas get picked up in wind and fly west to Korea." Unlikely. But do pray for the Japanese people.

Well, I hope you remembered to turn your clock back..yay, I'm back to a 14 hour time difference! Nighty night.