Give me some throat love
I had a student who remembered that I was complaining of a sore throat in the previous class. She was kind enough to bring me a roll of lozenges. After a few minutes, I bothered to sound out the Korean while the students were yammering on about this and that. " 'mok sarang...' Does this mean 'throat love'?" "Yes." "Cool, thanks for the throat love." And then I realized what I'd said. And then I giggled, like a tubby bitch.
It was also Valentine's Day, and the student had given me chocolate. I have piles of chocolate from this week, since on Valentine's Day it is traditional for only the men to receive gifts. The women get their turn in a month, which is called "White Day". On April 14th, people who didn't exchange gifts with S.O.'s on V-Day or White Day get together and celebrate "Black Day," an anti-Valentine's Day of sorts whereby miserable singles get together and eat black noodles with black bean sauce, and presumably exchange dark clouds of flatulence afterwards.
The 14th of every month is a "couple day" of some kind or another in Korea. May 14th is "rose day," when you point at a chick who looks interesting/desperate and offer a rose to them. 14 June is "kiss day," but I'm not yet sure of the logistics behind that one. This is a ridiculously "couply" country: Korean couples frequently can be seen wearing matching outfits - usually zebra stripes - which needs to be a regular feature of this blog, once I have the balls to start photographing smoochy couples on the street; also, the tandem bicycle is known in Konglish as a "couple bike," and so on...
It was a great birthday weekend, as well... culminating in quite the bender and about 25 tequila shots over the course of a couple days. Alaska chick sang "happy birthday" to me on night midnight of night three of the bender, which made my vestigial tail wag.
This week is Lunar/Chinese New Year. I'll be celebrating it properly, by going to the only man-made object that is visible from space.
A final Oriental-fun-fact of the week: Koreans add a year to their age on Lunar New Year, meaning the whole country gets older at one time. Some, especially chicks with bdays in October, will hold off until then, but it seems like the majority of the country opts to add the additional year en masse, which is kinda cute. Also, a baby born in December is one at birth, and becomes two years old on Lunar New Year, whenn it is actually just a couple months old by Western standards. Also also, the baby's 100th day is a big deal, since it's roughly a year anniversary of the conception.
It was also Valentine's Day, and the student had given me chocolate. I have piles of chocolate from this week, since on Valentine's Day it is traditional for only the men to receive gifts. The women get their turn in a month, which is called "White Day". On April 14th, people who didn't exchange gifts with S.O.'s on V-Day or White Day get together and celebrate "Black Day," an anti-Valentine's Day of sorts whereby miserable singles get together and eat black noodles with black bean sauce, and presumably exchange dark clouds of flatulence afterwards.
The 14th of every month is a "couple day" of some kind or another in Korea. May 14th is "rose day," when you point at a chick who looks interesting/desperate and offer a rose to them. 14 June is "kiss day," but I'm not yet sure of the logistics behind that one. This is a ridiculously "couply" country: Korean couples frequently can be seen wearing matching outfits - usually zebra stripes - which needs to be a regular feature of this blog, once I have the balls to start photographing smoochy couples on the street; also, the tandem bicycle is known in Konglish as a "couple bike," and so on...
It was a great birthday weekend, as well... culminating in quite the bender and about 25 tequila shots over the course of a couple days. Alaska chick sang "happy birthday" to me on night midnight of night three of the bender, which made my vestigial tail wag.
This week is Lunar/Chinese New Year. I'll be celebrating it properly, by going to the only man-made object that is visible from space.
A final Oriental-fun-fact of the week: Koreans add a year to their age on Lunar New Year, meaning the whole country gets older at one time. Some, especially chicks with bdays in October, will hold off until then, but it seems like the majority of the country opts to add the additional year en masse, which is kinda cute. Also, a baby born in December is one at birth, and becomes two years old on Lunar New Year, whenn it is actually just a couple months old by Western standards. Also also, the baby's 100th day is a big deal, since it's roughly a year anniversary of the conception.
posted by Mark Hernandef at 11:38 PM
6 Comments:
I like what a non-holiday food they eat for Black Day.
Also, the age thing perplexes me. People can be two years older than their calendar age there? Confusing.
Oops, that was me. Also, Greg and I sometimes accidentally match, but so far we've avoided the matching zebra stripes outfits.
When you come visit, I'll insist upon it.
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What an adorable country!
Be honest: does it all make you want to spread love or shed blood?
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