It's History

Namdaemun (Hangul: 남대문) burned to the ground yesterday. My students are devastated. It's a sad day in Seoul.

February

I haven't written anything in a long time, and I feel like when I do find time to write something, it centers around my not writing. That should change next month. As it is, I continue to have my hands full with my teaching duties. What's more, this weekend I managed to catch a cold. I suppose the timing could be worse: today is the last day of the 5-day Lunar New Year holiday. But those sorts of thoughts are cold comfort when you're stuck in bed, hopped up on pseudoephedrine (something I brought from Canada) and ibuprofen (something I got here--thankfully, if you can read Korean, it's not difficult to find good drugs here, since the chemical names are the same).

I'll close with an anecdote: before I got sick, I went to a request bar on a date. I asked my date what she wanted to hear. After some coaxing, she said that T-Rex's "Cosmic Dancer" was one of her favorite songs. It was an interesting choice for a Korean--certainly not mainstream by any means--though I have learned not to be too surprised by this particular Korean. Anyway, about 30 seconds after she said this the next song began to play. The song was none other than "Cosmic Dancer." Strange.