I read in the news this morning that North Korea has developed a candy to help make it's kids grow up big and strong. It sounds like a great idea. Then, later on in the article I read "Unlike sugar-packed and chocolate-covered sweets, the North is hoping that children in the reclusive state will enjoy munching on their nutritional candy made of seaweed, beans, carrots and sesame seeds, the newspaper said." Ummm, maybe it's just me, but SEAWEED, BEANS, and CARROTS are not candy!!! I'm trying to imagine all the Twix lovin' kids back home throwing a temper tantrum in the grocery store because they want some of that 'seaweed and carrot' candy.

Sometimes, my students worry my with their observations. I've never been one to wear a lot of makeup, and my eyeshadow is usually barely noticeable. I tried a new shade the other day, still barely visible. (kind of like my mom paints the house, then tells me "this white wall is green. this white wall is yellow, and this white wall is peach") Like I said, barely noticable. Anyway, I walked into my Education class yesterday and the first thing they said was "OH! Teacher! Eyeshadow! Colour Change!" Just like that. exclamation marks and all. They can't remember to use a verb in their sentences, but they notice I've changed my eyeshadow. They're a great class.

It's Festival time again here on campus, which is always lots of fun outside, but not so fun in class. All my students are either absent because of fatigue, and/or hangovers or else they're in class suffering from fatigue and/or hangovers. So I've dedicated this week to a review games day and a take-home assignment day. So far it seems to be working well.

Tracy and I went for a walk around campus after dinner to say 'hello' to our students and take in the festivities. In the process we wound up at the pottery sale table. Now, it's not enough that tomorrow we're taking a semesters worth of our own pottery to the kiln, and that in 2 weeks we'll have a house bursting with new wobbly bits of clay that are supposed to resemble flower pots and soup bowls. No, we had to buy some more wobbly bits of clay that other people made too! I got a little spoon rest for $1 and a piece that's shaped like a bag that hangs on the wall for $12. I think when I grow up, I'll probably see if I can make my whole house out of clay.

We had one of our World Famous Birthday Barbeque Bash's tonight. (3 birthdays were being celebrated together) As usual, we sang 'Happy Birthday" in as many laguages as we could, which means I think we sang 7 versions tonight. As you can see from the picture, it was a quasi-costume party (meaning costumes were optional). AND I am excited to say that the birthday pinata has been added to the fun. I hope it becomes a regular tradition. It was tremendous fun for us, and provided just as much amusement to the Korean onlookers with whom we shared the BBQ pit. So, after many hours of fun and frolic, I'm going to go to sleep.  

It's 5am. I'm awake.

It's 5:30am. I'm still awake, I'm hungry and I need to pee. I get up and make some coffee, put on a sweater and go sit on my balcony. It rained last night, and the ground is still wet, and the air has been washed clean. It's overcast, so there's no sunrise, but the sky is as light as it's going to get today. I think about going for a bike ride (at this point, the thought does occur to me that I was abducted by aliens in my sleep and it's the implanted microchip that's doing the thinking). It's still a full 3 hours before my usual time to rise & shine. I read a couple of journal articles about differences between German and English rhetorical style....and I'm STILL awake by the end of the 2nd article. A bird lands with a splash in the pond, and from where I'm sitting I can see a black and white cat trotting along with something orange hanging from it's mouth. Then I look at the orange and black and white cat curled up sleeping on my lap. I think about how different the cat's lives are. Catticus is clean and cozy and well fed and plays and sleeps a lot. The black and white cat (I've seen it many times before) lives down the hill in a garbage heap. It's dirty and skittish and also well fed, but judging from what in the garbage pile, I doubt it's nutritious. Then I think about the news lately, and picture the people in Darfour, Bosnia, Bagdhad, Afganistan, and I know I'm missing many more. - and I think about me curled up on my balcony sipping a hot cup of coffee. No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to get it settled in my head that we all get one life, and while I"m living mine as it is, so many others spend their lives so differently. It's something I've been thinking about for a while, but it's like trying to eat a rubber grape. No matter how much you chew on it, it still looks the same when you spit it out again. (I know this, because we used to have rubber grapes when I was a kid. I chewed on 'em a lot, and they still looked the same when I spit 'em out again. If you've ever bought rubber grapes at a garage sale at our house, you might want to give 'em a wash).

And that's what happens in my head at 5:30am when I'm awake, hungry, and need to pee.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Roses are Red,
My mom's hair's turning Gray,
And I love her more,
Then this lousy poem can say.

I love you Mom! Thank you for loving me, and praying for me, and for letting me eat raw cookie dough, and making me vanilla milkshakes when I had chickenpox, and reminding me to slow down 'cuz I have to pay my own speeding tickets. (I think there might be a metaphor somewhere in there.)

If you're not my mom (and, well, let's face it ~ most of you aren't), but you're sombody else's mom, then Happy Mother's Day to you too.

My friend Mike also has a Blog (see the link on the sidebar). His Blog is titled "Something About Nothing", and each entry begins with "Something About...." and then his topic for the day. I think it's a great idea. Now, everytime I sit down to write an entry, I want to start it with "Something About...." It's catchy.

If I were to follow Mike's example, todays post would be titled "Something About Yellow Puddles". Those of us who were raised in the snowier parts of the world understand the wisdom behind the admonition "Don't eat yellow snow", so I'm familiar with the existence of yellow snow. Until moving to Korea though, I was never familiar with yellow puddles. Now I am. As I've mentioned before, we've been covered in Yellow Dust for weeks now. Even after new clouds of the stuff stopped moving in, we hadn't had any rain yet to wash it away. Cars, streets, tables, desks, bikes, etc. were all covered with a heavy layer of yellow dust. Last night, the rain finally came by the bucketful. (Hooray!) We watched bright yellow rivulets of water flow past our apartments. This morning, puddles rimmed with bright yellow rings were everywhere. But if you step in 'em, you wind up with bright yellowness clinging to your shoes. So, they're pretty, but not much fun to play in.

Hooligan (n.) : a cruel and brutal fellow

Newspapers all over the world have picked up the bickering going on between the American and North Korean presidents. I've skimmed through a number of them, and have noticed that while Australian, Indian and South African papers have included the word "Hooligan" as part of the name-calling. I've noticed though, and I admit I haven't done extensive research, that the American news agencies have left that word out. They carry pretty much the same content as the international papers, but they don't mention that Kim Jung Il called Bush a hooligan. Perhaps we've watered down the meaning of Hooligan in the west, and American journalists didn't think it would carry the same import as the other nasty names the two grown men have been calling each other. I'm sure I didn't know it meant "cruel and brutal" as the dictionary says it does. I thought it was more along the lines of rowdy and ill-mannered. Whatever the reason, it's always a little disheartening to hear kindergarten-style name calling from two world leaders. What's next? They'll break each others crayons and pee in the sandbox? Or, start in on the ever-popular "My nukes are bigger than your nukes" taunt. Whatever it is, it's not looking good for our respective neighbours.

Ben had this posted on his site, (Click on the link for "Ben" on the sidebar if you want to see his answers too). Since I FINALLY finished my essay tonight, and it's not quite bedtime yet, I figured I'd post my answers too.

Three Names You Go By: Janice. JanA** . Jan-iss-suh (Korean pronunciation!)

Three Screen Names You Have: I don't think I have screen names.

Three Things You Like About Yourself: My creativity, my sense of humour and my belly button.

Three Things You Dislike About Yourself: My selfishness, my laziness, and the chubbiness around my belly button.

Three Parts of Your Heritage: Scottish, German, Irish

Three Things That Scare You: Drunk Drivers, airplane turbulence and George W Bush.

Three Everyday Essentials: coffee, toothpaste, prayer. (not necessarily in that order. Although coffee after toothpaste is not recommended)

Three Things You Are Wearing Right Now: a red plaid shirt, blue plaid PJ bottoms, and blue Pucca slippers.

Three Favorite Bands/Artists: Simon&Garfunkel, Leonard Cohen, Diana Krall.

Three Favorite Songs At Present: None stand out in particular.

Three Things You Want To Try And Do In The Next Twelve Months: Make it home for Christmas, lose 10 pounds, learn more Korean.

Three Things You Want In A Relationship: Humour, intelligence and a dishwasher. (I'll cook, but it'd be best if someone else washed up after.)

Two Truths And A Lie: I jumped out of an airplane. I threw up in an airplane. I flew an airplane.

Three Physical Things About The Opposite Sex That Appeal To You: collarbone, eyes, shoulders.

Three Things You Just Can't Do: yoga, eat chicken feet, tell a believable lie.

Three Favorite Hobbies: pottery, hiking, reading

Three Things I Want To Do Really Bad Right Now: brush my teeth, see my family, change into matching clothes, now that you've all read I'm wearing two different types of plaid.

Three Careers You Have Considered: Bible Translator, Museum Curator, teacher (oh! doing that one now!)

Three Places You Want To Go On Vacation: Thailand, Namibia, Italy

Three Kid's Names You Have Considered: Gregory, Samora, Victoria. (Keep in mind, I haven't thought about kids names since I was about 13, they are subject to change)

Three Things You Want To Do before You Die: I can't think of anything specific. I've done a lot of what I want to do. Everything else is a bonus. Hmm, maybe get married someday. Oh, and eat at that Lebanese restaurant in SoHo again.

There, that's all. Feel free to add your own answers!

No, it's not the Yellow Rose of Texas.

It's the Yellow Dust from China. Every spring, the sands of the Gobi Desert are whipped up into a massive dust cloud that sweeps over parts of Asia. Every spring, the cloud of dust settles on Korean cities for 2-3 days at a time before being blown or rained away. This year, the dust has come more often than any year since 1990. It makes your eyes water and burn, your throat itch and your nose sniffle. You can't really see it, but you feel as though you're covered in grime. The latest cloud arrived on Wednesday, and should blow away by the weekend. It's such a shame, because in every other respect, Korean springs are gorgeous.

Earthquake!?

Yes indeed. I woke up at 6:14 this morning because my bed was shaking. At first, I thought it was because of the cat scratching vigorously. However, when I looked, she was curled up beside me, with her head all perked up and attentive. Then I heard my dishes rattle a bit. Just a small tremor, but I can't remember the last time I felt an earthquake. I stayed awake for a few minutes and decided on the best "duck and cover" location in my apartment in the event of a stronger quake, then went back to sleep.

The tremor I felt was a result of a magnitude 5.7 earthquake in Fukuoka Japan at 6:11 this morning. I've been to Fukuoka before, it's a pleasant little city that also suffered a magnitude 7 earthquake about a month ago, which caused quite a bit of damage and 1 death. The only news article I could find on today's quake was 1 sentence long and didn't include any news of damage or injury.

The Royal Wedding.

I'm a sucker for Royal weddings ~ mostly because I like to watch the clothes. I remember sitting glued to the little TV in my Grandparents camper during a raging thunderstorm many many moons ago the last time Charles got married. Although I had made no specific plans to watch Charles and Camilla finally tie the knot, (or, as the narrator in the movie "Love in the Afternoon" says, they "came before the magistrate, and were stentenced to a life of Holy Matrimony.") However, a few of us were having dinner at a friends house, and coverage of the event started at 7pm (we left at midnight and it was still on). As we watched, I could think of only one word to describe what I was seeing. PLUMAGE. Never have I seen so many feathers stuck, stuffed, perched or spewing forth from, atop so many noggins. I was agog. Our after-dinner conversation was frequently interrupted with exclamations of utter disbelief at some of the creations people had chosen to leave their homes wearing. Big Bird, Sitting Bull, and the sprites from Midsummer Night's Dream would have blended in with ease. Although, to be fair, most of my head gear is knitted out of chunky wool, and has ear flaps. But somehow, that still seems better than feathers. Maybe.

A word from my toes:

Ahhhhh, freedom. After months of being hidden, swaddled and forgotten, we are free again. We knew something was up on Saturday when we were scrubbed and trimmed and painted pretty colours. Then, today, we were freed from our socks and dark shoes and spent the days out in the lovely warmth and sunshine. It's sandal season. Now, instead of being smothered in wool, we can see the sky, the cherry blossoms and sometimes, up Janice's nose. (We're at a bad angle, really). All the way to class today the 10 of us joined in singing gustily the ancient chorus all toes are taught: "This lit tle pee kee wentto mar ket. This lit tle pee kee stayed ho ome." Ahhh. What a lovely feeling. We would tell you more, but it seems like the job of typing is best left to the fingers. It's not our forte.

Happy Arbour Day!

Yes, here in Korea, it's Arbour Day. Which means that we get the day off, and 4 of us happily spent an hour picking out flowers at the local nursery, and another hour playing in the dirt re-potting them. I spent about $22 for a total of 11 plants, including a jasmine plant that's just about to bloom, and is a foot high. I also picked up some daisies, a daffodil, a blue hyacinth, and other pretty little things that I don't know.

It's also an absolutely gorgeous day for a holiday. I've opened all my windows and doors, and now my apartment has that gorgeous, warm, fresh spring smell. Aaahhhhh. The magnolia trees have started to blossom here too, but the grass is still brown, and most of the trees are still bare.

Yesterday was really beautiful too ~ and a good thing! I was locked out of my classroom in the Art building. Instead of trying to hunt down the key in the Administration office (picture the clutter and mess of an artists studio, then try to attach the term 'administration office' to it. Do you think the key would be easy to find??) I marched my class outside. We started class in the amphitheatre, which was perfect until the Korean drummers started to practice. What a day.

(No) Thanks to Leno...

I watched Jay Leno last night, so it was probably an episode that aired a few nights ago in Canada and it's large Southern province. He had this segment on "Googlewhacking". (http://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=2680) Which, as some of you may not know, is the process of typing 2 random words into a Google search engine trying to come up with only a single hit on a related webpage. I gave it a stab this morning, and "diaphanous chamberpot" came back with 142 hits. I got closer with "paleontologist sousaphone" with only 43 hits. My best (before I needed to stop and eat) was "metalinguistics crud" with 8 hits. Which, wouldn't you know, included a Blog entry about Krispy Kreme donuts ~ written by a linguistics student!!! I think I'd have a much better chance of getting a Googlewhack if people didn't blog about weird things. (Yes, I'm aware of the irony).

The downside of good training...

As you know, my cat is toilet trained. Also, as you know, she's recently had surgery. I figured it might be uncomfortable to leap up to the toilet seat with a belly full of stitches, so in the spirit of making her life a little easier I put her old litter box back on the floor. I think that she's forgotten how to use it. She's used to perching on the edge of the toilet seat and doing her business in the bowl. Now, with the litter tray back in the picture, she perches on the edge of the litter box and does her business on floor. Good kitty.

Happy Easter!!

I hope you're all having a wonderful day. I read the Easter story this morning before taking the cat to the vet (again), and then had the benefit of seeing the Easter story illustrated in Leggo at www.bricktestament.com check it out! It's a fun site. It beats those Sunday School flannel graphs.

Catticus is doing fine. She's eating and kissing and purring again, which is great. She's still wearing a big funnel on her head so she won't lick the stitches, but she'll come up to me and try to lick my nose ~ and bonk me on the head with the funnel. She's also pleased that the vet says she won't have a scar. Thank goodness ~ I know she was worried about that one! (?!)

This afternoon we had an Easter potluck. It was supposed to be a barbeque but it rained. After we'd eaten, I brought out some white eggs (hard to find here, they're mostly brown shells) and a dye kit that Mom sent last year. I'd hardboiled some eggs yesterday, but not enough, so we thought it would be fun to blow some too. I did the first one, since many of the others hadn't done it before. After that, whoever wanted to try did. One of my friends asked me to put the holes in her egg for her, which I did. The others were doing well hollowing out their eggs, but she kept blowing and blowing and her face was turning red. Finally it dawned on her that I'd passed her a hardboiled egg! I hadn't done it on purpose, but I wish I had! It made for a good laugh.

I read a headline this morning in the Canadian Press:

"Study finds link between problem gambling and abundance of VLTs".

Really? I think we should now also commission some studies on the link between peanuts & peanut butter, computer use & Microsoft employees, and I think there may also be a connection between pollution and the abundance of pollutants in the air!!

In all fairness though, the study should do some good. Newfoundland and Labrador plan to reduce the number of VLT's in the province. But it leads me to wonder why a study is needed to state the obvious before policy makers will consider it? Have the folks in charge lost all common sense?

In other news, I'm taking Catticus to the vet tomorrow to get her fixed. I've tried to tell her, but I think she's hoping I'll forget. Oh good grief...I've become one of those people who talk about their pets as though they're people. Sorry. Let me rephrase: I've tried to tell her she's going to the vet, but she no more understood that then anything else I've ever said to her.

Culinary Differences

I spent my Saturday morning with some friends at Costco. It's a fair distance away from campus, but is well worth the outing 2-3 times a semester. After we finished our shopping, we headed for our ritual meal at the Costco food court. (It serves the only pizza in Korea that really tastes like pizza.) While we were eating, we noticed 2 different Koreans perform an interesting culinary exercise. I've seen it happen on all my other Costco fieldtrips as well. You know the onion dispensers they have (where you turn the handle and the onions grind out)? I have always assumed the onions were to be used as a condiment for a hotdog, or slice of cheese pizza. However, in Korea, it seems to be a common practice to grab a dinner plate, grind the onions onto the plate to make an onion mountain, then cover it in ketchup, mustard and tobasco sauce. The resulting onion platter is then consumed by the forkful as a side dish to accompany a pizza or chicken bake. Hmmm.

I apologize for any typing errors in this posting. I've got a cat sleeping on my left arm, and I'm useless at one-handed typing. Sorry.

Sneaked or Snuck?

I was reading an article (the content of which left me feeling incredulous and I'll get to it in a minute) and the first sentence contained the past tense of the verb "to sneak". The article used the word 'sneaked'. It just sounded so wrong I had to check it out. Apparently, according to AskOxford.com, 'Sneaked' is the proper British English form, but 'snuck' has made its way into the American vernacular over the past century. While it's still frowned upon by editors and folks who care, (some British dictonaries actually warn against the use of 'snuck') 'snuck' just sounds right. Funny how the spoken workd changes so much faster and meets with less resistance than the written word.

Now, onto the actual article I was reading. Since I'm a technological dunderhead, I can't make a link to it. I found it on Yahoo!'s Oddly Enough news page. The long and the short of it is this: A guy from LA meets a girl from Canada in a chatroom. Since he can't cross the border legally (he was convicted of robbing a Pizza Hut in the US.....WHY??) he walked into Manitoba instead. He's picked up 100 hours later suffering from hypothermia and is going to lose is fingers to frostbite. Here's what gets me: (1) He "didn't really know that there was any place on Earth that could be so cold and so inhospitable," For goodness sake, IT WAS FEBRUARY IN CANADA!! (2) He never did see his girlfriend ... because SHE LIVES IN QUEBEC!!. Amazing. I know everyone loves the Proclaimers song "I would walk 500 miles.." and perhaps people even find it romantic, but really - if you're setting off on foot to woo your internet girlfriend, wouldn't you LOOK AT A MAP and/or the weather report?!?! I'm dumbfounded. Absolutely dumbfounded. Really. I've been sitting here reading the article over again, and shaking my head so much I'm pretty sure something's starting to rattle in there. Unbelievable.

And so begins another year...

Wow, it's hard to believe that I've just begun my 2nd year here at Daegu Univeristy. Last year at this time I was so nervous! This year was much easier. I had 3 classes today, with one student in each. I said 'hello', and checked to see if their name was on my attendence list, gave 'em the name of the textbook and said "See you next class!". I've seen several of my students from last year out and about as well. They seemed happy to see me ~ I guess they weren't ones that got an F. The campus, although still cold and brown and bleak, has come alive again. It was so quiet during the winter, but the returning students will hopefully bring Spring with them.

As for my own studies, I began my course today as well. If introducing myself on the discussion board, and glancing at the titles of 4 articles counts as beginning my studies. The title is "Languages and Cultures in Contact" and I'm looking forward to it.