Christmas @ Chez Adrienne!

Have a cookie.

Merry Christmas to one and all! Welcome to this virtual tour of my Korean home.

This is where the magic for this blog all happens. Yes, the atmosphere is thick with genius.

Workstation to try and hide the ugly.

Tools of the devil!



Front door, gas range, and ever-present tea kettle.

Cards for mee!!

Praise the Lord, Mickey D's delivers!

My futon, rolled up for the day, and wall of pretty boys. They're for an art project, honest!

"Wall of Pretty Boys Part Deux"

The seat of power.

Choirs of angels!

Pretty short tour, I know, but hey, it's a small apartment. The west wing is still being built. Still, it's been a good day, if for nothing else than the novelty of not being bothered on a Thursday. But alas, this day is over for me much too soon. Christ was not born in December, and this date has more to do with the pagan celebrations during Winter Solstice than anything else. Still it is a good thing to take time out to remember the birth of Christ and its significance, and the irony of his having been born with little earthly fanfare, in such a dark time, in such a dark place. I hope I'm not too blind to recognize the hand of God in my life.

On that deep note, I must bid you adieu. I've got class tomorrow.

visual confirmation!!

Love,

SEOBISEUH

Why Jeon-he Can't Read (English)

No matter where I go, they always find mee!!


Define "meaning."

Hi babes! It has been a long time. How are you? Have you been well? How's the missus? My fingernails are digging into the remainder of my precious weekend. Thursday is Christmas, but like Ebeneezer Scrooge's unfortunate employee Bob Cratchit, it appears I only have Christmas day off, and must return to work "all the earlier the next morning."

S0, little Jeon-he can't read because he can't sound out his letters. As such, I'm going to try to teach "him" phonics. We'll see how that goes. But actually I don't think Jeon-he wants to learn English, and Jeon-he is too young to know what he wants, and Jeon-he has too many classmates too. Can't do anything about it. But my first Tuesday and Thursday classes can really be abysmal though, and all we've been seemingly been able to do thus is muddle through in a vaguely academic manner. What I want for Christmas is for half those kids to drop out. They may as well be playing outside or something.

For some reason, My heart has softened towards children since I was last in Korea; for I love even my obnoxious kiddies, and have become too lazy to be angry with them, apparently.

So, things are just going along, and I am in comparatively good spirits this holiday season, even if in all likelyhood I shall be spending it alone--which actually doesn't bother me. Perhaps I'm coming one step further in my apparent goal to become a hobo/old maid/crazy person who constantly talks to herself (all of the above), but I find Iusually prefer the peace of solitude, and become all weird and unappealing when I'm around others anyway.

Sure, you love me *now*, but I am so much better in print than in person. Plus you can pay attention to this blog, or press your other tab and watch the Victoria's Secret holiday fashion show on youtube, or perhaps something more hardcore...

Whatever you like.

As much as I'd like to regail you with adventures in Busan last week, the trip itself was kind of a snore:

hid-ee-yuss.

I mean yea, a bunch of world leaders come here...and solve nothing; but look cool while doing so. And there's a robot that takes photos and sends e-mails! Which apparently, I gave him the incorrect e-mail, because his photo of me is not in my inbox. Sorry Scott.

Here's a memorial dedicated to Korean War medics,

And we get prehistoric.

The discription of the trip said that we would be going to a "traditional market", so I was interested in that--but it turned out to just be a regular market, although one could definately argue that knockoff Louis Vitton handbags and bootleg DVD's are traditional.

One upside of that portion of the trip is that I got the last Christmas present I needed to send home, and got a code-free DVD player (two actually!). If anyone wants to buy a new, code-free DVD player, I've got the lowest prices this side of the DMZ.

Anyway, This entry must end abrputly. It's mad late, and some of us can't afford to lose their beauty sleep. See you Christmas!

SEOBISEUH

Happy Birthday, Daddy!!

This blog post is just for my Pa "Char-seuh", who turns the tender age of...40 tomorrow.  

 

서비스!

Harvest Time!

Mmm...ricey!

     Hi folks!  I thought it would be churlish of me to continue to deprive you of another post, considering so much has happened.  Hopefully, I shall write another entry or two within the week!  These photos here are from last-last week's TaLK field trip to the wholesome countryside, full of rice, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and pears.  It's more wholesome country living than you know what to do with.

  

Isn't that cute...she thinks she can paint.

What's your beef?  American?  Get over it. 

I've got the worst toothache. 

I 'mo eatcha. 

Pounding rice cakes, or whatever the kids are calling it nowadays. 

Holding pen for incurably criminal children

Danielle, Mao, and Jacqui.  Classic love triangle. 

Free slave labor. 

Pear tree branches that grow straight up

Clandestine pear I took home.  Stolen goods always taste better.

Chicken AND beer?  This is paradise.  

    After such a simple healthy experience, it was time to indulge in some good old fashioned materialistic hedonism at the center of the universe; Lotte Mart!  Arms laden with even more useless goods, I headed home on the bus.  Riding city buses in Korea is always an experience, as the drivers handle the buses like they're Ferraris.  

Shakey!

Until next time,  

SUBISU

 

Busan Comic World Festival 51!

Just put it in my veins!!

     Last Sunday, I had the good fortune to be invited by my former roommate Amanda to the Busan Comic World convention. Also on board too early for a Sunday was her man Glenn of course, and Scott, who knows everything about everything, except the Korean language.   

We took a bus and then the subway to BEXCO convention hall.  

    Entering the inner convention hall, there were about three things to see.  Largely, there were booths set up of people selling their various anime, anime-style swag and doujinshi.  There were posters, cards, t-shirts ("daeth note?!"), mugs, key chains, and all sorts of other goodies.   Events like these seem to be a rare outlet for those artists who like to portray the um...more "rainbowish" lifestyle in conservative Korea.   

    There was an especially long line of people in front of a booth selling stuff related to the manga Reborn! , so I got into it and bought a few things, including a manhwa I can never show my children.  

    Also present was some of the  the Deleter company's comic book making supplies:  comic paper, pens, Copic markers, manga software, etc.  I found myself far more exited about this (and bought some paper and pens).  Maybe this stuff was being resold illegally, as I was discouraged from taking photos!  

crappy clandestine photo!!

    And to round it all off, there was a large screen set up in the back apparently showing nothing but the opening credits sequences to different popular anime.  I really hope they showed something more interesting later, but I didn't stick around to see.  

    Of course there were the various cosplayers, few of which we could identify.  Some were advertising "free hugs".  

Rose of Versailles, right? 

Glenn gets some awkward first-time Fruits Basket love.

And just when you thought it was impossible to look like more of a dork...

    I must admit that the experience was a tad anti-climactic, as those of us who are just weird enough to know about "nerd" conventions had higher expectations.  There should have been more to see, it should have been bigger, it should have been more interesting.   Amanda  had her hopes nearly crushed as there weren't many Naruto-related sights to be seen; although she did probably find the only  doujinshi in the universe that wasn't gay porn.    

    Comic World, as it turned out, was little more than a comic village; and apparently Busan hosts one every two months!  Maybe they should have them less often and make them more anticipated events?

But it was fun to go out and experience a real manga/manhwa/anime convention in Asia with TaLKing friends.   

    As I've pontificated before into many a tired ear, I have a love-hate relationship with manga and especially anime.   On the one hand, I have enjoyed many anime over the years,  on the other hand, I find the anime style in general to be cold and soulless, and in terms of animation itself, prefer American style (when it's done well, which is sadly almost never).   There have been anime that I thought were cute, fun, cool, or interesting, but besides some of Hayao Miyazaki's films, there are none that I *love.*  I'll watch just about anything animated once, but there's very little I would actually spend money on.   

    Seeing these Korean kids dressed up in kimonos and watching Japanese anime was interesting to think about.  What do they think about participating in this celebration of Japanese culture? Do they ever think about that sort of thing, or do they give a darn?  Do Korean young people under the age of 30 really give two bento boxes about the Dokdo Islands, or Japan's WW2 atrocities, or is it just something that older people and the government go on about?  Maybe they're just kids who like what they like, regardless of where its from.  Korea and Japan have a lot in common.  It would be interesting to know what the Korean youth's opinions are about Japan--hence one more reason I'm studying the language.    

    Anyway folks, that was the big event of last weekend--here at the beginning of another weekend, I'm sure we'll experience even crazier adventures, the likes of which this blog cannot hope to contain, 

SUBISU