The Last of the Snow

One dilemma we often face here at Lee's Korea Blog is the issue of deciding what constitutes reasonable blogging material and what most probably doesn't. The root cause of this we prefer to blame on a grad student life devoid of regularly-spaced exciting events. Once in a while, we receive a 'boring' vote in the feedback section, which is heavily scrutinized by our various entities. This is then followed by a period of deep and thoughtful soul searching. Does our formless audience wash up on the cybershores of LKB seeking witty charm and social commentary? Or are they merely satisfied to be spoon fed the detailed minutae that constitutes a generally lacklustre existence?

The answers to these questions, I know not. But last week we had some snow on campus and so I took a photo.

Yes, I think it looks pretty too.

Down in the fields of Suwon, the ajossis seem to be up to all kinds of mischief. By the time I arrived on Wednesday last week, they had managed to haul up three tractors onto the roof of our abandoned building with a crane. And there they were, jackhammering away like it was nobody's business.

Now I don't know much about demolition in general, but I do know that a wrecking ball would be more in line with the real traditions of the Korean ajossi.

This little fellow reminded me of the probe droid on the ice planet Hoth at the beginning of the Empire Strikes Back. But this distant ancestor lacks autonomous control, encrypted communications and a self-destruct mechanism, amongst other things.

During the cold winter months, one of our favourite comfort foods is shabu-shabu. It's basically a hot pot, or steamboat, bubbling away in the centre of the table to which you add various uncooked condiments like thinly sliced beef. Apparently it was an idea brought here by the Mongols long ago as a way to make meat supplies last longer.

One thing I'm getting used to around the house is finding various consumables stored at the half-consumed stage. Call me old fashioned, but when I open a can of beer I usually have the intention of drinking it all. Heather is a little different. She'll put cling wrap on a can of beer and save it for later. There's also the famous 'half a processed cheese slice in the fridge' and my favourite, the 'half a packet of ramyeon' complete with half-used seasoning powder.

And here is the perpetrator herself. I'd be inclined to grumble at her if she wasn't always being cute and cheeky at the same time. Her arms are also getting pretty muscular these days.

She's been going to the gym.

This is a photo of me, evidently staring at something of interest. Now who would be so cheeky as to take a photo of me with my own camera, without my knowledge? I'll give you a clue. Her name starts with an 'H' and rhymes with 'feather'.

That cartoon on the building is about 15 storeys high. It's a new art installation down at Seoul Station and is made of thousands of LEDs. The whole display is animated and shows outlines of people walking at different speeds. I quite like it myself.

One thing that Seoul could do with is a bit more eye candy like this around the place.

Anyway, see you soon.