Dong Hyun’s birthday fell on the equinox this year. Many Koreans, like MyeongHee and her son, follow the Lunar calendar when it comes to special events like birthday and anniversaries of deaths. It’s now wonder that she forgot his birthday last year.

So, this year, she made plenty of myeok-guk – a seaweed soup that is traditional on birthday. Last year he got his soup the day after.

We also bought him a mp3/mp4 players so he can listen to music or watch videos during the long school-enforced self-studyperiods after classes are over.  He liked that. Electronic gizmos are status symbols here in Korea and he had only a small hand phone. Now he’s shooting from both hips and is a happy camper.

I can’t remember how old he is. Like I’ve mentioned before, Koreans are one year old at birth and change on New Years Day. So, he’s either 17 (American age) or 18 but won’t change the number until January, which is not the Lunar New Year they all celebrate heavily. It’s hard to keep track of dates here. I think he’ll be 20 (Korean age) in January.

Yesterday, MyeongHee and SaTang and I went for a walk along the river. In the past year, the city has made major improvements to the area and is transforming what was a scummy river into a really nice city park.  This week, there’s an Eco-Art festival with about 40 or so pieces of art on display. Most of them look like recycled material re-purposed into “art.” Art is such a subjective thing. Some still looked like trash to me.

Having a dog has changed my social profile in the comunity dramatically. Where once I’d go out only if I needed to buy something, go somewhere or just exercise, I now go out just to be a part of the community. My dog SaTang is housebroken and needs to go outside. I used to think that was a chore, but I look forward to it as people, especially kids, tend to like the dog.

Over the past few months, I’ve snapped lots of pictures with the little ones and SaTang. I thought I’d share them. Sometimes, they like to pet the dog, sometimes they simply like to stare at the foreigner (there aren’t many of us in this neighborhood.)

I got my first royalty payment from the sale of single a copy of my novel, Internal Strife, this month.  Amazon sold the first and I’m sure it will be a virtual avalanche of sales once word gets out of its awesomeness.

You’d better head to Amazon and pick one up, too, before they’re all gone. Never mind that its digital and therefore inexhaustible, just hurry over and buy one and make me rich.  You need a Kindle to read it though. Don’t have a kindle?  You can buy a generic PDF from me directly here.

[wpaudio url=”http://martypants.us/Korea/IllBeHomeForChristmas.mp3″ text=”I’ll Be Home for Christmas – Bing Crosby”]
It’s perhaps a little too early for singing Christmas tunes, but the thought of coming home for the holidays put me in the mood. Click the link above if you want to get in the mood, too.

I was skimming over the calendar a few weeks ago and realized my school holidays coincide nicely with the weekends this Christmas. I mulled it over in my mind and with a few people back home and then talked to my director. She’s ok with me taking off on Thursday the 24th of December and I won’t have to be back until the 4th of January.

It’s expensive as hell, but as my daughter, Jessica, reminded me, I was fond of saying “it’s only money; I’ll make more.” So true.

I’m taking an early flight out of Busan into Tokyo on the 24th where I’ll catch another long-ass flight to D/FW. If all goes according to plan, I should arrive in Dallas around 1:30pm on Christmas Eve.  I leave Tokyo around 1pm and get to Dallas at about the same time on the same day. How’s that for flying at the speed of the Earth’s rotation? I fly out again on January 2 for the two virtual days of flying home so I’ll be home in time to work on Monday the 4th.

I haven’t been home for Christmas since 2006 and I’m already getting excited about it.  I hope someone is having a turkey or a ham or something similar – we don’t get that very often here in Korea.

My house is quite full today. MyeongHee’s brother and his wife and baby came last night along with my mother-in-law. Mother-in-law wanted to see the baby and since she live in Pohang and MH’s brother lives in Busan a compromise location was made – our house. No problem, though. Despite have only two bedrooms – one for me and MH and one for her son DongHyun – the rest of the family, including the baby,  is happy sleeping on the floor as they usually do.

Today, MyeongHee and her brother both went off to work. I am still home with the sister-in-law and mother-in-law who apparently find cleaning voraciously to be fun. It’s non-stop action if one is holding or feeding the baby, the other is making ban-chan (various side dishes for meals), cleaning or tidying up. I used to feel bad when I’d sit around and type on the keyboard while the mother-in-law clewans. I’ve since been reassured that that is typical and expected behavior fo males in Korea. So, I try to enjoy it while trying to appear small and staying out of the way.

Such a difference in raising babies, though, between here and in America. At my daughter’s house the place is filled with bright, colorful toys for the girls to look at and play with. It was that way when she was a baby, too. Lots of toys and mind-stimulating items. No so, here. In fact, they’ve brought not a single colorful anything in all the times I’ve seen them and their new baby. Nothing to hang from the baby bassinet or baby carrier to catch the baby’s attention. In fact, no bassinet or baby carrier. Not even a car seat. The baby is too small, they tell me. Although car seats for children are, in fact used in Korea, my experience in seeing them is quite rare. It’s often that I see someone in the car with a small child in the front seat on mommy’s lap, even with the little one’s hands on the dashboard.  When my brother-in-law and his wife travel with the baby, she just gets in the back seat and holds the baby.

The difference in laws regarding personal freedoms here and in the US are interesting, too. Here, you have the freedom to endanger your children without the government telling you how to, although as the adult driver or passenger you must wear a seat belt.

Korea Style.