Amanda Takes Off...

At our motel in Ulleungdo, there are two doors, the main door and the door to the sleeping area. Mother turns on the AC and I close and lock both doors and close the windows. Mother freaks out over the window being closed. I say, "The AC will work better with the window closed." I don't point out that she only runs the AC for five minutes at a time and I'd really like the room to cool down.

When I wake up in the morning, the inner door is open. I know I locked it, so it couldn't've drifted open by itself. I wonder if Mother believes in Fan Death but say nothing.

***

Mother keeps the house hot. Really hot. Eight degrees and above hot. At night I sleep with a fan on. The fan is too far away to make much of a difference, but it does help a bit. Every morning, the fan is off.

Finally, one morning I say, "Mother, it's hot. I need the fan on at night."

"You will get too cold!"

"No, I'm too hot. I am sweating all the time."

"You will get too cold if the fan is off!"

I nod. "OK, so do you want me to sleep without clothing?"

Mother shakes her head. "I have not been turning the fan off."

"Who has been?"

Sister laughs. "A ghost."

"Please tell the ghost I need the fan on."

Mother shakes her head, "You need to leave the door open."

I have never closed the bedroom door, because Mother has always kept the fan outside of the bedroom, but I don't argue. "I will keep the door open," I said, "and the window, too."

"You are going to get too cold!"

Online, I tell Good Man about the fan issue. "I know," he replies, "she believes in fan death."

This is by far the most ridiculous Korean song I've heard in a long time. When it came on in my car today, I couldn't stop laughing.

The song is called "High Calorie" and it's basically a list of foods with the demand to eat. The woman sings:

먹을 걸 참지 말아요
맛있는 것을 참지 말아요
손으로 집고 무작정 입으로 넣어요 맛있잖아요

Don't resist eating.
Don't resist delicious foods.
Grab it with your hand, and shove it into your mouth because it's delicious.

The name of the duo? Fat Man.

Another song featuring the same female vocalist (정인) is "Rush."

And another one, by Dynamic Duo (one of Good Man's favorite groups).

Dynamic Duo is going into the military soon, and their newest album cover has a military theme. This song ("Keep the Change") has multiple people telling a taxi driver their hard situations/lives. One even asks the taxi driver how much training is required to get the job.

"Fireworks" is about being a trouble maker and making people uncomfortable.

And one I adore, "I'm Sorry." Soju fixes everything according to this song.

While this would be the perfect post to discuss MC 몽's teeth, I'll save that debate for another time.

Resolved

I met two of last year's resolutions, blew one completely out of the water, and failed at the Korean one. This year I really only have on goal, and that is to read 1,000,000 글자 (syllables) in Korean.

Ringing It In
So last night I stayed up with my Korean family, drinking wine and watching various K-pop acts on the TV, waiting to ring in the new year with 33 bongs on the bell in Seoul. (Mother was the only one who knew the reason for the 33 bongs. Each one represents one of the original signers of the Korean independence document.)

Mother and Father had gone out with Father's seonbae in the evening, so Father was drunk. We hid the wine from him and at one point he was resting his head on his hand on the table, looking around for the wine. He was peering at my through the wine glass as if to say "American Daughter-in-Law, please give me the wine..."

The pop acts were, well, K-poppy. I was horrified by MC Mong's "Indian Boy" video. My in-laws couldn't understand why I was so horrified and Good Man tried to explain, but it was so clear they just didn't get it. (This isn't the actual video, but it fairly close to what he did.)

K-pop band Jewelry sang some song with the words "Jewerly Forever" behind them the whole time and I just about died laughing. Another girl group Kara, sang a song with the lyrics "Rock your body, I say" but when they sing, it becomes "Rock your bahsay."

I should be hired by some entertainment groups in Korea. I would catch every little stupid mistake...especially since they're glaring!

After a phone conversation last night I said to Good Man, "I need to study Korean more so I can talk to your mother more easily. Or...maybe your mother should watch Boys Before Flowers. Then we could talk about the hot Orange Haired Guy."

***

Several weeks ago, Good Man came to school to help chaperon a field trip. Of course he ended up meeting several coworkers and was seen by even more. After he'd left, more than one coworker told me, "He's cute! Wow, he's way cuter than I thought he'd be, for an Asian guy!"

How am I supposed to take that? Scratch that. I know how I take it. The better question is how am I supposed to answer that?

A few weeks ago I was talking about various Korean celebrities with high school senior from taekwondo class. She has a Korean mother and a white American military father. She meant it as a compliment when she said to me, "Yeah, you have yellow fever!"

Based on my reaction, I don't think she'll risk saying that to anyone ever again, compliment or not.

***

Then there are those things I'm not supposed to admit. Those things related to being in an interracial, intercultural, international relationship.

I start posts about them. I keep them in draft mode, because I fear I'll be misunderstood.

I can only say that one of the best thing about being in this particular interracial, intercultural, international relationship is the ways that we're not the same. The ways that he is a 황인 한국 남자 and I am a 백인 미국 여자.

High on the roof,
Thin the blood,
Another one on the waves tonight,
Comin' in, you're home

I have a crush on an orange-haired child (22, he's a child). See him at about the 7:00 mark and again at 9:10.

Boys Before Flowers,
Boys Over Flowers

(Sorry for the screen overflow. I know it's happening...)