Amanda Takes Off...

Today's travel sucked. AirTran turned my two hour layover into a seven hour layover and then blamed New York for it. However, I got a free one-way ticket to use (when I can afford to waste an extra day traveling, I suppose).

Even better, I managed to read seventy pages in my Aesop's Fables book in Korean.

Yes, you read that right: I read seventy pages in Korean in a day. That's more than 18,000 jaso.

That is so awesome, I deserve a trophy for it.

Today my grandmother (stepdad's mom) died.

My paternal grandmother is in the hospital from a stoke that happened about two weeks ago.

My parents' dog got hit by a car and killed in the past week.

And my brother's going to Afghanistan in a month.

If bad shit comes in threes, why is this coming in a torrential downpour?

The only decent news I have is that I finished the third Pippi book (삐삐는 어른이 되기 싫어) in Korean last night.

I'm reading the third book in the 삐삐 series in Korean. I've learned some marginally useful words. I figured out 왕좌 (throne) by combining "king" (왕) and "seat" (좌석). 야자나무 (palm tree) and 빵나무 (breadfruit tree) are good to know.

But then I got to this.

아바마마, 일이 있긴 있었어요. 아바마마께서 돌아오시자마자 일이 일어났어요.

아바마마?

I'm usually good about figuring out if something is a sound or motion word, but this seemed to be neither. So I looked it up. (No, I don't look up every word I don't know, but this one was so fun to say—ah-bah-mah-mah.)

아바마마(—媽媽)
my father the King.

Oh good kimchi. That's got to be the most useless Korean word I have read. And of course there is a female equivalent: 어마마마 (eo-mah-mah-mah).

"[Good Man], is 송아지‎ a popular word?"

"What do you mean?"

"'Baby cow,' 'calf?'"

Good Man laughed. "Well, it depends on where you live and what you do. How often do you use 'cow,' except for 'holy cow'!"

Good point, Good Man, good point.

I finished the second Pippi book (꼬 마백만장자 삐삐) today. I'm still below where I should be (if I'm perfectly on track to reach my goal), but hey, I'm trucking along. That's what matters.

I'm going to start the third Pippi book next. I'm on a roll with these books and I've gotten into the translator's groove. No reason to quit now!

Good Man and I are celebrating the one year anniversary of our legal ceremony in less than two weeks. We're debating between going somewhere and doing something around here. What complicates it (slightly) is that I have a class on Friday nights until 9:30 and Good Man has class on Mondays, so making it a three-day weekend is impossible. Plus, Mother and Father are coming for Good Man's graduation ceremony in May and I'd like to keep my two remaining personal days for his graduation. And we're going to Mom and George's at the end of next month, which sort of make me "ehhhh" about going somewhere else for just one night.

I was missing Korea today. Korea's rice cake looks bigger than America's.

"I'm behind in my Korean goal. I don't know if I'll read one million jaso."

Good Man, rarely one to take my bait, said, "Hmmm. I think you should...read more!"

I mock glared at him.

He grinned, "You are sixty percent angry, but! Forty percent...love!"