Musings on a Winter Night

So I've been deep in thought lately, some know why and some don't, but nonetheless I have been exceptionally busy. So tonight the bar is rather quiet, which is quite fine by me. Angela is sleeping in one of the booths and Sophie is playing games on her phone. Personally, I think the cold combined with the ugly wind is keeping everyone indoors tonight. A nice quiet night is due after the hectic week with school and with the bar. Argh too much to do in so many ways that I feel like my brain is splitting apart trying to solve every problem posed me.

However much stress I feel from writing 17 different tests in the past week for my classes (daily tests for my intensive students is really tiring) I still think about strange things that just make me smile about Korea. Take for instance, superstition and the fact that while I live on the 5th floor of my apartment building, its technically the 4th floor. Koreans and I believe Chinese as well have a superstition regarding the number 4, or sa, and many buildings are without a 4th floor, similar to Western buildings often not having a 13th floor. There superstition is based on the word for four and the word for death being very similar in sound. A similar superstition is based on the color red, and its meaning relating to blood, death and war. As such you very rarely see red in clothing, it is there, just as the number four is there, but on a much diminished scale.

On a bright note, for all who know where my mind has been at lately, the initial work in my business venture has been completed and hopefully the rest will shortly hereafter be concluded in the infamous words of the beatles, with a little help from my friends.

Sanmal is coming up quickly and I'm excited to see how much more excited the Koreans are about Lunar New Year because despite the hordes of people thronging the beach, it was a relatively quiet New Years. I will update you soon because I believe its on January 25. It's a 4 day holiday so it should be a good time. Love and miss you all and I hope everyone's year had come off to a good start despite the freezing cold and the current state of the union over there. Can't wait to talk to you again. Spokoiny nochy druzya is semya.