Playing hooky is good for you

Yesterday I was supposed to go to an educational conference in Daegu, but a friend is moving back to the US soon and wanted to go to the Hoam Art Museum yesterday. So, I played hooky. Hoam is somehow part of Everland (Korean Disney... if you've never even seen pictures of Disney).

Everland is in Yong-in-- the next town over from me. The buses don't go past my part of town, though, so it is about one hour from my house. Why did I not know about this place? I took about one hundred photos, because the main attraction are the huge English gardens.

There are also huge collections of the stone people (whose name I always forget, except for the stone grandfathers, because that's an easy name). Here are but a few of the dozens of photos I took. Although I like the "garden of gradfathers" my favorites were all of the grandfathers randomly hidden in the foliage.

I also (gasp) finished an actual knitting project. No, not Esther, although I am *almost* to the gusset increases. The pattern repeat is 24 rows and the 2mm needles make the progress seem nonexistent. So, I knit a pair of spiraling lace socks in periwinkle. However, there is no photo, because the pattern came out much nicer than anticipated, so I may submit it to MagKnits. If I do that, I'll need a test knitter or two...

More Reliable Than the Postman

This is the current view from my window. I haven't updated the construction in a while (mostly because I assume no one is hanging on the edge their seats to hear about my disappearing view.) This was taken in the rain. Yes, they are working. It is now Sunday morning and they are working. It seems to be a seven-day-a-week operation, regardless of weather, holidays, etc.

I'm starting to wonder how much I'll be able to have my windows open this summer. I rarely use AC, but the road noise is pretty loud already. With the trees gone and a tunnel being dug (a couple of meters to the left out of the photo), I'm guessing it will be worse than usual.

***

Here are my absolute favorite students ever, not that teachers have favorites. We had a talent show/ show and tell (in case anyone felt they didn't have a talent) and they are holding their "props".

This is the boy I wrote about recently. He made the robot dump truck he's holding by taking apart a toy dump truck he had and programming the robot to raise and lower the tray in the back. We asked him what he did and what his parents did and he did it all himself. Ordinarily, I would be sceptical, but his knowledge of electronics, circuitry, and engineering put all of his liberal arts grad teachers to shame.

All of the students in this class (except for one) are geniuses. They love learning and are like little grownups. Teaching them just makes my day.

***

Alright, it's time for some crazy, Korea-style. Have you heard of Raelians? They think humans are clone of aliens and they are waiting for our alien creators to take them back to space. Yes, I know. It sounds like they are already in space. A coworker was shopping recently and saw some Raelians in alien costumes passing out literature. Really. He didn't want to be a culturally insensitive foreigner and take a picture, so all I have is their literature to show you.

As if the alien thing didn't show they were the First Church of Crazy, they think a Star of David and a swastika are a good combo. Yes, the swastika is a very old Buddhist symbol, but...

Newsflash: The French are Whiners

It's been scientifically proven. ;-) Read all about it. I always thought they got a bad rap, but I guess I was wrong...

The Taxman Cometh or The Good News is I Got a Raise

Okay, I really shouldn't complain. I live in Korea, land of screw the infrastructure and needy? what does that mean? (Of course, they do manage to have national health care.) So, my total deductions from my pay are 3.3%. Ouch. ;-)

However, I just got my tax bill. Last year, all of my coworkers got a refund and I paid about $100. This year, all of my coworkers got a refund and I've got to pay $600. Apparently, I jumped a tax bracket . Yippee! Looking on the bright side (which according to Oprah is the secret to success in life) I moved up a tax bracket because of the raise I got last year.

Yes, I watched Oprah. I haven't watched her much over the past few years, because it's turned into a butt-kissing contest IMHO, but I was in couch potato mode a few days ago and nothing else was on. So, there you go. Oprah, better than not watching TV. If there is an episode where someone kisses her ring or washes her feet with their hair, though, that I would like to see.

How exactly would you describe the moisture?

Kooky Korean product translation of the day. Despite the name, it's toilet paper for women (or men) with sensitive tushies. And really, what man wouldn't like something that's "vagina wet"? Why the product sexism?

Free At Last!

Mr. Please-be-my-x has arrived safely at his mama's house. His school never bothered to cancel his work visa. So, he had no trouble leaving.

I've been getting all kinds of great stories about him from his family. I emailed his brother to "encourage" him to a) go to rehab and b) never darken my door again. Apparently, he has had some kind of double life going on that involved lots of working. ;-)

When his father passed away last fall, he sent them the most detailed list of reasons why he couldn't go on account of his clients. He also used my "hospitalization" as an excuse. It reminded me of high school.

My sister never got away with anything and never understood why I generally never got caught. It's all in the stories, people. To quote Judge Judy, "KISS". My sister would spin the most elaborate tales to account for every minute when she was where she shouldn't have been, but the rest of the time she was far more frugal with the details.

Anyway, his family believed his tales. He is far away (and an adult) so they probably just thought he was giving them an update on his life.

***

Yesterday, for the entire teaching day, a new restaurant was announcing their opening across the street. Usually, this is done with a pair of dancing girls, but this place had traditional Korean taffy makers and drummers. When I left work, the drummer was on a break but I got a photo of the costumes.



***


Here is my progress on Esther. The flowers really stand out more than the photo shows. I haven't worked on it since Saturday. When I've finished cleaning my apartment, or at least made more headway...

I've decided that I should throw away about 50% of my crap. That is, if something has sat in a storage bin, untouched, since I moved here three years ago, then I probably don't need it.

Maybe.

Well, I might need it.

Okay, so I'm a bit of a pack rat. That doesn't make me a bad person. Unfortunately, I live in Korea, land of no closets. So, this seems like a good time to pack up his stuff and weed out my own.

Cathay Pacific Rules!

Cathay Pacific has a customer for life. Mr. Please-become-my-x showed up at 3ish with *reasons not excuses* why he couldn't leave yesterday. Basically, it boiled down to him not recognizing my request for a separation.

Dude, you cannot force me to stay married to you.

So, I took him to the airport today and changed his ticket. His nonrefundable, "don't-even-ask-to-make-changes-because-you-can't" ticket was changed to the same flight today without so much as a batted eyelash, much less a fee. How is that for customer service? Cathay Pacific is the best airline EVER!!!

I saw him off at the security gate and made sure he did not have enough money to get too drunk before his flight. So now I just have to wait until he should arrive in Perth and I can call his mother and see if he actually left. I'm half (or more than half) expecting him to show up at the door, because he "changed his mind" at the gate.

You know, for a Southerner, I have never really gotten guns or, more precisely, the need for private citizens to own them, seeing as the US is not really under threat of invasion (unless those sneaky Canadians are up to something). Now, I get it though.

My school has kindly offered to get me a new apartment just so he can't find me. It just makes me mad that a) I have to go through the hassle of moving, and b) I have to give up this apartment. I really like where I live. I've got a great apartment and it's in a great location. Why should I be punished? As far as I'm concerned, the last few years of marriage have been punishment enough.

Okay, I think that's just about enough venting for one day. Thanks for your support over the past few days or so.

On a completely different topic, I may have gotten my knitting mojo back. I don't feel like taking a photo, so you can't see it, but while whiling away my precious weekend time at the airport today, I knit half a foot of an Esther sock. I recast on with 2mm needles with some teal wool-blend yarn. It's ever so much nicer than the pink. And I own somewhere in the neighborhood of 87 teal shirts. So, they will get some wear. This is a beautiful pattern, but it is so slow! One pattern repeat (24 rows, no rest rows) took me about 2 hours.

Take a hint, you useless SOB

Well, D-Day has come and gone. As you may have guessed from the title, he did not get on the plane. I got home from work to find an empty apartment (yay!). My excitement lasted exactly 2.3 seconds, until I turned on the lights and saw his bag, passport, and ticket. The only thing he took was the money I gave him.

It was only about $100, so I am guessing he will show up some time tomorrow with a "reason" why he couldn't go.

So, my question is, at what point is the line crossed from "premeditated" to "justifiable"? I have bought him two plane tickets and (last time) given him thousands of dollars to leave me alone. What more will it take?

I don't think calling the police would help, and I'm not sure he's out of status. However, at this point, I think my only option will be to call immigration, regardless of whether or not I will incur the fine as a result.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Teacher, Today a Lobster Will Die

My students come out with some pretty amusing things, usually unintentional ("Teacher, I'm hard."), but the title statement was one student's way of letting me know it was his grandfather's birthday. I wish you could hear the glee in his voice.


Once again, it has been very long since I've posted. I haven't been getting much knitting done, at least not knitting that didn't later get ripped.


Since I haven't posted in so long, I've got a few photos. Here is one of the cherry blossoms in front of the Iksan Jewelry Center.

Here is another that I've been trying to get for a while. I have walked past it on various occasions while lost (and therefore, unable to go back with a camera). Finally, I walked past it while armed with my camera. It's a Starbucks, if you can't see the name.

This is a little blurry, because I took it while riding in a bus. How is that for fast thinking? Okay, we weren't going that fast, because it was Sunday afternoon in downtown Seoul.


Heeheehee.

Last time I posted, I mentioned a uni job I was interested in. After much soul-searching, I decided that this really ought to be my last year in Korea. So, although I like the sound of Jennifer professor more than Jennifer teacher, taking a job with that university would be more of a commitment to staying here, since it would be used to get a better uni job.

What I did not mention last time, is that once again, I will soon be free. Again. Hopefully for good. I bought my husband another plane ticket, this one without a return, so he can't "change his mind". So, now I just have to count the hours until Friday night.

I'm moderately stressed that the flight boards right before I finish work, so I can't put him on the shuttle bus to the airport. My other fear is that the school he walked out on canceled his visa (as I would have done, if he worked for me) and he will be out of status. The charge is about $100 per day and that was two months (or so) ago. I'm not sure when he really quit, because he stayed in hotels until he ran out of money.


I only found out what was going on when he injured himself and I got stuck with the emergency room bill, because Korea doesn't recognize separations. So, if he is out of status, will they detain him and stick us (IE ME) with a bill for his overstay? Even if I don't get charged the fine, he won't know until he goes through immigration, the last step before boarding the plane. If it takes them too long to decide what to do with him, he could miss the plane.


I just have to get through the next 44 hours.

Anne Frank the Musical?

I can't believe it's been two weeks since I last posted. I've been busy basking in the freedom of not having Korean classes. I read two entire books yesterday and neither one was for school. I've also read about six books for school in the last two weeks.

As for the title of the post, that refers to a poster I saw today in Seoul, "Musical Anne Frank", which caused my two companions to burst into song, cheerfully announcing the presence of Nazis at the door and arrival at a camp. But really, what else would a musical about Anne Frank be like? Dirges and sad dancing? How does one dance sadly? Hmmmm... If anyone can shed light on this cultural phenomenon, please, I'm dying to know.

I haven't had anything on the needles in a few weeks, since I was knocked out of Sock Madness until I cast on a pair of Esther socks (scroll way down) in a pinkish-purple color. I knit one pattern repeat and then realized it is way too wide. Since I was able to get my hands on two pairs of 2.25s last time I went to the nice yarn shop, I'll recast on. Probably tomorrow, since I got car sick on the bus today and am still feeling kind of yuck. And yet, here I am posting. Do you feel loved?

The Esther pattern is a 24 row repeat, working every row (ie no knit around rows), but it is very pretty. There is a picot cuff, but my picot cuffs always end up weird-looking, so my pair will probably have a non-picot cuff. I'm thinking a scalloped cuff. Hmmm.... Here is a hat using the pattern, which I may try to recreate. Would matching hat, socks, and mittens be too much? ;-) Who am I kidding, all of my gloves are singletons, doomed to forever wait to be mated.

I've got some photos of the ongoing road construction, but I haven't loaded them onto the computer and don't feel like doing it now. Apparently, the trees were sacrificed so that there can be a new "express" highway running between the two existing highways.

I need some positive thoughts sent my way this week. I'm applying for a university position this week. I haven't finished my master's and it's been a year since I last took a course towards its completion, so I need all the help I can get. ;-) It's a fair sized pay decrease, but 18 hours instead of my current 30 and 8 weeks vacation instead of my current 2 (one of which is unpaid). There's no housing, though, so I will have to face the prospect of finding housing in Seoul, which is like getting housing in New York, only Koreans like a very large deposit. I know three of the instructors there, though, so I think I would like working there.

So there we are, up to date on my life.

Hello, World, It's Good to be Back (or I'm Too Old For This S*&%)

I can' t believe I haven't posted in over two weeks. I finished Korean classes, though, and the KOTESOL conference was Saturday, so I am back in the world of people who have something called free time.

I was elected 1st Vice-President of Seoul Chapter at the conference, so that was nice. I was running unopposed, though, so not really an unexpected event. :-)

I got my Korean progress report and it was all as expected. I know a lot of vocabulary, but have difficulty speaking in long, detailed exchanges. Also, it takes me "a while" to incorporate new grammar into my speaking and writing, although I can understand them when I see/ hear them. Yeah, I could have written that myself. But, the last two months have been worthwhile in that I have regained ground that I had lost by not ever speaking Korean.

At this point, all of you who don't live here are probably wondering how that can be the case since I LIVE IN KOREA, but in fact it is quite simple. Everyone in Korea wants to learn English. All day long, I speak English at school. At night I read or watch TV in English. Wherever I go there are people who want to practice their conversation skills.

So, as soon as I catch my breath, I'll start posting again, with pictures. I have done any knitting since I was knocked out of Sock Madness, but I'll be casting on something in the next few days, I'm sure.

Speaking of, thank you to everyone for their kind words about the Mad Cow pattern, despite the omission of gauge (note to self: do not write patterns while on vacation at Disney World.) If you would like to make a pair yourself, I've linked the pattern.

Keeping Traditions Alive

Did you see this on yahoo news? A Polish town known for traditional lace is keeping it alive with lace thongs. As one woman pointed out, it takes a lot less time to make than a table runner and there is more of a market for lingerie.

Mad (Cape) Cod

mad (cape) cod
Originally uploaded by waegoogin.

Finally finished. I held it under my desk and knit the final cuff while my students did their sustained silent reading today (about fifteen minutes). I'm pretty sure I'll frog them and reknit them with five repeats on the foot (serves me right after I left the gauge out of the pattern) and change it to a heel flap.

I prefer heel flaps, but short row heels are easier and the pattern was supposed to be suitable for a first-time sock knitter.

I do really like how the colors work together. There is fawn in the Cape Cod, but the solid stripes prevent the pooling that drives me mad.

Now I have to see if I made the cut. When they last posted, there were only four slots left in my division.

The original Mad Cows were knit in Filitura Cervinia color 012 (black, white, and gray variegated) and some random black yarn (I knit them on vacation and didn't save the ball band), both 100% merino.

pattern 1 yarn

pattern 1 yarn
Originally uploaded by waegoogin.

My Mad Cow yarn.

Let's Get Ready to Rumble!

Today is the day that Sock Madness kicks off (yukyukyuk). I finished my last project Thursday and am ready to go. Some people seem to take this waaaaaaaay too seriously. I've participated in a couple of similar knitting "events" and there are people who seriously seem to take leave from their job or otherwise make said event the center of their lives. I will concede that there is little opportunity for competitive knitting, so competitive people may look forward to the few chances that do arise more than the rest of us, but come on. It's just a game.

I'm patiently waiting for the email of the pattern, even though it won't arrive until early tonight or later, because there is about a fifteen hour difference between the hosts and me. I have gathered my knitting accoutrement and have them patiently waiting, though. :-)

That's about all that's going on around here. My days pretty much consist of going to Korean class, teaching, and doing homework. I knit on the train to class and on the bus to work. The end. My exciting, exotic life in Asia.

Last week I recorded my first episode of the podcast. It was a lot of fun. Mostly we just shared our views on expat life in Korea. So, you know, the same crap I sit around talking about all the time anyway, just with a mic in front of me.

The new Knitty is out. There is one gorgeous sock pattern which brings to mind Cookie's recent patterns (if you click through, scroll all the way down, because there is sock after sock each one more beautiful than the last), which I will never knit because it is knee high (so about a foot taller than I find comfortable), one very cool stranded pattern that I will never knit, because my goth days are about 20 years in the past (but I would have totally knit them back in high school), one beautiful pattern that I might knit if and when I get through the current queue of beautiful patterns (that only grows, because I generally just end up knitting my own patterns anyway), and one very basic pattern. I think I have just broken my standing record for longest run on sentence with the most parenthetical asides and a few dangling modifiers thrown in for good measure. Yes, I teach writing, but I'm off the clock. ;-)

I was heartened to read Cookie's post today about writing a pattern just like Queen of Hearts, because I just finished knitting two pairs of socks that I intended to submit to MagKnits (one was a more advanced version of the other). About the time I cast on the fourth sock, I saw a VERY similar, though not exactly identical, sock from Sensational Knitted Socks. I even thought I had very cleverly come up with the lace pattern myself. Hahaha. Since mine is *somewhat* different, with lace panels and a fold-down cuff, I'll post the pattern once I get it typed up. I haven't had time or proper natural lighting to take photos yet, but they are pretty, if I do say so myself.

Can a person knit to death?

I realized today that I have signed up for two knitting contests that start this week. Hahahahahaha. One is Sock Madness that I've been going on about for ages. The other is yarnmonkey's knitoff. Both are elimination tournaments. Both of which I'll probably get knocked out of in the first round.

I've also signed up for another month of Korean class, even though it may kill me. We covered one hundred pages in a month!!! I thought I was off the hook because it looked like there wouldn't be enough students to open the class (about half of my class is going to be overseas for the month of March). Today, the last day of class, I found out the minimum had been reached. At least that's like two knitting hours a day on the subway. Of course, if I didn't have class, I would have the two hours of class plus the two hours of homework time to knit...

At least my Korean is improving. And I'm learning useful phrases, like, "What would you like to fix on your face?" since the Korean verb for getting plastic surgery is "fixing". Of course, it's pretty disheartening that my Korean had devolved to the point where I can see improvement in only a month.

I found out that I will be knitting against Miss Violet herself in Sock Madness. I'm such an uber-dork, I know.

As if all that weren't enough, I'm joining a podcast, Seoul Survivors, this weekend. Hopefully, since it's an expat/ teacher podcast and not a knitting one, I won't be hit by the knitting podcaster's curse. Has anyone else noticed the regularity with which knitting podcasters have been struck with serious illness? First was Marie Irshad the knitting podmother, then someone whose name I've forgotten (from Texas, maybe, I don't know, it was one I only listened to a few times), then Miss Violet, and now the venerable Brenda Dayne.

As a completely unrelated aside, since I seem to be rambling more pointlessly than usual, the new Magknits is up with three sock patterns.

Since this is an otherwise photofree post, I'll put in my random sighting of the week, even though I saw it a few weeks ago. This is the art installation in front of some random business in Seoul. All the Dwarves are there, just some are hiding or around the corner.

SP9

I received my SP9 package today from my pal in Estonia. What a lovely assortment of goodies it is, too.

I started with a pic of the box, because I think it was used in a game of rugby somewhere along the way. Good things yarn isn't fragile! All sides of the box look pretty much the same.

There was an assortment of yarns, some wool (DK?) and cotton (?) light fingering (?). As you can see, I'm not much of an eyeball-er. I'm always at the yarn store holding skeins and debating at length (with myself, cause I'm a crazy foreigner; at least it's inner monologue.) whether or not it will knit up to the gauge I'm looking for.

There was also some plum chocolate which was too delicious to pose for photos. :-) Not shown are some beautiful beads and a cute sheep keychain which I tried to photograph, but my cat was helping too much, so I'll try again later.

I have saved the best for last. I love to travel and I love to learn about other places. So, I was thrilled to get not one, but two traditional knitted mittens books in both English and (I assume) Estonian. How gorgeous are these? How much hubris would I need to think I could knit these as lovely as they are in the book? For the time being I will consider them a goal. For the day when I am far more patient and willing to frog back than I am now.

SSDD

I can't believe another week has gone by already. Okay, it was a four day week due to the Lunar New Year holiday, but still. I'm pretty sure time is actually speeding up.


This has been perhaps the most stressful week ever. Some issues with my husband came to a head this week, which I won't go into other than to say that we don't have children or co mingled assets, so I really don't think separating should be this hard. Live and learn and learn and learn, I guess.


Anyway, I made it through and didn't open fire in a public building (or private one for that matter), so hopefully it's downhill from here.


I engaged in a little retail therapy yesterday to take my mind off of things/reward myself for the aforementioned lack of public destruction. Yes, I know I'm supposed to be on a spending moratorium. I went to "the nice yarn shop" and got two hanks of Koigu* KPPPPPPPM 513 (the skeins I have are much darker and less gold than the photo), two 2.25mm circs, and two knitting mags. She's carrying sock yarn now. I would use some exclamation points, but it was five or six skeins of Opal. Still, that's a first in Korea, as far as I know.


The shop is on an arty street called Insa dong in Seoul and is packed with an interesting assortment of people pretty much at all times. On the way in, I passed a gaggle (20 or so) of middle/ high school students (their uniforms look pretty much the same) wearing horse head masks. I was too slow getting my camera, so I just got a pic of one straggler playing guitar. Um, whatever floats your boat.
I also saw a man carving tops. You can't really tell from the picture, but he has an entire table of tops which he has made by hand.

All in all, it was a nice diversion from everything going on in my life.

* I included a link to Koigu's website because it is the absolute most pathetic attempt at a website, commercial or otherwise, on the entire internet, IMHO.

Happy New Year! (Welcome to the Year of the Golden Pig)

Today is the beginning of the Year of the Golden Pig, which happens only once every six hundred years. It is apparently a big deal, judging from the ubiquitous golden pigs for sale at every possible retail location.

This is a big deal for me, because tomorrow is a holiday. Lunar New Year is a three day holiday here, but two of the days this year are Saturday and Sunday. Koreans would traditionally be spending today at their ancestors graves laying an altar of food and bowing and praying to their ancestors. However, I didn't see anyone at the "cemetery" visible from my window.

I met a friend in Seoul today and am pretty sure I saw the Seoul Stitch n' Bitch having their fortnightly meeting, but I always feel weird approaching people I don't know, so I just surreptitiously checked out their projects (knitting, crochet, and cross stitch) as I passed by. I had wanted to host the Dave and Gary dolls, but they beat me to it and it seemed unnecessary for the dolls to visit Seoul twice.

If you haven't signed up for Sock Madness, it's not too late. Let the Madness begin!

I found out about a new site, Knitting Daily "where life meets knitting", that will give you a free stranded sock pattern for joining (you will get a shawl pattern by email as well.) It is a very pretty pattern, but will I make it?

Since this entire post has been a random hodge podge, even more than usual, I will direct you to a singer I have discovered by listening to Fat Guy Radio, which is a moderately interesting podcast about a guy's trials and tribulations of losing weight. The singer is pretty funny, his songs are about topics such as how crazy Tom Cruise is and a fun way to while away the spring. Not all songs are work safe, but they will make you laugh. Mama, if you are reading this, I don't think you will appreciate the humor.

Okay, maybe a better title for this post would be: All the Random Crap That's Running Through My Head.

Let the Madness Begin!

Sock Madness registration rules have been posted as the contest gets ready to begin. As I have posted before, I have contributed the easy level pattern.

So, let the games begin!

Hayley Rocks

Hayley was my sender buddy in the Townsend Sock Bag Swap. She sent me an absolutely amazing package and now I feel like I kind of shortchanged my buddy. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are some photos of my haul:







This has been a VERY long week. The new semester started at school, so I have four chapter books/ novels (including 1984) for school. One book per fortnight per class. I've also got Korean classes, two hours a day, plus two hours of homework each night. So, I'm on the subway by 8:30 in the morning-- the two hours round trip give me novel-reading time! ;-)-- and getting home at 9:00 at night, at which time I do my homework before collapsing in bed.

I've also got some personal issues I'm dealing with, but I'm not quite as public as Laurie, so suffice it to say it has also been an emotionally draining week.

The point of all this, is that this package came at the best time possible. She put so much time and care into my package. The colors of the yarn are like she looked in my brain-- I could lick that skein of CTH. I asked for "treats" to be regional and she sent me all kinds of stuff-- local chocolates (vegetarian and organic, which was very kind, since I'm on a quest to reduce animal products and unnatural items from my diet), maps and brochures from her beautiful home in Staffordshire, England, sock stitch markers, a plethora of stationery items (notebook, pen, mechanical pencil, bookmarks... that match and even matched the wrapping paper), a knitter's keyring, and I'm sure I'm leaving more out. I'm overwhelmed by her generosity and thoughtfulness.

In contrast you can see what I sent my buddy:

http://jenniferteacher.blogspot.com/2007/01/happy-friday.html
except I changed the yarn, because I realized I dyed it the wrong color. Here is the yarn I actually sent her:
http://jenniferteacher.blogspot.com/2007/01/happy-sunday.html
Looks kind of skimpy by comparison, no?

As they say, live and learn. My next swap buddy will come out better...

Complete Waders!

I got an email from Maryse of bag 'n' trash that she had completed a pair of Waders which can be seen here:
http://www.monster-yarn.com/2007/02/socks_and_swatc.html

They are beautiful-- she used a pale green color, so the stitch pattern shows up much better than in mine.

Soup's On!

A Veggie Venture is having a Soup's On theme month. So, in that vein, here is my favorite soup recipe. Okay it's not really a recipe, more a list of ingredients, but it always tastes great. Except for the time I forgot to add onions and garlic, so it was kind of flavor-deficient.

Not Quite Ratatouille Soup
2 Asian eggplants/ 1 American eggplant
2 zucchinis
1 large onion
1 big can tomatoes
1-1.5 c beans (your choice), cooked
1-2 T minced garlic
2 bouillon cubes/ equivalent volume stock
oregano and basil to taste
water to cover vegetables in pot

I "saute" the onions in the liquid from the bouillon until they are clear, then add the other ingredients. Sometimes I add bell peppers of various colors, if they look good at the market. Just bring it to a boil and let it simmer "till it's done".

Women often use blogs for trifling purposes

I have started taking Korean classes. I know, after living here for the better part of seven years, it may seem like I am rushing things by jumping right in to language classes, but I'm a go-getter.

I'm one of those people who cannot use the dictionary efficiently. You know the kind, we go to look up one word and ten minutes later we have forgotten what we were looking for but have learned ten or twenty new words. So, in the course of doing my homework today, I learned two things completely unrelated to said homework.

First, women often use the telephone for trifling purposes. You need only look up the verb for dial, if you doubt me. Personally, I think using the phone for trifling purposes is an affliction equally striking both genders. Maybe that's just my unbridled hatred of telephones coming through. More interestingly (and less chauvinistically, if that's a word), due to different Chinese characters with the same pronunciation in Korean, "sacred teachings" and "sexual intercourse" are the same word. (Insert priest joke of your choice here.) You know, I think I would have enjoyed catechism class WAY more with double entendres like this. Well, maybe if there were a lot of double entendres like this. ;-)

Because many Korean words are based on Chinese characters, I am always catching my students out for not double checking their translations. My personal favorite was when students had to list the colors of the rainbow and about half of the students came up with:
red
orange
yellow
green
blue
sodomy
violet

Reasons Korea is great #85-88

Okay, so I haven't necessarily listed reasons #1-84, just go with me.

Reason #85: going to the doctor. I rarely go to the doctor, so I don't have the national health insurance (1.5% of your salary). I pay full price when I go. That's ten dollars for the GP, or one hundred, when I get sick on a national holiday and have to go to the ER.

Reason #86: I went to the eye doctor yesterday. No appointment, because you don't need one. Wait time: less than one minute. Total cost: twenty dollars US. Much like the ER visit, the receptionist actually apologized that I had to pay "full price". Yeah, I'll live.

Reason #87: I got new glasses today (and realized how badly I needed them). Total cost of frames and lenses: under forty dollars. Total time: twenty minutes. AND the optician apologized when she told me how long it would be. (!)

BTW the shop was on yarn alley and with twenty minutes to kill, I did not buy any yarn. I didn't let myself walk in any of the shops in order to not tempt fate, but still. I. Resisted. Temptation. Stop the presses.

Reason #88: The bank gave me a gift today: a CD that I can use to download one hundred movies on them. I've gotten gifts from the bank before: calendars every year, a wallet/ datebook/ clutch thing, an umbrella... This was special because it was not my bank. I was at the bank I use to send money home. (The won is not a hard currency, so only certain banks are authorized to exchange money.)

I hadn't been there since the end of December when I was getting money for my trip home. The teller asked me about my trip and told me I looked prettier from relaxing and seeing my family. I don't remember stuff people I know told me yesterday and she remembered that I needed money for a trip home two months ago.

To balance this:
Reason Korea is not great #43: My boss got mugged by a guy on a scooter on Monday. She was on her way to the bank so she had all of her bank books with her, including her stamps. In Korea, there are only about 100 surnames and no cursive, so in lieu of a signature, Koreans have stamps for official uses. If someone steals it, they have your "signature". Of course, her national ID card was also in her bag- basically the only other thing they would need to steal her identity, at least for things like using her credit cards.

Reason Korea is not great #44: A friend's coworker was recently walking her dog when she was nearly kidnapped by a guy in a van . It was night on a poorly lit road, but the van pulled up to her outside of a restaurant. According to the friend, diners watched with curiosity while the girl fended off the attacker. Fortunately for her, she was in fact stronger than the guy and ran in to the restaurant and refused to leave until they called the police.

Korea is basically a safe place, but the citizenry is working hard to catch up with the rest of the world.


Finally, reason Korea is not great #45: My ever-changing view:

Hold the ice cream, please

Yesterday, I went into "the city" to meet an old friend I haven't seen in a few years. She lives in an upscale area (just a few blocks from Hooters) so we went to a fancy-schmancy chocolatier for hot chocolate.

It was creamy and especially delicious with the flaky chocolate sticks served on the side to stir in. There was also some homemade ice cream that looked to die for. Neither of us were hungry as it was shortly after lunch, so we had our drinks and got caught up. A couple of hours later (we talk A LOT), the ice cream was starting to call our names. That's when my friend noticed the girl behind the counter was eating it.

Now, I don't mean taking a Baskin-Robbins taster spoon and tossing it. No. She was using ONE SPOON to eat out of each container and then, after carefully (and at length) licking the spoon clean, stirring the ice cream, presumably to hide what she had done. Her little snack went on for ten to fifteen minutes while we openly watched her.

I should probably thank her, because that was better incentive to avoid ice cream than all the nutrition knowledge in the world. Kind of a Fast Food Nation for deserts.

I finished a pair of socks for my mom, if I can make myself part with them, that is. I'm too lazy to take a photo at the moment, so I'll just tell you, I used the same yarn as my last pair of socks in autumnal colors, with a slightly different beaded rib pattern. When I get around to posting pics, I will include one of the two remaining balls of yarn. One is about twice a big as the other. The short one had two knots in it, but that should not account for more than a foot of difference. If I hadn't already used three other balls of the stuff and loved it, I probably wouldn't use it again, but I LOVE THIS YARN!


edit: Here are the socks for my mom (if I can make myself send them):











I started working on a pair yesterday using Pansy, but I ripped it, because it wasn't doing what I wanted it to. So, I think I'm going to make the last pair of socks with the Limbo. The blue socks are color 793, my mother's are 795, and I've got two balls of 794. I tried to paste in the color card, but it did not want to be pasted.

INSIDE JoongAng Daily

INSIDE JoongAng Daily: "Ceremonials"

Children learning the traditions of tea at the Yongin, Gyeonggi province, city government’s manners training center yesterday. [NEWSIS] Ceremonials
January 23, 2007



This is from the English language newspaper I read. Who knew there was a government manners office?

Lost in Translation- Hooters Korea

Late last week, US domination made it's latest blow by opening a Hooters, in one of the most upscale neighborhoods in Korea. As the newspaper critic pointed out, this is roughly equivalent to Hooters opening on Fifth Ave next to Prada. I'm going to guesstimate a glass of domestic beer and half a dozen wings will come in around $20. Not quite the Hooters you know and love.

Something else seems to have been lost in translation. I just can't quite put my finger on it. What do you think?

I have a single male coworker who lives in Seoul, not too far from there, so I have tasked him with getting a photo with the girl on the right while making "big jugs" motions with his hands. Is that sexual harassment, since technically I'm his supervisor? Not in Korea! Unfortunately, I think he is too tasteful to actually do it. Maybe if we get him drunk...

Happy Sunday

This was my view today (Sunday):

No time for rest as long as there is one square meter of undeveloped land, I suppose. In the next few days, I should know what the city thinks is better than trees.

After all my going back and forth on the yarn I dyed for the sock bag swap, I looked at my pal's information one more time and realized it was my sender pal that likes green. My pal likes purple, so I have fresh out of the dye pot some lovely variegated purple yarn. Other than extensive, enthusiastic help from my cat skeining it for dyeing, it went well- the dye took and the colors came out very nice.

Fortunately, I went *a little* crazy while shopping for a bag and bought the same one in blue, which she also likes. So, I'll switch that out and should have the whole thing packed and shipped Tuesday. I finished the pattern and socks for the pattern photo, so drying and re-skeining the yarn (it's in a 3m-ish loop now) is all that remains to be done.

The pattern is pretty simple, because she likes ribbed legs. Here's my pair:

Now I'm off to finish Where the Red Fern Grows for class tomorrow. One week of "intensive" classes (aka winter vacation) then I'm off for a *whole week*! I'm telling you the pay isn't the only great thing about teaching. ;-) What will I do with all that free time? Hmmm... I'm sure I could get to work on some UFOs (but I'll probably start new projects instead).

Happy Friday!

I love Fridays-- I have the whole weekend stretching out before me. So much opportunity. What will I do with all that free time? Well, okay, about three out of four weekends, the answer to that question is: watch too much TV while knitting and *maybe* a trip to the grocery store (a block away).


This weekend I have my monthly KOTESOL meeting. We are doing an ideas exchange this month, so I have homework. I think I'm going to present some resource materials for beginner elementary students. I'm the chapter secretary, so I will have minutes to prepare after the meeting.


Then I will finish the pair of socks I am knitting to test knit the pattern I wrote for my Sock in a Bag Swap at the Townsend yahoo group. It's a pretty simple pattern, because she likes ribs; it's kind of a rib mixed with seed stitch. One down one to go. I knit it with Hohenloher wolle Limbo in color 793. It's a variegated marl which is creating a much more lovely striping effect (IMHO) than self-striping sock yarns. I'm definitely going to buy more of this. I found a destash 2007 group which clearly stated that sock yarn does not count as a yarn purchase. Also, my little feets get cold and I can tell from just trying on the sock as I knit that they will be toasty warm.

For the swap, I've got the very dark green yarn I dyed as well as a skein of self-striping Fortissima yarn, a knitting mystery, a Korean knitting pattern book (it's all done with diagrams), an embroidered bookmark, a notebook made of traditional Korean paper with pressed flowers on the cover, a pencil with a knit decoration, some chocolate, a silk bag, six beaded stitch markers, a kitschy pig phone decoration (it's the year of the pig), and a project bag to carry it in. Now I just need to type the pattern and mail it.














I plan to get everything in the mail Monday, because it is supposed to arrive in the US before Valentine's Day. This may be the first swap package I receive, so I'm pretty excited about what I might get. My pal is in the UK. I say it *might* be the first one I receive, because the postman is not my friend these days. My SP9 pal mailed my package before Christmas, but my mailbox remains lonely. She's Estonian, so I'm really excited about that package. People (English-speaking people, I mean) write whole books about their knitting. Not to mention it just seems exotic.

The girls at Sock Madness have posted a photo of their test knit of my pattern. Scroll down, it's the one at the bottom. I tried to save their photo and post it here, but it was being ornery. Here is a photo of the original pair. It's the easy level, hence a simple striping pattern mixing a solid and matching variegated yarn. These are my favorite socks to wear, because they are very squishy and warm.

(Insert appropriate segue way here.) At work today, I found out that I am teaching in the presence of celebrity. Well, if celebrity means having a song posted on Neil Young's antiwar website. Since you'll probably never find his listing, assuming you want to hear a anti-war folksong, here is his MySpace page. This reminds me that I have a brother who is possibly more famous, Lil Witness. You can see his video here. You can buy his CDs, too and get me one step closer to being the person who changes the battery in his GameBoy a la Ludacris.

Do I need to say that I am in love with the link button that I have finally found? I could link to the original post where I discovered the button, but I won't (that might be overkill .) ;-)

Have great weekend!

Waders close up

Waders close up
Originally uploaded by waegoogin.

Here is the close up that was supposed to be published with the pattern. Some people had trouble seeing the details in the other photo. Sorry it's not properly centered.

Thank you, thank you very much (I am verklempt)

I am overwhelmed by the many people who have emailed me about the Waders socks. I don't think they are going to give Jaywalkers a run for their money, but it's very flattering. Apparently, somewhere in blog land, a KAL group has them in mind. choose waders, choose waders, chose waders

Can I just say it's an honor to be nominated? choose waders, choose waders, choose waders I know that sounds so horribly corny, but really, a whole group of people knitting my little pattern.

BTW, look, TWO links in one post. It's almost like I FINALLY clued in that there is a link button so I don't have to edit the html. Really, you would think the blogger tutorial that I *slogged* through would have mentioned that. Some might say it's right in front of my face so a mention was not necessary, but, people, I have had this blog for six months and never noticed it before.
Yes, I am former military intelligence, trained to notice the tiniest details. Haha. I can't believe I didn't make it a career.

Mission Possible

Yes, wasting no time with their New Year's resolution, the fair city of Bundang finished razing the trees outside my window a few days ago. So, in about two weeks I've gone from having a completely tree-filled view to all highway all the time. Thanks, y'all. So I guess now the only question is: are they going to be widening one of the highways that it lies between or are they going to build a new apartment block? The way construction goes here, I should know well before the end of the month.

I have not been pursuing my resolutions with such vigor. I haven't done any shopping, but I haven't done so well on the less TV/ more activity front. On the other hand, I've been eating more fruits and veg and almost completely cut out fast food. McD's suddenly started serving breakfast, so I had to get an Egg McMuffin to compare it to an American one, you know how it is, but other than that and the chocolate for dinner incident chronicled in a recent post, I've been eating healthily and not drinking diet Coke or coffee. So, overall not too bad, but I haven't stripped an entire median of life or, you know, whatever the equivalent of that would be.

I haven't made ANY progress on the MCY socks for two reasons. One, it is on 2mm needles- 72 stitches. The other is the odd pooling. It's beautiful, but I can't bear pooling. I've posted two pics. One shows the true color, but my cat is covering the pooling. The other shows the pooling which is pretty much mirrored on the other side. I haven't decided whether or not to press on and use a rib pattern on the leg or to rip it and make something that could either have a smaller stitch count or use larger needles. Anybody have a good scarf pattern using 100g of fingering weight yarn?

I've been busy putting together a package for a sock bag swap. I've gathered some little things like chocolates, a book, a project notebook, a mechanical pencil with a knit jacket hanging decoration, etc etc. I also made her half a dozen bead stitch markers. I have to go to Insa Dong tomorrow to get a sock-project-sized bag. That is the street with the yarn store with Koigu (yes THE ONE in the country), but I plan to be strong. I may not even go in and look around, just to avoid temptation.

I decided to dye some yarn for my buddy- blue and green. Did not work. The blue did wonderfully, but the green a) came out 1000 shades too dark (it's almost black) and b) the dye did not set. I washed it in vinegar SIX times. The color did not get lighter, but more and more kept washing out and the blue portion that I did not put in the green pot got soaked (and dyed) when I rinsed it. So now it is a blackish-green with very subtle hints of blue here and there. I would totally wear that color and her preferences seem very similar to mine, so here's hoping...

I *think* I got the skein pretty well washed, but the socks she makes will definitely need to be hand washed at least a few times. To make the dyeing session even more of a resounding failure, I didn't tie the skein properly, so I spent three hours rewinding it getting the snarls out.

I've written a pattern for her based on her preferences, so I just need to type it up, get the bag, and mail it all off.

Waders Clarification

I received an email about the Waders pattern and I thought I would share the questions and answers, in case anyone else was having the same issues.

First, the abbreviations in the pattern. As I said in a previous post, the pattern was revised by the editor and some of the explanations were left out. So, here are the original stitch explanations:

Stitches k- knit p- purl
yo- yarn over/ forward k2tog- knit 2 together
k2togtbl- knit 2 together to back loop (the same as an SSK)
RC- right cross made by slipping 2 stitches to back of work, work next stitch, then work the two slipped stitches
LC- left cross made by slipping 1 stitch to the front of work, work next two stitches, then work slipped stitch
(The RC and LC stitches are from the zigzag rib, p.20, Vogue Knitting Stitchionary: Volume One.)

The RC and LC stitches are worked like cables, but the two halves aren't equal, if you get what I mean. You cross one stitch over two, instead of one over one or two over two. Here is a tutorial on doing this without a cable needle or dropping stitches off the needle.

Second, working the pattern in DPNs (shudder). :-) If you look at the pattern, you can divide it easily between the back to back RC and LC, so it can easily be worked on 5 DPNs. Math is not my forte, so I'm not a good person to work out 4 DPNs, but some stitch rearranging would be necessary to either work the crosses or the lace zigzags, unless you had odd numbers of stitches on each needle.

On a positive note,the pattern is really intuitive, so once you had a few rounds worked, it would be easy to see what stitch you needed by what was beneath. Each LC has an RC above it and vice versa. I would just chart out the zigzags and follow that. If I'm feeling industrious later, I'll do it and add it to this post.

If you have any questions about the pattern, please email me. I would love to see your FOs, too!

I'm Dreaming of a White (Twelfth Day of) Christmas

Happy Twelfth Day of Christmas! This is what I woke up to this morning:

It's been snowing off and on all day, but it isn't sticking to the pavement. You may notice there are fewer trees in this photo than the one I took mid-week. The race to denude Bundang continues...

I've started knitting up the Emerald Forest I got from Mystical Creations Yarns. The snow is not lending itself to good natural lighting for a photo, but it is beautiful. Here's the skein:

At least my cat will be watching less TV...

He can keep that resolution for the both of us. I actually made it to the grocery store yesterday AND cooked. Very unusual mid-week activities, especially back-to-back. I mitigated it by buying chocolate (which I ate for dinner) with the groceries and parking in front of the TV as soon as the cooking and washing up had been dispensed with.

Then today a co-worker brought Krispy Kreme, so I had to have 1.5, to be nice, you know. I did come home and cook vegetables for dinner (which I ate sans chocolate). Two nights of cooking in a row. Sometimes I impress myself. :-)

However, my cat will be watching less kitty TV, since the bird-filled trees have disappeared since Christmas. The city's resolution seems to be "get rid of every last little bit of that green stuff." They are enthusiastically working towards that end. Last week, that entire strip of dirt was so completely covered in trees that the highways were not visible at all.

My cat would sit at the window for hours at a time, keeping tabs on all bird-related activity, letting us know if anything exciting happened. He's a talker. Actually, I think he's a drunk homeless guy trapped in a cat's body. You know the guy I'm talking about, he walks around muttering to himself, occasionally punctuating his conversation with shouts at random passers-by. That's my cat.