This is completely un-Korea related, but while I was in Taiwan I read some article about how after years of tireless effort the internet spammers recently made some huge spamming breakthrough, and tons of spam is now getting missed by email filters. This is a new breed of spam, though, isn't it? I used to just get dirty propositions from girls with names like Irina. Now I get emails from people like Villanuva Trudy, Rogers D. Cornelius and Aisha X. Esposito letting me know that "approvingly currant discouraged court TV extra." I think I like the new spam better.

In other news, it's Christmas! Christmas in the Lee household was a pretty efficient affair. We were awake by nine, had presents opened by 9:20, and were all vacuumed and put away by 9:45. Apparently Christmas, though, along with basically every other holiday in Korea, is a "couple's day." I guess that's why one student told me he was very angry and upset that he didn't have a girlfriend on Christmas, and why when I taught my Christmas lesson last week so many of my students took the time to ask, "Teacher, you solo?" The issue of "couple's holidays" came up pretty early on. I guess it makes sense, given what a HUGE FREAKIN' DEAL being in a couple seems to be. Back at orientation I went to a few of Kangwon University's English Club's meetings, and at one of them one of the member gave a speech about couple days. You know how we have Valentine's Day, "invented by the candymakers"? OK, well Koreans celebrate that kind of holiday on the fourteenth of EVERY MONTH. Because, of course, they need a lot more excuses to buy the humongous amount of cutesy stuffed animals/stationery/accessories/couple tees (exactly what you might imagine)/etc. available here. But this guy thinks these "special days" are a waste of money and represent the commodification of Korean society and plus he was dumped twice by ex-girlfriends on the 14th...so obviously he hates them. Anyway, sometimes walking around downtown Gumi I feel like the most conspicuous thing about me isn't the fact that I'm the only non-Korean around, but just that I'm the only person ALONE. I've actually started calling people on my cell phone just as I reach the busiest part of town, just so as not to feel like such a total pariah. On occasions when no one's picked up, I've considered just holding the phone to my ear and pretending to listen very hard.

While Christmas IS a "couple's day," though, it is NOT a "day off." Which is to say that not only did Dr. Lee leave for work by 10, but Yong Ju also trundled off to math academy sometime in the early afternoon. I also saw one of my students downtown, and when I asked him what he was up to he told me, "Today I study." Today and every other day, I guess.