Tree-trimming on Nov. 29th

Today is a very special day: my older brother is turning 40! The only thing that comforts me in this difficult situation of having a very old sibling is that 40's are the new 30's, as we geezers love to believe.

I'm feeling more than just a tad blue for not being there to celebrate with him, so I decided to have my friends over for an early X-mas tree decorating event. Most of the usual (Clare, Deb, Chris), one neither- here- nor- there (Andrea) and some unusual (Seok-jong and Jung-ah) suspects were in attendance. Everyone contributed to the maximum of caloric enjoyment of our little party. Honourable mentiions go to Clare and Deb. Clare came loaded like Mrs. Santa with cranberry sauce, fruit and marble cakes, spiced cookies, wine, whiskey... Deb, an absolute royalty in the united kingdom of gluttony brought cheese fondue and egg-nog ( in the course of the evening the latter would be genetically and generously altered by whiskey). I had made an earlier trip all the way down to Wal-mart to get bigger grilled chickens. With a wee bit of imagination and a dollop of cranberry sauce they were to star as X-mas turkeys (congrats, chicken, on your Oscar- winning performance).
After dinner, it was off to decorate the tree. All the kids had a really good time of it, nibbling on cookies, cake, fondue, guzzling whiskey and wine, rolling on the floor.... It was a really cheerful evening of pre-Christmas festivities. Alas, gotta go, am called to clean up the post-party mess.

Not so tired trimmers, after all, but still floored on the cosy ondoled linoleum in front of our masterpiece: Seok-jong, Deb, Andrea, Jung-ah, mois and the tree.  

I am a collector. I can never throw away old X-mas cards. These two are particularly pretty, thinks I - and good for "playing Xmas" with equally immature friends. Chris and I and our toys.  

Wow! What an earring! Once uponn a time it was hanging off a lavish crystal chandelier, but looks much better on Andrea. Complements her crystal glass and shiny eyes.  

Pretty girls, Andrea and Clare by the pretty tree.  

Debbie, the queen of fine food supply, brought egg-nog and cheese fondue! While she's dipping, Clare is thinking: "Ah, if someone would dip for me; don't want to leave this sofa."  

As I was explaining Reported Speech to my students, there was a message from Seok-jong on my cell: "am Hansung; see you?" He came all the way from wherever to our library to study with his friends. We met briefly, I showed him where I live and invited him to the X-mas tree decorating party. He came punctually at 7:30 armed with a cute X-mas card, pointesettia and a cactus. What a sweet little guy he is. Also likes to drink to the last drop, as demonstrated in this picture with Lisa 

The Tongue-untied tartlettes

The night of X-mas tree trimming and a nice dinner turned into a 'who has the longest tongue' competition. Perhaps it wouldn't have if rivers of wine, whiskey and egg-nog had not been consumed... Our little strong but neglected organs are actuallly quite fascinating: so many different shapes, shades, sizes, ...it was like discovering a whole new tongue nation.
Didn't y'all think I wouldn't dare.... Ho-ho-ho! You know how much I like to stick out!

Chonggaesan, Nov. 26th

This time we didn't get lost, nor did we have to go through a firing range. We did, however, start early, and I had my share of hurdles to jump over to make it down to Gwacheon. At 1:30 on the previous night (morning?) I realised that my cell-phone had gone missing. I have no other working alarm clock in my house - my cell had that function since I bought it more than 2 years ago.I spent a sleepless night worrying that I wouldn't wake up on time. I was actually awake waiting for dawn when on the way to the bathroom I saw that it was already 7:00 a.m. - no time for coffee, breakfast, just a quick toothbrushing-water splashing over my face activity and dash for the subway. On top of it, I had cramps that could be measured on the Richter scale, that's how badly they shook me.
Iwas 15 min late only, not much considering the lateness of other people, but I guess when one is usually punctual, being late on ocassion is neither expected nor tolerated by others. I paid the penalty to shut them up.The hike was great as it always is. Melanie hiked for the first time, a bit slow in the beginning but then she picked up nicely. Seokjong and I kept her company not leaving her behind only to be teased by Deb and CD about being slow. Some people!We had warm odaeng and the murky water it was swimming in (gongmul). It was quite nice on a cold day.We had our ddju and tubu kimchi at a nice big restaurant with some very funny hikers and very well-organized stuff. Everything went so smoothly that we concluded they must have hired a consulting agency to show them how to do their job properly.Having finished the hike early, we went to Dongdaemun to shop for hiking gear. I bought a new pair of gortex hiking boots - I like them a lot but they need some breaking in. Deb bought a new backpack.After that we headed down to Kangnam to meet Penny who is leaving Korea in a couple of days. Oh, my god - the woman has become a total babe, so impossibly slim and impossibly platinum blonde. I wasn't feeling well after a day of hiking under the influence of Advil and alcohol, so I had to leave early, although I wanted to spend more time with Penny at her fairwell party.A super hot shower at home and hot chocolate with a few drops of rum warmed me up and I slept like a baby, which is just as well, as I spent today all day long grading students' papers.Conqured about 800 stairs today.

4 ladies out and about

After the Chonggae hike, we had our usual fill of ddju and tubu kimchi in a restaurant that is the people watcher's paradise. Deb spotted these four ladies and, playing on Andrea's ABCD witticism (A-ndrea, B-ianca, C-lare, D-eb),observed: "there is the future of the ABCD

We couldn't believe our eyes: loud enough to drive the ajumma in front of him crazy, Kim Jung-il was right there in the restaurant commiting his usual crimes against fashion, sunglasses industry and hairdressing art. Oh, yep, forgot the jewellers guild - observe the earring.  

On his way to the bathroom with a body guard, Kim, Jung-il wanted to shake hands.  

3. Then he surrendered, but we let the poor style criminal go 

A mood photo taken by Seok-jong. See the pic below for his bio.  

About the boy...

Seok-jong's bio: A new arrival to the club, so terminally cute you wish you could roll him into a tiny ball and store him in your breast pocket. That's all the bio bits you'll ever need to know. - And, yes, this is one of those 'extended arm' self-portraits in which people look distorted, but not the two of us.

Chonggaesan is a cultural venue, it would seem. We came across this guy who happens to be one of those peculiarly Korean 'human treasures' - which means that he is skilled in some traditional Korean skill of any kind. He happens to play a traditional Korean flute.  

Chonggaesan is a hospitality-oriented mountain. On cold days one finds numerous stalls that sell odaeng (fish cakes shown here), ramyun, boiled eggs, rice wine... Always happy to stop, munch on simple food and wash it down with simple rice wine.  

Mudang (not quite Korean shaman medicine woman/witch). People still come to these for special service that involve white and black magic 

A very well organized ajumma with her tubs of cabbage, shrimp paste and gochu chang.  

I could hardly believe my eyes: an ajoshi was selling freshly cut mistletoe branches. This little bush reminded me of Christmas time in Germany and numerous vendors selling bunches of mistletoe.  

Cabbage decapitated - a momentous massacre on the flora front.  

Chang-dae crowned me the 'baechu ajumma' - cabbage matron.  

Kimchi ajummas working hard by a restaurant at the foot of Chonggaesan.  

Described once as reminiscent of 'used bandages', this is the famous Korean side dish delicacy 'kimchi.' If one wants to be really prosaid about it, all it is - really -is sour kraut with lots of chili pepper paste, garlic, and shrimp paste. AND, I don't say I don't like it -cause I do.  

A common scene on Seoul streets these day - everyone is either selling or buing Chinese cabbage and radishes to make kimchi.