Didn't do much this weekend. Went to work on Saturday morning, then came back, read a bit, took a nap, studied. Sunday I stayed inside all day, studying, snacking, napping, watching a truly terrible 60s British movie called "I'll Never Forget What's 'Isname." I don't know why, 'cause lord knows I wish I could. For some reason, the great Orson Welles was in it. And Marianne Faithful, recently of Abfab fame, takes a turn as one of the mistresses (there are three). And Oliver Reed, whom I just now figured out is the Oliver Reed who died while making Gladiator, is the main character.
The plot was incomprehensible: something about a top ad exec leaving Orson¡¯s ad company to return to a little literary magazine, where he proceeds to flirt with the secretary while trying to rid himself of his two mistresses and wife, being followed by a private detective, and being haunted by a bully from his public school days. At the end, the secretary dies, the man returns to advertising (though not for Orson), and returns to his wife and kid, whom they call "Thing" (damn the Brits and their charm!).
Well, it was in English, and I was dying for a little mindless television.
Here's a review I found on the Web: To some tastes, this overwrought and long-unseen comedy from the swinging '60s will be completely dated with characters whose mindsets are totally alien. Protagonist Andrew Quint (Reed) is a piggish young ad executive who tries to leave his even more piggish boss (Welles), and his two mistresses, though he's not sure he wants to divorce his wife. Why? He wants to go back to do something meaningful with his life, something like working for a literary magazine. It's actually a long midlife crisis (though the phrase did not exist when the film was made) that set standards for frankness in its sexual material.
Well, count me as one who thinks it¡¯s completely dated and alien. It's interesting, though, that it was broadcast on Sunday afternoon on a Korean network. I mean, of all the movies to show, why pick one as dated as this? Hm. Perhaps because despite seeming quite dated to me, it is actually a little racy compared to Korean television? I haven't watched all that much TV here, but I do get a sense that it¡¯s quite modest (which is all the more curious, because American movies with sexual content do get shown in theatres here). I'll watch some more (to practice Korean!) and get back to you.
By not going out yesterday, I missed the first city-wide snow of the season. It has snowed before, but this time, it actually stuck to the cars, though not the streets as much.
Dad went out to temple just before noon and didn't come back until about 10 at night, which was hunky dory with me. We are getting along pretty well so far, though of course it's only been a few days.
In late afternoon, there was an odd booming sound, like fireworks, or cannons, and I went to the bathroom window to see what was. Across the street, I saw other people at their windows, looking out as well, and it occurred to me, "What if that is the sound of artillery? What if North Korea has suddenly started a war?"
Not an unreasonable thought, I think. North Korea has maintained its army at the expense of its people, and no one really knows what the hell Kim Jong-il will do. Before I moved out of my hasook jeep, I skimmed through "The Two Koreas," the book that Tomas, my old housemate, had lent to me, and got a sense of the incredible difficulty and instability of recent Korean history.
My resolution for next year: learn more Korean history! I've got to overcome this overwhelming desire to read novels and nothing else.

I have the test for my Korean writing class tomorrow morning (Tuesday), but I feel very unprepared. We did some example problems in class today, and I was a bit at a loss. I'm afraid I'm not taking it very seriously. The focus at Sogang University, where I take my classes, is heavily on speaking, so I spent all weekend studying the grammar from the speaking textbook, and neglected the writing stuff. I also thought that the tests were all on Wednesday, so was surprised to discover that one was tomorrow... Oh well.
Wednesday I have my Korean speaking and listening tests (both written), and on Thursday I've got my oral examination. 20 minutes of answering questions and acting out scenarios with a teacher! I'm dead meat. Not kidding. I feel spectacularly incompetent these days in Korean. Maybe a con of living with someone I only speak English to¡¦ maybe I'll just adopt the casual style of speaking to my dad too. What the heck. Better than not improving in Korean.

By the way, I think I now have all the forms of speech down. Adults speak to children and to friends and close relatives in ban mal, the most casual (and considered impolite) form of speech. Above that is polite informal speech, which appends the word "yo" to the end of each sentence. You use this in informal situations, like, I don't know, asking someone in a department store where something is. Then there is polite formal speech, which is used by reporters on TV news shows, in the military, and at the office.
Overlying polite informal and polite formal speech is an additional form, honorific, that is used when speaking to people in positions higher than you: your boss and more experienced colleagues, people older than you, married people (if you are single), the doctor, etc. (Naturally, there's one honorific form for polite informal and another for polite formal.)
So basically: plain speech (impolite); polite informal speech; polite informal honorific speech; polite formal speech; polite formal honorific speech.
But wait! There's more! For the mere price of a visa and plane ticket, you too can experience the joys of remembering that when talking in the presence of or about people higher than you, you must refer to the higher person in honorific speech, but when you are simply referring to yourself, you use regular polite speech (formal or informal, depending on the situation).
And that's not all! You also get the unbeatable experience of remembering that you may be friends with someone in the office, so in most situations you can speak impolite casual speech to them, but in meetings and formal situations, you speak polite formal speech to them! (Or was it polite formal honorific? Damn damn damn.)

Confidential to Wendy and other mother ship confidants: I happened to draw a picture of the Seattle Space Needle on the table at the restaurant on Thursday, and now a colleague here has gotten it into her head that I'm talking with the mother ship:
¡°Maybe you can visit the space needle and communicate with your friends out of the earth...^^¡±
I can never get away from being considered an alien.
By the way, here people don't use :) to end notes, they use ^^. I'm not sure why yet.