Was sick yesterday, possibly with food poisoning, and so did not post. Think it might have been the tofu stew; 'twas a bit old...

Ironically, in class the day before yesterday, we learned the words for "spoiled food," "past expiration date," etc.

The folk wisdom here says that if you have a headache, you should massage your middle finger at the fleshy part between the tip and the first joint. I thought it might be an acupressure point kind of thing, but our teacher said that if your hand is representative of your body, then the tip of your middle finger, stretching out furthest from your hand, is like your head...

I suppose the same logic applies to another piece of medicinal folklore: kneading your palm if you have a stomache ache. Unfortunately, I forgot to do so yesterday, and so can't speak to its efficacy.
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I don't know if you know about my love of shoes, but, well, so I love shoes. So I take notice of them. And the shoes in Korea have been of some interest to me.

Some months ago, I wrote about "elf shoes," the pointy, Texan-witch boot crossed with Manolo Blahnik stiletto that graces the foot of many a stylin' Korean chick here. Often the chick wears jeans with these shoes -- jeans that completely cover the heel and go down to the floor. This usually amazes me, as I wonder how the woman keeps herself from tripping all the time. It also amazes me because it looks really strange, like the woman has two pirate-like pegged feet.

Also very popular is the exposure of the boot. Now, I adore tall, knee-high boots, and think it rather sexy when a woman combines, for example, a knee-length tweed skirt with black or brown knee-high leather boots. This I have seen in Korea, and silently applauded.

However. The trend here is to show boots, alright, but not those sexy knee-high boots. Women often wear boots that end just above the ankle, or end mid-calf. And they wear them with cropped pants or skirts. So you see a length of patterned tights (and patterned tights, believe me, are quite popular) rising above the boot, until it meets the end of the skirt, or pants, or what have you.

Perhaps it's just me. I have an aversion to cropped winter pants, which are popular here; I can't help but think, "But it's cold! Why do you want to expose your ankles in the cold!??" But I just think that ankle boots should be reserved for trousers. Long trousers. I think it looks strange when your calf boots have a big ole gappy opening from which your skinny leg rises like a flamingo wearing, um... well... a boot! Stop it!

(To totally come clean -- no, not that it matters -- I have to admit a prejudice against under-the-ankle boots, usually seen on suburban Texan women with frizzed hair and flouncy skirts. These, thankfully, I have not seen here.)

Another shoe trend I noticed is that young women, usually those looking about college-age, sometimes wear tan workboot-style shoes (not boots, just regular shoes that look like construction boots) with their baggy jeans. This in itself is not unusual. What I began to notice, however, is that the shoes looked... well, too big. Like, their heels were coming out the back with every step. Like, that size shoe belongs to someone at least 4 inches taller. Like, hey, I know your foot is not that big. What gives?

I asked my work colleague Myung-soo about this, and she said, "Yes, they do. It's the style these days." The "hip-hop" style is responsible for these extra-large shoes, plus pants so baggy that I couldn't find a pair last weekend that fit me.

Yeah, I know, I'm behind the times and so not cool and so not with it. Youth of America have been wearing this style for some time. I find it weird in the States. I find it weird here.

Then again, when I was in junior high, I did wear sweatshirts three sizes too big over leggings, puffy socks and Reeboks.