Administrative housekeeping item: I for some reason had my dad's cell phone number up on the left side column all this time, and found out today about it. (Sorry, Wendy!) I've just put up my real cell phone number.

I got a bunch of stuff to edit at work on Friday, which is why I didn't get around to posting that day. After work, I had dinner and coffee with my friend Tex, the missionary who lived in China as a kid for a few years when her parents were missionaries. I haven't seen her since mid-December, when our class ended; she didn't have enough money to continue the Sogang University Korean language program, so she's taking classes at a private language institution instead.

I also met up with Tex today, as she said she didn't have much to do. She went with me as I did some errands in the area around school (Shinchon) and then we walked over to the area around Ewha Woman's College, which is known for a number of shops catering to young women. While looking at some funky/ugly/cute clothes, I confessed that I had a weakness for cutesy princessy t-shirts, and she asked, well, why don't you wear them?

Good question, and I'm not sure what the answer is. I guess I just don't buy clothes much, and because those t-shirts are trendy, they tend to be expensive (for t-shirts, anyway). I should buy some regardless; I adore my Paul Frank brace-faced monkey t-shirt, which J gave me two Christmases back, and it makes me happy to wear it, so why not? One should take the small actions that bring happiness, even if they are, strictly speaking, unnecessary.

Anyhoo.

Ewha was the first college for women in Korea, and was established in 1886 by an American missionary named Mary Scranton. I feel rather connected to it because the first Korean president of Ewha, Dr. Helen Kim, was the Helen Kim I was named after!

My mother's always said that she named me Helen because she thought it sounded like a smart person's name, but just before I came to Korea in October, I found out that I actually did have a namesake. The way I found out was funny too; a few years back, the Huanger gave me a book called "Grace Sufficient: the Story of Helen Kim" because he thought it was funny. I did too -- especially the picture of Dr. Helen Kim looking very earnest and, well, very unlike me. It was one of the books I carted over here, and I showed it to my mother in L.A., intending to have a good laugh. She utterly surprised me by saying that she'd named me after Dr. Helen.

That is how I got my American name.

My Korean name, Sokran (but pronounced like Sungnahn), was given by my paternal grandfather, who also named my brother, Sokho. Korean siblings usually have one syllable of their names in common. (Most Korean first names are two syllables long while last names are one syllable long.) Sokho means stone tiger. Sokran means a flower that grows on a rock. It connotes perseverance and beauty, but I admit that I amuse myself sometimes by imagining that it refers to moss. Or lichen. Heh.
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In class this past week we talked about, for some reason, different countries' takes on the moon. Like, the American myth is that the moon is made of cheese, right? Or alternatively, that there is a man in the moon.

Well, in Korea, the myth is that there is a rabbit who lives on the moon, and makes ddok, sticky rice cakes/noodles (sorry, non-Koreans, 'svery hard to explain, best to go to your local Korean shop and ask).

Why a rabbit? Beats me. But I find it really hilarious.

A Chinese girl in my class said that in China, the story is that a daughter of celestial beings fell in love with a human on earth, but since their love could not be, she sadly went to go live on the moon. With her pet rabbit.

I have to laugh even harder at that. I mean, the Korean myth is probably derived from the Chinese, but the whole thing sends me into gales of giggles.