The third day of the five-day holiday is done, and if I never had to go back to the office again, I really think I'd be okay with it.

Oh, wait, after Monday, I am never going back to that office. Well, er... good.

Which isn't to say that I didn't do work today. I got the revisions back from the kid who's applying to Columbia, and spent an hour or so trying to figure out a way to let him keep the Hitler references without making him sound freaky. I gave up in the end, and decided to just tell him to nix all the Hitler fascination stuff. Man, the power! Not only do teachers get respect up the wazoo here, anyone who went to an Ivy League school gets about double the standard amount, such that when I said, "Yes, that's right, I graduated from Yale," in response to the kid's younger sister's query, she looked at me with awe. Awe! I don't think anyone's ever looked at me with such unmitigated admiration before -- and I didn't like it. I told them, "Thousands of people have gone to Yale, you know. There's a lot of us out there." The kid replied, "Yeah, but think of the millions of people who haven't gone to Yale!"

It works to my advantage, obviously, but in general, I think it's a failing of the Confucian value system that scholars are considered higher than any other profession else. Artists, for example, fall pretty low on the respect scale.

In any case, for six hours of work I got paid the equivalent of 24 hours at my soon-to-be-gone parttime job. Nice work if you can get it...

Shocking, however, was the fact that the kid has no less than FOUR tutors: writing (me), chemistry, French, and math. I can't even conceive of how much money is going into this kid's extra schooling.
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Today was my dad's birthday, according to the lunar calendar, so my aunt and a cousin (son of a different aunt) came over, joining my grandmother, who arrived yesterday and cleaned the entire apartment and cooked up a storm. The place gleams! It's so nice to have everything shine! Typhoon Mae-mi is blowing over the southern regions tonight (just rain and some wind in Seoul), and the apartment feels cozy and snug. Man, I want a housewife when I grow up!

I've noticed that I'm much less annoyed at my grandmother than I used to be six months ago (I really couldn't stand being around her then). I also recently had dinner with my dad's friend, whom I had met shortly after I'd gotten here last year, and whom I thought was loud, crass and annoying then. Strangely enough, I didn't mind him at all this time. A combination of improved language comprehension and improved culture comprehension, I'd say. Or maybe I've just gotten more mellow?

Nah.
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There's been some coverage of 9/11 here, but for the most part, the Chusok traffic and the typhoon have dominated the news. So I really nearly forgot about it. Don't worry, I'm not going to write anything about it. But if you're in the mood for some more tortured memories, here's what I wrote about that day two years ago. It's on RosaG's site, zelaznog.com, which you should check out anyway, because she writes a mean (if sporadic) gardening journal and runs a jumper business with her husband. Also, she was my very first web publisher and cheerleader, and for that I'm forever grateful. Here's the URL: http://www.zelaznog.com/hk/2001sep12wartorn.html.

Okay, I can't resist writing just one thing that's sort of 9/11-related, and that would be, simply: You have a special place in my heart, and I am glad glad glad to have you in my life. Thank god we're all alive and well today.