February has been just as busy as January. Moreso, in fact. More students and thus more papers to grade. To be honest, sometimes I get a bit frustrated by the grammar mistakes my students make. I try to teach them about common errors, and point out that they should try to avoid them. But sometimes I wonder if doing so just makes it worse. That is, when I tell students NOT to do something, they start to do it. I have gone so far as to write "Do not do this" in Korean in big letters on the whiteboard; it gets laughs but isn't always effective.
I am not sure if March will be as busy but I suspect it will be. Fortunately, since the GRE is offered on March 15, we are only going to be running a two-week "refresher" class. This also means that I have two weeks off at the end of March! Going to Australia was very tempting but I am going back to Connecticut instead. Not nearly as warm but I miss my friends and family very much.
Around here, things with Vivi are very good. I think we're both realizing that the "novelty" of the whole situation is wearing off and that the excitement of being in a new relationship is starting to wane. Wednesday will be four months! So, as with all couples, we're starting to move into that next phase, I guess.
Last Friday was Valentine's Day, which is a very big deal here. In fact, the 14th of every month is a "romantic holiday", and Valentine's Day is probably the biggest. As I have mentioned to many of you, in Korea, the GIRL buys gifts for the GUY. So I was pretty much off the hook. To be honest, it was a bit weird for me because I felt like I really should buy something for her, but I didn't want to mess with tradition.
We started the day by meeting up at my apartment so I could get my gifts. The tradition is for the girl to buy a big basket of chocolates for the guy she's in love with. Seeing that I'm a bit overweight (to say the least), Vivi opted to get me a small box instead. Hey, it's still free chocolate. Then we went to see Slava's Snow Show. I'm not exactly sure how to describe it, other than "performance art". "Clowns falling down" was the sound-bite I thought of. Kind of comedy, kind of surreal, very funny. Fortunately, no words, so language was not an issue.
Next we rushed off to dinner. We knew that all of the restaurants would be booked, especially Western ones like French and Italian. So we opted for Indian. Vivi found a place listed in Cosmopolitan that was supposed to be super-romantic. We went to the restaurant called Dal and we both agreed it is the best Indian restaurant we've been to in Seoul. That admittedly is not saying much at all (I've only been to two others) but it was fantastic. Expensive, but fantastic. After dinner we went to a cute little cafe and sat upstairs in a small loft. It was nice and romantic until a number of other couples came up as well.
The evening sort of took a turn for the worst when we decided to go back to my apartment. Traffic in Seoul is usually bad, and on Friday nights it's even worse. But on a holiday like Valentine's Day, it's downright horrible. Throwing caution to the wind, we decided to take a cab rather than the subway. Huge mistake. Add to this the fact that I had to pee really badly, and you can imagine what a good mood I was in. Never again am I taking a cab on a Friday night.
Still, though, it didn't really ruin what was otherwise a great Valentine's Day. As I may have mentioned, the favor is returned on White Day, which is March 14. This is when the guy buys candies for the girl. Since that is the day I am flying back to Connecticut (a fact that did not sit well with Vivi), I am going to have to make up for it doubly when we celebrate on March 2.
The next night was my friend Mike's birthday party. He is a teacher who has been here as long as I have, and we went to a really nice Italian restaurant and then went to a trendy bar in the trendy neighborhood. The pictures speak for themselves.
That's about it for now. No big plans in the forseeable future. I am definitely looking forward to visiting America in March, even though I'll be away from Vivi for 10 days. But I suspect this will be the last time I'm "home" until next Christmas, so I will hopefully make the most of it.