As it was the Chi-sock holiday in South Korea was rather uneventful for me. For the most part Chi-sock is the Korean equivelant of Thanksgiving Holiday, as you get together with all of your relative, cook for six hours, and remember people that aren't there. It's also sort of a Christmas holiday as you get everyone you know gifts, and you are expected to give gifts yourself. Standard gifts are soap, or alcohol, or pantyhose, and alas I lucked out and got soap, while the boys I worked with got lovely boxes of traditional Korean booze. Oh well, there is always next year.

So it was a merry Chi-sock. Although several of us were supposed to go with Mr. Kim to his hometown, (another Chi-sock tradition is driving several hours to the place of your birth through traffic that makes Memorial Day in Chicago look like a twenty minute commute) but there were some last minute cancellations as it was thought that all the way-gooks along would dampen the family spirit and that is what the holiday is all about, really.

Instead the teachers left behind, namely Lily (the new teacher) and myself took buses downtown, watched a movie and looked into all the shops that where closed while trying to find places to eat that were open, with mild success. I found that you could still get dok-boki, if not bi-bim-bop, and most of the eateries were very much closed. For our dinner we settled on a Korean-Italian resturaunt which was very strange indeed. For dinner I has seafood spahgetti and Lily a Cream Mastacoli only to discover that perhaps we should have traded as I was a but put off by the tentcles in my spaghetti and she wanted a tomato sauce.

The thing with Koreans and squid is really this. It looks like squid. I have no problem eating it when it is shreded, or ground, or even served up calamari style but in Korea you are served this purple and white tentacle that looks just like that. It has the little suction cups and you can feel them go crunch in your mouth, and really there is no flavor at all in a boiled squid tentacle, just sort of a chewy unpleasant sensation in ones digestion. I don't know.

In the meantime I am indeed finally a resident Alien, didn't you all already know that. Now, I have a card confirming me as a legal alien, I feel so privelaged. I will contact the interplanetary council any day now to follow through.

The weather is nice, it's turned a bit nippy, which is much better than hotter than a flea on chow-dog in the summer. I'm not complaining. Mr. Kim has offered to take us for a drive in the mountains to see the changing leaves next weekend, and barring any sudden Korean traditional holidays, it should not be a problem.

Yours,

Sara