Corn beard

Happy new year, all you who are several hours behind Korea! It's been 2009 here longer!

So wow. It's been a really weird week - first I, then Andy got sick (some sort of freaky chest infection), so both Christmas and New Years were a bit quieter than usual. No raucus parties for us. Lots of medicine, juice, and lounging instead. But I'm up to 90% healthy, and Andy's just about broken 50% I think, so hooray. Sorry about the slow postings, but as you can see I have my excuses, and I think more frequent posts should be a New Year's resolution of mine.

Obviously, we couldn't take part, but one of my coworkers told me about the New Year's party in Seoul that is akin to what goes down in Times Square. He said that instead of a ball dropping, they ring a big bell at midnight, followed by all the merry people letting off many haphazard fireworks in the middle of the crowd. His coat actually got singed by a stray. But this party seems like the exception rather than the rule - in general, my students tell me that they did basically the same stuff they did on Christmas: watch TV, chill out with their spouse, maybe go out to eat. Nothing special.

Ever since coming here, I have been puzzled by the ambiguous tea bags in the waiting room, and today all my questions were answered. One of my students was drinking the tea, so I asked what kind of tea it was. Answer: corn beard tea.

What is corn beard, you ask? It's those annoying long, fine stringy things that get in the way when you're husking corn. Apparently they can be made into a (kinda weird tasting) tea. Who knew.