AAaaaahhhhh. Lovely. My roomates have been gone for 4 days now. I’ve had the place to myself and have caught up on so many things that needed to be done. (I even got my Christmas letters written!) Now, I’m sitting here in a clean house, with clean laundry, a clean fridge and a hot cup of coffee listening to U2. Ahhhhh.

My friends Liam and Gina are coming down from Seoul tonight and we’ll spend a few days here together, then I’ll go back to Seoul with them for the weekend. Since everyone and their pets will be fleeing Seoul tonight in preparation for the Lunar New Year, I imagine that the usual 2 hour bus trip could possibly take upwards of 5 or 6 hours.

My friend Kim is coming over this afternoon after lunch, and I think we’re going to go ‘dumpster diving’. It’s not as gross as it sounds. Lots of people in the area discard furniture when they’re moving, or when they get new stuff. Since 2nd hand items are considered ‘unlucky’ here, things like chairs, desks, couches, tables etc. just get tossed out. So aroung out apartment complex, the trash pick-up areas often look like free yard sales. Most of our house is furnished with local discarded items. Kim spotted a nice sofa yesterday, so we’re going to go check it out.

Hmm, I’ve been so busy relaxing lately I hardly have anything to write about. Nice.

ahhhhh. I’ve just finished my 4th 9 hour day this week. I picked up some ‘street meat’on the way home (lumps of mystery meat on a stick, covered in a red sauce that’s designed to help protect the secret identity of the meat in question.) good stuff.

This is also the start of NINE days off. One room mate is leaving for Japan at 3:30 tomorrow morning, and the other is heading to the Philippines a few hours after that. I cannot express how excited I am to have the house to myself.

Since this is the Lunar New Year holiday, I am preparing myself to face the “Year of the Monkey”. Lunar New Year is also the day that everyone in Korea eats a special soup to signify that they are one year older. Koreans don’t age on their birthday….they age at New Year. Based on Korean calculations, I’ll be turning 30 on Thursday. ugh.

One of my kids came to school dressed as Superman today. Cape and all. Another one tried to eat his scissors. What a day.

It’s SNOWING!!!!

Yes indeed. Big thick wet flakes that sting your eyes and stick to your shoes, and cover the ground! I’m pretty excited about looking out our living room wall tonight! (For those of you who don’t remember, our ‘wall’ is floor to ceiling, corner to corner sliding glass doors.) It gives a great view of flakes whizzing past the streetlights, and covering the hillside. It also reminds me of item #8 on my “Why I love Apartments” list…I don’t have to shovel it!!

For those of you suffering through a frigid Canadian winter, (Ha, Ha) this news probably isn’t exciting. However, this is the first snow that’s hit the ground here and I’m pretty thrilled. It’s really windy too, so I might even classify this as a mini-blizzard. sweet.