Well, the big news is, after a month-and-a-half, I did actually get paid; boy, that felt good. And what was the first major thing I did? Sent money home, of course. I've had a little help keeping myself alive from my new friends here, too, and well, they all understand, but you still have to give everybody a little something. It's odd in the instances I've had to talk about holidays to my classes, I habitually turn to the biggies in America, but here, I've forgotten about the truly American ones to a certain extent. I damn sure forgot Memorial Day was coming up, and the Koreans have a pretty fair understanding of the concept of Mother's and Father's Day, they have their equivalents, as they do for Valentine's Day, although it's called "White Day" here, and it's March 14, not February. Thanksgiving got me a mix of understanding and blank stares when I attempted to explain the significance, and Christmas?! Hey, shit, even in Korea, EVERY kid knows Santa! Rumor is the big guy had to outrun a missile from the North last year, but that's just hearsay. Speaking of blank stares, well, I probably shouldn't have even contemplated it, but in the discussion of holidays with one of my older classes, I attempted to bring up Bastille Day, the French holiday celebrating the storming of Le Bastille, a French prison. (July 14, if you're not clued in,) That went over like no other variety of lead balloon, but I should have known that was coming. Of course, I'm still having a hard time getting a straight answer on the significance of Chu Seok, in the first part of October, and that IS a Korean holiday! My kids attempted to liken it to sort of a Buddhist Easter, but I'm still not sure. Anyway, from my post somewhere down the rabbit hole here, Happy holidays!