To those who may be new to CG's Planet, and apparently, I have a acquired at least a few new fans, the content, quite simply, is whatever is floating around in my head, happens to be in the news, or just strikes me as absurd, interesting, or plain funny. I've been here in Korea a while, and if you search through the previous posts, you will find, in a lot of detail, MY take on the Republic of Korea, devoid of political correctness at least to the point where they won't revoke my alien registration too soon, and send me packin'. Enjoy.
You may file this one under "only in Korea." Poking around in a toy store, I came across a Play-Doh set (Korean off-brand, though,) for making play Gimbap. Included was the stark white clay for the "rice," the wierd greenish-brown for the "seaweed wrap," and several pastels, along with the squeezer device and shaping templates for making the "fillers." Like I said, only in Korea. Thank God. As if Green Tea and Aloe as ice cream flavors wasn't bizarre enough......
WHY IT'S MARTHA

• "I went to the other side today........"

"You were in Hades?"

"Yes, just call me Persephone...." Or words to that effect.

• "No, not the Kitaro, that'll put me to sleep."

"That's the idea." And if you don't understand the attractiveness of a certain amount of bull-headedness, you're a bigger control freak than you have a right to be.

• The french-fried onions thing.
• She can tell a GTO from a GTX in traffic; I don't require proper chronological dating, if I wanted that, I'd have stalked an Andretti. Just kidding.
• She keeps up with me when we're walking together.
• She listens to what I have to say, and knows why it matters to me.
• She's always a lady, even if my gentlemanliness misses a step or two on occasion. (often as a result of my body choosing to provide "commentary" at an inopportune moment, but she usually keeps her sense of humor about it.) Never mind the following, and others I've probably forgotten:

1) "Oh, you cut your hair! It was longer last year!"
2) "Give it to your son."

• The words of my father: ".......of course, I'm not a young man in love, either....." and perhaps he knew it fully before I did.
• Marion, Ohio. Then South Korea. Nuff said.

Maybe it's just me, but the choices you can make, even on a fairly mundane cell phone, can say a lot about you. Consider the following; my "Migug" (American-service) cell phone is an LG model with a QWERTY keyboard for messaging, which I admit I like really well. On the points of personalization, the ringtone, for those not given a unique one, is the Michigan State University fight song. The wallpaper is a Polar Bear. Fight song. Polar Bear. Hmm. My Korean cell, which has been deemed quite a nice unit by everyone who's seen me with it, despite my having bought it used, has wallpaper with pond lilies and this kinda Waltzy classical music ringtone. Pond Lilies. Classical music. Are you spotting a change in aura here, or am I just nuts? Combative, survivalist, and prone to displays of teeth, versus Pond Lilies and classical. And let's not forget the requisite cell-phone charm on my Korean model, a little wooden fob with Korean writing I can't read, and a tiny little replica of a Won Buddhist drum. Tell me that doesn't say something. Frankly, I'm happy about what it does say.

BTW, if you're contemplating doing the ESL teaching gig for yourself, forget what they say about always buying the latest cellphone you can get, and buying it new. You will be well-served to buy it used, and buy it once you're here, as opposed to trying to buy one that'll work in America. If you're here for a year, with prepaid service, you don't need anything fancy, because you won't have the service to use it. If you stay longer, think about it, but for starters, buy used.