BILLY JOEL CONCERT AAAAAH!!!!!!!

On Saturday, I went to see Billy Joel in Seoul.  It was EPIC.  And I really should type out the whole story for y'all, but honestly, I don't feel like it.  Sorry!  HOWEVER, I put up pictures on facebook and captioned them copiously, so you should check out that album.  You can look at the pictures even if you don't have a facebook account.  I hope you'll go check them out!  It truly was an amazing experience, and I have some really fun pictures from it.

Enjoy!

Adventures in Grading: part epic punishment.

Picture Diary

by Polly

Today my family sat on the sofa.  We watched on TV.  It was very fun.  I was looking for it many hours.  I watched and watched.  Then my father came with my younger brother.  I said that I had to watch on TV.  My mother was angry to me.  "Polly, you must be nice to your father!"  I was so scared.  I had to go out of the house.  I walked slowly outside.  Tac... Tac... Tac...  I cried and thought, 'I don't know how to do.'  2 minutes went by.  I jumped 5 times on the ground.  My nose was cold, and my ears were cold too.  I wanted to go in.  Soon the door was opened and my mother said that I could come in to the house.  I was so sad in that time.

Sympathy for Korea's high school seniors.

Today is the college entrance exam.  High school seniors all around the country take this exam, which determines which college they will get into, which determines what jobs they'll get, which determines their quality of life for the next....oh, seventy years.  Korea puts a LOT of stock in credentials, and this test is one of the most pivotal things that a Korean citizen does in his or her entire life.

An excellent post on Roboseyo details the exam and its impact on society.  There's also an embedded video by SeoulGlow, wherein Michael Hurt, a celebrity blogger in Seoul, interviews high schoolers about their feelings on the exam.  The post and the video are quite compelling; I hope you'll take a look and let me know what you think in the comments.

Korea is trying to kill me.

A few weeks ago I had pinkeye.  A little over a week ago I caught a cold that made me hoarse and hack-y and snotty, and I'm STILL coughing so much at night that it keeps me awake for an hour.  Then, on Friday, I ate some pizza at Costco and got a wicked case of food poisoning.  I'll spare you the details, except to say that my body turned itself inside out trying to get rid of whatever was in that pizza.  I spent almost the whole weekend shuttling back and forth between the couch and the bathroom.

I'm pretty sure Korea's trying to kill me.

It's a good thing my immune system is so committed to its job, because I have Big Things coming up.  Well, one Big Thing in particular: BILLY JOEL.  I'm going to a Billy Joel concert (in Seoul!!!) on Saturday!  I forget how much I've told you all about that whole situation, so in case I'm being redundant, here's the short(ish) summary.

1)  Tickets were kind of expensive.

2)  I couldn't find anyone who liked Billy Joel enough to pay 88,000 won for the cheap seats.

3)  I did a search for people who like Billy Joel on facebook.

4)  I sent a bunch of people messages, asking if they were interested in going to the concert.

5)  Several of them replied ecstatically and wired me 88,000 won.

6)  I now hold tickets for me and 12 strangers to go see Billy Joel on Saturday.

How awesome is that???  It's a bit of a social experiment; I hope these people turn out to be as cool as they seem from their facebook messages.    :c)

Adventures in Grading, part Creep-tastic

Picture Diary

by Polly

Today I washed my mother's feet.First I'd like to wash my younger brother's feet, but my mom said "Polly, please wash my feet."  I didn't want to do it but I did it.  My mother's feet feet were beautiful but too big.  I want to have big and beautiful feet as my mother.  I will drink milk and do exercise to be like my mother's feet.  I want to go to the park after my feet are changed.I also want to swim in the river after my feet are big!

What the poo?!  I showed this to Kyle, who was seriously disturbed by it.  I pointed out that this was probably part of a foot-washing ceremony at church, but then Kyle noted that the picture that goes with the journal is definitely of a bathroom, complete with toothbrushes and a shower.  So Polly indeed seems to have been required to wash her mother and brother's feet.  But hey....if she's lucky, at least she'll end up with giant flipper feet when she's grown up!

....?!?!