This is urgent. I need to change my name, my familyname. Please send me your suggestions, it should be easy top pronounce in a variety of languages and match my personality. The winner will get a goose cookie from Gentz bakery. Go!

My current problem is the mephitic stench that blows into my apartment these days. It seems to originate from a watercleaning plant near my building. I guess I might be able to have more sympathy for them if at least I could drink the tab water afterwards.....Tje thing is, smells are hard to get rid of. Once they are inside the apartment, all you can do is open the window to get rid of them. Which normally has the effect that more fumes enter the apartment.
That's either a Catch 22 or a vicious circle or something even worse.

Made a narrow escape from Yang San. There is a strange custom in Korea, called MT which stands for Membership Training. It is a 2 day affair in which each semester students and faculty are transposed to a more or less friendly location in a mountainous region of choice. The students and faculty have to endure severe hardships, prove themselves in embarrassing competitions, endure harsh penalties and sing Karaoke. After dinner everybody drinks soju until even the hardiest have passed out. This is one of the more successful Korean strategies to produce excellence and brilliance in higher education.
Last night was particularely difficult, since a PENSION in Europe suggests a hotel style setting with breakfast service. In Korea it means an outdoor space where it's ok to vomit and barbecue pigs. I had brought light clothing in accordance with my European interpretation of the word. I furthermore realized that Yang San isn't called SAN for nothing and saw the temperature drop accordingly. I made my escape after the fire show and before the karaoke, when I heard the sound of a car engine...I ran for the car, and quickly calculated my chances of survival by comparing the assumed blood alcohol level of the driver, the lenght of the extremely narrow and winding mountain road with the rapidly dropping temperature in Celsius. I reached a conclusion, ran for the car and arrived in Busan after many hours of nervewrecking hanging-over-cliffs situations (my hair is still standing straight up, vertical like YangSan trees). I concratulate myself today, having not yet heard or seen a thing from the other Professors or students.
To bad, I really liked some of them.

Just saw this in the NY Times.
I just have to do this...
Dear organization called "John Kerry for President"
I think it is a wonderful thing that you are trying to help the candidate you support. But please think for a minute: Are you delivering the right message? Is it really a good idea to suggest that it is money that makes a president and not skill or intention? And that the average American should pay it? Especially when Kerry's wife could probably cover all these checks herself?

Well, it's probably true, you need new money to beat old money in this case. No point in being idealistic.

This is the kind of day it is....

sorry, it's 4.5 mb

I found out yesterday that one of the people in my French class is an Oriental Medicine doctor. She was sitting next to me and must have noticed that I was experiencing severe tension in my upper back and neck. After class she handed me her card and proceeded to inflict horrible pain on me by grabbing my shoulders and pinching my fingers. I believe the French word is "doleur" or something like that, because "pain" means bread, I believe.
I recovered from the experience just in time to go to my students' party. Very fun and very civilized, like Korean parties usually are. I found out that blinis are not the tiny things they sell for a fortune at Gourmet Garage, but actually viable pancakes for wrapping your meat. I wonder if Blini Hut in the financial district is still around....
Somebody in NY, can you go check? Near Fulton and Maiden Lane? The food was nothing to write home about, but what a nice concept!

It's been a tough week. My Korean Defense sentences ("I am just looking", "I don't need help", "Excuse me") seem to be well understood. But what happens is that the salespeople give me a reassuring "ne,ne" (yes!) and then keep standing next to me until I DO need help.
And all kinds of weird stuff happened. I had a piece of skin hanging from the roof of my mouth. I know that's not so unusual, but this one was about 1.5 inches long. I could hardly speak. When my colleague saw it, the expression on her face propmted me to leave the office and buy some scissors (operation went fine, patient is back to drinking espresso drinks).
Weird thing number 2: I've been having this muscle twitch/ vibration in my pelvic area for about a week. In my quiet moments I am actually certain it's a worm, eating its way to the surface. If I knew how to explain that in Korean, I would have gone to the Doctor's already.
I suppose the other stuff isn't that weird, except maybe the way my hair looks. I might go back to my Korean Kung Fu Cowboy. Just need to learn how to say: "Don't make me look like a Korean! Make me look like a foreigner!"