Horyon's sister, Chaeryon, has been staying with us for the last week and a half. It's nice. She's a good house guest; she cleans up after herself, cooks from time to time, and keeps Maxine entertained with a constant stream of statistical data.
Just kidding.
However, Chaeryon is a statistician, studying to be a Dr. Statistician at UNC Chapel Hill, and we did talk a bit about the class I recently finished, which happened to be a statistics class. So there was a statistical connection.
But I think mostly Maxine was entertained by Chaeryon coloring with her, playing blocks with her, and watching Boohbah. And let me tell you, if you ain't seen Boohbah, you're missing out on a free trip of epic proportions. Check out the website I've just linked. Horyon and I agree that it is remarkably like the t.v. show. The basic, slightly pastel colors, the cutesy noises, and the lack of words are all trademarks of this PBS offering. Sound like the Teletubbies? Well, imagine the Teletubbies on perception-altering drugs, with an even stronger implication that the featured... um... performers are aliens. That's Boohbah. And it's easier for a 2-year-old to say "Boohbah" than "Teletubby." I think that's the clincher.
Unfortunately, I have no photos to post commemorating this visit. Our camera has been out of commission for some time now. I've found a place that might be able to repair it, but the place is in Kansas City, and we just need to make time for the drive back and forth. Chaeryon brought her camera, but the battery was not properly recharged, and she didn't bring the recharger because it's quite large. We have borrowed my parents' spare camera. It's four or five years old, practically a dinosaur. We needed to take pictures of some of Horyon's dresses before sending them to Korea.
I am fighting a cold right now. I went to bed Wednesday night at 10:30 and slept until 9:30 Thursday morning when Maxine came in to say hi. I got up, and Horyon made me some breakfast: fried eggs and toast. One of my eggs was a double-yolker. Some say that an egg with two yolks is an omen. For me, it signified that I would go back to bed and sleep until one p.m. I got up, had some lunch, and didn't go back to bed. Well, I went back to bed, just not back to sleep. I've been taking it easy all day, swigging Nyquil and reading a book.
It was nice having Chaeryon here, and not just because she entertained Maxine. Horyon was excited to have someone who shares her tastes in food (lots of Korean dishes, some more successful than others), comic books (cheesy romance comic books, blech), music (Korean pop, also a bit cheesy, but not as bad as the comic books), and t.v. shows. They watched the entire run of a Korean drama on DVD. It did not have English subtitles, but it did have many scenes involving sad piano music while people stared meaningfully into the distance. This, I felt, gave me a deep enough understanding to know that it was cheesy. Ironically, the food was the only non-cheesy thing that they like.
For the few days of Chaeryon's visit, I slept on our sofa bed in the living room so that the sisters could share our bed. Then I noticed a pattern: Horyon and Chaeryon were both staying up until three or four in the morning, talking, watching videos, eating ramyen noodles, whatever. And so it occurred to me that there was no real reason for my side of the bed to remain unused for the first half of the night while I slept on the sofa. (I tried it both as a sofa and as a bed, and found it fairly uncomfortable both ways.) So I moved back to the bed. I'm sorry, Chaeryon!
When she comes back around Christmas maybe we can trade off where we sleep.
Yes, Chaeryon will be here for Christmas. She can only stay about 10 days, but she will arrive before Christmas day. We're looking forward to that already.
And next month, Horyon's parents will come to visit. They will stay for a month. If Maxine could conceptualize events that far in the future, she would seriously be looking forward to it.
That's it for now.
Peace,
Rob
