Feels like old times. My knees ache, and I want them to last out the year. Add to that the fact that this past Monday, the first of the month, saw the beginning of truly cold weather in Seoul. Temperatures dropped precipitously going from Sunday to Monday; it was incredible, and the timing was just right: it had rained on Sunday—a persistent, annoying drizzle that stopped in the late afternoon or evening. Walkways had begun to evaporate by the time the cold set in, so we were all very lucky: had the sidewalks remained wet when it began to freeze, things would have been a lot more slippery and dangerous.
But it's butt-cold now. Butthurt cold, one might say.* I need another set of gloves to wear inside my current set because my current pair warms my fingertips not at all. On top of that, I need to buy a mask, but I don't think I'll be doing that until this coming Sunday. I'm at KMA in Yeouido all day on Saturday, so that day is pretty much shot. Anyway, because of the sudden intense cold, I haven't been up the mountain in a couple days. In fact, since December began, I haven't even reached 10,000 steps on any given day: it was 7,791 steps on December 1st, 5,770 steps on the 2nd, and thus far today it's 7,662. That's pretty sad. I might try for an even 10K once I leave the campus office (I was in Daechi-dong all day, working at the Golden Goose). Or I might not. Am currently very tired.
In any case, if December is going to be this much of a bitch, then I'm going to take it easy. The mountain paths are going to be snowier and icier than the paths at ground level, and that's nothing for a big guy like me to sneeze at: the bigger they are, the harder they fall, right? I might think about buying myself some snow cleats, if Korea has any such cleats in my size. I've never been in a Korean sporting-goods store before, so this ought to be interesting.
*Yes, Charles, I subscribe to the anal-violation theory of butthurt, but I agree with you that that meaning and usage were probably a later accretion, and that the original meaning was likely spanking-related. For what it's worth, I've also heard "butthurt" used in ways that more clearly imply anal violation than spanking.
_
Well, now that you have a bit of free time during the hell that is South Korea's winter, you can watch one of the greatest, grittiest, and scariest, dramas of all-time. "e.r." pale in comparison to this excellent medical drama, and it makes going to hospital in the U.K. a choice no one would want to make unless truly at the edge of dying.
ReplyDeleteIt's really a shame that its 17 episodes never aired on network telly in the United States.
I can remember my first day 2 decades ago in Korea when I went outside to go to the Hagwon in Chong no Sam Ga and my hair froze. It was the 4th of January. Coming from the coast of the South of the South I thought I knew what cold was. I was wrong.
ReplyDeleteDaejeon John,
ReplyDeleteI might check that out. Thanks.
Kiwi John,
Yes, Korea is definitely a land of extremes. Of course, Seoul isn't the worst in the wintertime—I've heard that Gangweondo is worse, and if I recall correctly, you went out with some students into the 3-meter snowdrifts, way out in the mountains, possibly in or near Gangweondo. Because Kiwis are crazy like that.
Oh, I've heard "butthurt" used in ways that imply anal violation as well--I'm not discounting that this has become part of the term. My feeling, though, is that a majority of cases do not carry that as their primary meaning. It may depend on where the term is used and by whom. So, to clarify, I am not saying that the "anal violation" meaning is invalid simply because it is not the original meaning. Based on personal experience, the majority of usages do not draw primarily on that meaning, so I believe that it is still a secondary usage--kind of like the second or third definition you find in the dictionary. This may change in the future (I hope it doesn't though, because that would be really crappy).
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I haven't done a statistical analysis, and I have no plans to do any in the future. So none of this is really scientific.