Seasonings Greetings

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2018

FROM

GYPSY SCHOLAR

The Year ZOI?

GETTING UP THERE IN YEARS?

LET NOT THOSE NUMBERS

DEFINE YOUR 

HAPPINESS!

HAVE

A

HAPPY

NEW

YEAR!

FROM

GYPSY SCHOLAR

IN
THE YEAR

ZOI?

Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016

to

ALL

my

READERS

whether

LURKERS

or

'EXPRESSIONISTS'

Why do I feel something is missing . . .

. . . ah, now I remember: 'Tis-'Twas New Year's Day! So . . .

. . . from Google Images, a documentary shot of the 'War on Alcohol,' I reckon.

Anyway, a New Year's greeting for all of you in this world, perhaps timely on the other side of the International Dateline, though Johnny Come Be-Latedly here in Seoul . . .

Jae Youn Chung Writes Home . . .

Jae Youn Chung in Dark Glasses
Facebook

One of my former students, Jae Youn Chung, also worked in the E-Lounge, so we grew to know each other quite well since my weekly three required hours in the lounge often fell during her own work hours, plus she had an art exhibition there in the lounge that served as inspiration for discussion, and I came to be sufficiently impressed with this triple-major (or quadrupal-major?) student to readily agree on proofreading her application letters to various graduate schools! In return, she sent me a brief just-past-New-Year's-Eve note from the school she decided on:

Hi, Jeffery,

How are you? It's 2014!! How crazy is that?! Hope you are great and well with your beautiful family. Have a blasting year!

Best wishes from London,

Jae Youn :)

Jae Youn entered London's Courtauld Institute of Art last autumn to study art restoration, but promised to keep in touch, and she has! I replied:

Dear Jae Youn,

Thanks for the note -- I was wondering how you're doing. I know you must be very busy.

I'm doing well (aside from the flu) -- I've even joined Facebook. As you see, though, it's not a personal page, but a business site, so I can't 'like' other people's Facebook pages -- I guess that'd be a sort of 'spam', since a business shouldn't just go about linking to personal sites.

Anyway, scroll down to the photo of me and my wife to see some good news about our translation work on The Soil, by Yi Kwang-su! And my Amazon page now has four good reviews. The book is slowly selling . . . but sometime, I expect a surge of sales.

Yours,

Jeffery

PS I also gave a reading of the first chapter.

She replied on my Facebook page:

Amazing!

I think she was amazed that I had actually dressed up! Speaking of AMAZING:

Sartorial splendor and feminine charm . . .

Happy New Year!

Bottomless Bottle of Beer
Terrance Lindall

!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

from

GYPSY SCHOLAR

for

2014

to

ALL MY READERS

!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Year's Greeting from Student

ECC Building

Google Images

You see above the Ewha building where I work, namely, the ECC, an abbreviation for "Ewha Campus Complex" (I think). It reminds me of the parting of the Red Sea . . . not that I'm old enough to have experienced that! Anyway, I teach there, and this is where I encounter most of my students, some of whom even remember me with positive feelings, such as one who sent me this message yesterday:

I am . . . [a student] from your Research Writing Class in the year 2010. It's been [a] few years since I . . . [wrote] a painful and yet fruitful paper under your guidance. But the first long paper I have written since entering university became quite unforgettable. As a greeting for the New Year, I wanted to once again thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn from you. It was a wonderful experience and a new motivation for leading my academic path in the right direction. I will continue to work hard to build upon what you have given me. I hope everything goes well in 2013 and I wish you a happy new year!

I think I recall this student -- she supplied her name -- but I wanted to be sure, so I wrote:

Thank you for the New Year's greeting. I'm trying to recall your research paper . . . and (given my faulty memory) your face. I'm terrible with names, but I think that I know which student you are. Did you write on North Korean refugees in South Korea? Or something else? Do you have a photo to jog my memory. I almost always remember faces. Just last week, I was getting a coffee in Ewha's ECC Starbucks, and a student greeted me happily. I recalled her face, but not the course . . . till she reminded me.

Anyway, I'm grateful to hear that my teaching was of some use. I'm sure that most of the credit goes to you, and I wish you the best in this new year!

And I meant my words about the credit going to the student. All I can do is try to supply students with the proper academic equipment and help them find their way along the scholarly path best suited to them. The students are the ones who carry the burden and tread the path . . .

2011 Year's End: Chance Encounter with Bruno Littlemore!

Yesterday around midday, I took an end-of-the-year walk with Sun-Ae along Seoul's old city wall on the east side of town upon the hill known as Naksan, as you see below.

The day was cold, but to my surprise as we descended into the Daehangno neighborhood, I ran into an old friend from the States, Bruno Littlemore! He looks less dressed for the chilly weather, but Bruno's a Chicago boy and thus accustomed to cold weather.

I've never seen Chicago, only passed through on Amtrack back in 1984, so I didn't meet Bruno there in his hometown, but we have a mutual acquaintance in Benjamin Hale, the son of one of my high school buddies, Pete Hale, both of us being Ozark Mountain boys.

Bruno and I had a lot of catching up to do. Last I'd heard, he was in Georgia, incarcerated for murder (though I consider that killing justifiable homicide), so I wondered how he'd escaped. Seems some woman named Gwen Gupta had fallen for him big time and had slipped him a key to liberate himself -- "Shades of Paradise Lost!" I actually exclaimed that, but Bruno merely smiled. He did mention that he'd ended up in Seoul by stowing away on a merchant marine ship headed for the Far East. Discovered in the hold, he'd offered to work his way across the Pacific. When they realized his strength and agility and noted that he was a quick study, they'd offered him a permanent job, but he jumped ship in Busan Harbor and made his way to Korea's capital, where he teaches English to get by. He doesn't have a 'real' college diploma, but the local academies will hire anything on two legs that can speak American English, so he figures he'll be around for a while.

I couldn't chat long with Bruno since Sun-Ae and I were hungry, so we bade goodbye, promising to meet sometime for brews -- I intend to take him to the Taphouse! -- and my wife and I wandered on till we came upon a place called Queen's Town Public Restaurant and decided to try the place. I ordered a Budweiser on tap, against my better judgment, but when it appeared, I was so taken by its excessive carbonation that I could only admire the head of foam that built up and overflowed. You see my admiring glance below.

As you perceive, I'm now in shock at the continuing wellspring of foam!

The day went on after our meal as Sun-Ae and I sought out a café and talked until past four in the afternoon about what we'd achieved in 2011 and hoped to achieve in 2012. We then started the troublesome, too-long journey homeward.

I would have included photos of my wife, but she's camera shy and refused even the rare photo from being posted, so you'll just have to imagine her stunning beauty . . .

Happy New Year: 2011!

(Image from Google Browser)

* * *
HAPPY

NEW

YEAR!

* * *

TO

MY LOVELY WIFE

AND

CHILDREN

AND

MY

READERS

AND

AS

PROMISED

A

GLASS

RAISED

TO

GALILEO GALILEI

AND

HIS BIOGRAPHER

JOHN HEILBRON

A Champagne Toast To All My Readers!

Grape-Shot

1915 English Magazine Illustration

The Lordprice Collection

(Image from Wikipedia)

* * *
* * * Happy New Year * * *

* * * * *

From

* * *

Gypsy Scholar

* * * * * *