June, already?

I think that every time I make a post, I marvel at how quickly the time passes. It makes me wonder, what have I been doing with my life?

I guess I've been pretty busy: fielding questions from new grantees, planning the next Forum presentation, writing things for the 60th anniversary and related publications, working on the magazine, finishing up (and not failing! yay!) my Korean class, etc...I decided not to take any more Korean classes for a while, at least until the fall. I want to finish up my Fulbright work well, and I figure I've got time.

Pictures from hiking around the fortress in Suwon.

Children playing with toy guns.

a pagoda.

I went with a few friends to see the Philadelphia Orchestra play Stravinsky: The Firebird and The Rite of Spring.

I visited the Lotus Lantern Festival at Insa-dong, the traditional neighborhood in Seoul.

I visited my friend Colby in Busan, and went to the beach for the first time this spring!

Things are really coming full-circle. Less than a month from now, the new ETAs will arrive, which means I will have been living in Korea for a full two years. Still going strong. I plan to stay on for at least another year. Working out the details on that, though.

Anyway, on to the "point" of my post: recent events and conclusions on the Korean peninsula may have some of my (miniscule) readership concerned. I promise, things are fine.

Yesterday, North Korea announced that it would destroy all weapons of "psychological warfare" (a.k.a. giant speakers blasting pro-South propaganda across the DMZ) and then make Seoul into a "sea of flames!" (불의바다)

What?

Is it just me, or does this sound like the threat of a failed supervillain from some forced parody film? Not surprising that Korean students are laughing about this, and remaining much more focused on the World Cup (sidenote: South Korea gave Greece a sound beating last night, 2-0. Yay!).

Yonhap news published an article citing the fact that this is the first time the North has used the "sea of flames" threat since...1994. I guess we'll have to wait another 16 years before it comes around again. Who knows what creative metaphors they'll come up with in the meantime?

So, dear readers, I'm not sure if this eases your fears at all, but we're doing okay here. Pretty much business as usual.

Happy June!