this post has a lot of commas

I don't have to work today. It's Sam-il-jul. "Sam" means 3, "il" means 1, "jul" means observance. So, March 1st Observance. Now you can go impress your friends with this knowledge!

What we're observing here are the first uprisings against Japanese rule on the Korean peninsula, in 1919. Of course, the end of Japanese rule eventually lead to the division of the Korean peninsula into the North and South, and war, famine, and the death of untold numbers of Korean people. So, you know, every silver lining has a cloud, or something.

From my experience, Koreans hate the Japanese. There's quite a bit of history between the two countries, which I won't get into because it's a lot and I only know a fraction of it. I do know that one of Korea's greatest heroes is some Korean soldier who killed a bunch of Japanese soldiers.

I'm celebrating by giving thanks that I don't have to work on a Thursday, which is my least favorite teaching day of the week. I'm also cleaning my apartment, watching Lost on my computer, and drinking beer at 3 in the afternoon, alone.

Now's as good a time as ever to get into my annual assessment of how well I know the Korean language. I'd say that at this point, without a doubt, I am at the peak of my Korean language knowledge. In fact, as I am typing this Lost is playing on another window of my computer, and Sun and Jin are speaking. I am able to kinda follow along, without the subtitles. I think it's a result of several factors: one, that I have a Korean girlfriend, two, that I have an app on my Mac that I can study Korean with, three, me thinking that I know more Korean than I actually do, and four, the sheer length of time that I've been in this country.

I began this post by teaching you a few Korean words, I think I'll end it in the same way. "Jutt-ka" is definitely a good one to know. Translated, it would best come across as "fuck you", but literally it means "kick penis". You're welcome.