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The past 5 days were Chinese New Year break. 1/23 Monday being the official holiday.  Though I don't need a break from anything mainly because I am currently on a hiatus, this break was refreshing and relaxing.  Usually according the Korean tradition, my husband and I have to go to his family's house for the entire break; I'd have to make my way to their hometown located hours away from Seoul, sleep over, make food, and have 제사 with the relatives which includes my father-in-law's brothers and their families. (제사 as in both the in house ceremony as well as the ceremony at the burial site in the mountains.) In other words, a prolonged period of awkward smiles and moments of self-"don't just stand there, do something!" (though I know the superior females of the family would never scream at me in such way, I feel so dumb at times. It's like a typical first day at a new job) Either way, the supposed holiday is actually a period of work at least for the 며느리. But thank the Lord that my husband's family is not really like this. First, his family lives in Seoul which means that we don't have to go to their house for the entire break, and we save hours in traffic. We only needed to go on the day of. Besides, we see them on a weekly basis. Second, we didn't have to go up to the mountains. We were salvaged from the freezing mountain temperatures as well as the quadrupled traffic time as the burial site often becomes crowded. Instead, we were granted to go visit my grandmother in Suji. We took the new subway there to avoid holiday traffic. It took only 16 minutes from Kangnam to Suji. Now that is bullet fast, because the it would have taken us approximately 50 minutes on a normal subway. The hard part was getting a cab. There were very few to be seen and most were snobby enough to pick and choose their customers. We were denied a few times. What should have taken just 5 minutes if we had gotten a cab right away took 30 minutes. Nonetheless, we had a glorious meal at my grandma's.

On the last day of the break, my parents-in-law invited us to go eat 두부전골 at a well known restaurant located in the outskirts of Seoul. The five of us- the parents, the brother, the husband and I got in one car. I believe it was our first time. Though I see them every week and we've reached a certain level of comfort, there was something different about this experience. It was rather intimate and warm. I sat between my husband and brother-in-law, and we gossiped and enjoyed my loquacious proclamation of the type of person the next 며느리 should be: 1. 우리 시부모님께 잘하는 사람. 2. 나한테 잘하는 사람. ㅋㅋ  That is it ;P  And for the latter followed an elaborate description as to how she would fulfill the purpose. We both agreed that chances are she'd be older than me, but lo and behold, according to Korean tradition, she'd have to submit  and call me 형님.  Kind of 부담스러워 on my part but anyhow. I told them she couldn't compete for our 시부모님's love and do 여우질 like those you see in Korean dramas. Instead of a competitive relationship between the 며느리s,  I want a 사이좋게 지내는 relationship with my 동서 (HAHAHAHHA 동서래~~) Wondering who the new addition to our family would be... haha.

We saw a number of horrific movies during this break that I'm beginning to feel if it is even worth documenting every single movie I watch. Let's try this a bit more and I'll determine the life span of this list then. Anyhow:

6) 50/50- This is the best movie from this list and one of the most enjoyable movies I've seen as of late. It was realistic and engaging in different levels. Well-made :) I appreciated the subtlety of this film; It could have easily been dramatized because of the subject of the film, but it strayed away from it. Thank you.

7) The Girl with a Pearl Earring- I remember back in the day this film was acclaimed for some reason. Much like the previous, it had a lot of subtlety but no hint of oomph. Disappointing ending.

8) Drive- I don't know. I thought it was a pretentious attempt. At the end, no message was effectively delivered. I feel that a lot of good movies can be twisted and complex with a level of subtlety and a "good" movie always inspires me so much that I'm compelled to immediately write an essay about it-- gather the themes/messages and derive from it a thesis, then support it with plot, characterization, mise-en-scene, etc, or vice versa. A good movie always leaves me thinking. However, this film was not inspiring whatsoever.

9) Contagion- I fell asleep. Twice. And I never finished the movie. Enough said.