Words of War (Korea, Japan and China)

Image result for cherry blossom


Japan has China, not Korean, to thank for its Cherry Blossoms.

The Cherry Blossoms is native to the Himalayas, a Chinese official said recently, despite te flower’s long association with the Land of Rising Sun.

According to the same official, there are ample ancient literature in China indicate clearly that Cherry trees were exported to Japan from China during Tang Dynasty.  And definitely, Cherry Blossoms are not from Korea as many Koreans also claim.

🙂   🙂   🙂

Bon Chon.

Dad’s in town.  We went out to dinner at Bon Chon – a Korean chicken place.  I did not realize that Jeremy has grown to dislike this particular establishment.  It was a little loud and a little slow and the floors were a little sticky.  Other than that?  Perfect.  Dad is good.  Getting ready to travel to China, Alaska and all other corners of the world.  I’m happy he’s going to be spending time with my mother.

It’s a beautiful weekend.  I should be outside in the sun.  Instead, I’m studying psych:

And I’m writing a paper about Jehovah’s Witnesses and the culturally competent health care I will provide them (they refuse blood transfusions).  Yes, I went to a JW meeting as part of my self-directed field experience.  Yes, everyone was very friendly.  And yes!  Now I have my very own Bible.  And today I learned today that I don’t have to cite the Bible in my list of references if I quote from it.

Growing up.

When Jeremy was out of town last week, I didn’t realize I had inadvertently turned down the volume of Edda’s baby monitor.  I think this might be our seventh baby monitor – not that we’ve broken each one, it’s that we are always looking for the monitor that’s the quietest when Edda’s not stirring and clearest when Edda is.  This one is pretty good.  It’s so good that I didn’t realize that I essentially had it off for 3 days.  Oh, the luxury of sleeping until 6 am everyday!  I try to get enough sleep that I don’t need an alarm to get up, so I would wake up naturally at 6 am and peer into Edda’s room and find her awake and lying awake and think to myself – I guess she just woke up 5 seconds ago.  Now I think the baby monitor is just to make Jeremy and me feel better.  Maybe we should just turn it off and let Edda be and both sleep until 6 am everyday.  Maybe Edda can wake up and put herself back to sleep by herself now.

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I took Vince to his 13-year-old checkup today.  He’s officially taller than me, but still about 5 pounds lighter than me.  Every since he’s grown taller than me, I’ve felt a tremendous shift in our relationship.  It alternates between being such a grown-up relationship (where he cooks for me and has advice on things I’m thinking about) and a child-mom relationship (where he looks for me when he’s hurt or when I nag him to do homework).  The shift in my heart was reinforced at the doctors office where all the questions and forms have shifted from the possibility of lead poisoning and TB exposure to Gardisil vaccinations and HIV.

Happy birthday Donald!

I plucked this photo from Donald’s Facebook feed.  I think he’s having a good birthday.  Happy birthday you fool!  39!  Only one year from the big 4-0.  Wow, you are an old man now.

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The University of Maryland Association of Nursing Students held a blood drive on Tuesday.  I took some photos for them.  I should remember to take twice as many photos as there are people.  I think that’s the number I have to take to get a photo with everyone looking good.

Easter celebrations.

I keep forgetting that it’s Easter/Passover this week.  Vince has found my stash of cascaron eggs and has been breaking them over unsuspecting sisters inside the house.  He never does this in front of me, I just find confetti and colored egg shells in various places all over the house (or hair).

Jeremy’s still gone, but Vince has taken over making dinner.  It’s very meat-centric and it’s delicious.   He made homemade French fries, although it was only one potato.  So only like 10 fries.