House of rooster and rare.

Yesterday was ‘立春(입춘; Yip-chun)’ the first season of a year, which signals the beginning of spring, and usually after this date, climate tends to become milder day by day. However, I had to be suffered from a cold over the weekend, probably from one of my colleagues who sits behind me. ~~; Feeling much better now after spending literally whole afternoon of Sunday in the bed and my head much clearer additionally.
Two weeks from now is the Chinese New Year day, one of the biggest holidays in the country. Luckily most of my relatives live near Seoul, so it won’t be necessary for me to travel too far, you wouldn’t be able to imagine how unrealistic traffic can be during the period.

On Saturday evening, I was invited to "a house of rooster and rare," a house owned by a couple who I became acquainted while attending in a study group for sometime. It was located relatively far from the downtown, and thus its environment was rather intact than other places in the city. In deed, air was crisp and clean, not much noise from traffic was able to reach to the place. Only not particularly necessary noise we had during our conversation were occasional cries from a rooster, cracking noise from running scared rare that lives in the same cage with the rooster, and laughter from their two children, Young and Hyun, very very adorable kids. How dream-like house they have, I thought myself. Kim’s wife is an English lady whose hair is very light red and blond mixed together, and became married to Kim when he still studied in England. Seemingly very nice lady with a warm but a firm voice to her children. There, again, I found I was the only member who's still single, no wonder why they didn't even bother to ask me to bring family members - yes, all the other members brought their wives and children. -Our gathering went pleasant, and the cake I brought was all consumed by guests, certainly Kim's wife (gosh, I forgot to ask her name!) seemed quite happy when she saw the cake that eventually filled up some empty space of her table for our afternoon tea time. The boss from the APEC who initially introduced me to the group also brought his family; his wife very modest looking yet clear about her thoughts; his son currently serving civil duty as a soldier; daughter entering a prestigious women’s college in the country this year. Another member of the group is a businessman from Samsung Co., Ltd., who also brought his wife and a son; both very good-looking. As a token of appreciation from the host for visiting their house, we all were provided with a book from his selections, which I insisted to have two; one about 20 century world history especially focused on the European ones, and the other about Korea's modern history & politics. Both look fairly interesting and I look forward to having some time to read them.Meeting with families of members gave me another rare pleasure, since it helped me to understand those I have known for a while in a deeper level, and accordingly made me feel closer to them. It was shame that I didn't know I was supposed to bring my family and, more than that, I don't yet have my own family.Although, I couldn't stay longer as I had another appointment, and felt awfully sorry for the hostess accordingly, we all had a very valuable time in ‘the house of rooster and rare’ in a comfy Saturday afternoon.

I meant to write you a ‘proper’ letter for some time, my great apology for not doing so for such a long time. I wish you are now all recovered from the cold you told me last time, and making a big progress at your work. I remain,

Truthfully,

Alexa from Seoul