Yesterday was election day again – this time, legislative elections. The new president (I Myeong-Bak 이명박, elected in December) had a major victory for his conservative GNP – which means South Koreans are fed up with “soft on the North” policies of the liberal predecessors, among other things. Though the most important issues were “pocketbook” ones – linked to the global economic downturn and especially that of the U.S. and Japan, with which South Korea is inextricably linked.
The day before yesterday, I So-Yeon (이소연) became the first South Korean in space, traveling to the International Space Station with some Russians on that reliable space workhorse, a Soyuz rocket. I learned about her from my students, yesterday, in a conversation about modern-day heroes, and then saw about in the news, too, once I realized what was going on.
It rained yesterday afternoon and into the night. A steady, spring rain, with zero risk of snow unlike the earlier late winter rains we have gotten.