::A Geek in Korea::

Not only was Valentine’s day this week, but the Sunday marks Lunar New Year. This means that Saturday, Sunday, and Monday are national holidays. I don’t work on Saturday or Sunday, so this is one of the worst Lunar New Year holidays ever! Children love getting money from their relatives and eating rice cake soup, but all I want is a few days off work from time to time. The week heading up to Lunar New Year is filled with anticipation. What will the gift set be this time?

Last year, for Chuseok, the other long traditional Korean holiday, I was given a good sized box of individually packaged kim which we ate through in a surprisingly short time period. This was the first time in a period of close to 4 years I hadn’t gotten a "Dove Set". A "Dove Set" consists of Dove shampoo, toothpaste, some body wash, and other various soaps and toiletries of various quantities. While at the time I thought that I wasn’t going to need a large box of sea weed, it actually was an excellent gift. Much better than the soap I usually got.

It turns out that I have a skin condition brought on by Dove shampoo that makes my scalp extra sensitive. My "new" stylist told me that whatever shampoo I used, I needed to change to a brand better suited for my skin type. He told me that while Dove shampoo smelled good, it wasn’t good for foreigner’s hair. Now I use a better quality shampoo and my wife tries to finish off what’s left of the Dove we have from previous gift boxes. We never usually buy shampoo, since getting a set from school used to be as predictable as clockwork.

This year, I got a spongecake for Lunar New Year from my school. It’s cool, because it’s not something I expected, it will get eaten over the holiday, and I don’t have to carry something heavy and impractical home that I won’t use or need. This makes my school two for two on excellent holiday gifts. If they could actually give us some time off to enjoy the holidays, that’d be even better.

My wife was asking her boss what their school was going to get for Lunar New Year. She hates Dove sets as much as I do, but she gets them every year and simply "regifts" them to her mother. Her director came into the school and asked, "Hey, what gifts would you like? Tuna Set? Sesame Seed Oil set? Dove set?"

"How about a fruit box?" she replied. We can always finish off fruit in our household.

"Nah, I already ordered the soap. Dove set it is!" was the reply. Why did he go ask in the first place and give her hope?!