Today, I saw forsythia for the first time this year on the way to pickup lunch in sandwich place near work. That reminded me of many memories related to forsythia. Forsythia is 'gae-na-ri' in Korean. As far as I know, it is one of the earliest blossoming flower in Spring. Flower comes first before leaves and it is so... yellow. Vivid yellow color... I really love this flower. Also I heard that this flowering plant is not picky at all and very easy to cultivate. The one bad thing about this plant is that the blossoming season is kind of short. Here are my memories...
Memory #1 - my middle school
I was quite a tomboy in my school years. I was running around during cleaning time after school. Usually schools in Korea didn't have janitors for cleaning - not sure about schools in these days. So we had to clean up our classroom, hallway, and restrooms by ourselves after classes. That clean-up time was good to run around with friends :) Especially I liked a small bridge connecting our building and the way to schoolyard. Here, I think people call this kind of bridge as 'pedestrian overpass'. It is really boring name... We call it 'cloud bridge'... which I prefer to call it.
I was quite a tomboy in my school years. I was running around during cleaning time after school. Usually schools in Korea didn't have janitors for cleaning - not sure about schools in these days. So we had to clean up our classroom, hallway, and restrooms by ourselves after classes. That clean-up time was good to run around with friends :) Especially I liked a small bridge connecting our building and the way to schoolyard. Here, I think people call this kind of bridge as 'pedestrian overpass'. It is really boring name... We call it 'cloud bridge'... which I prefer to call it.
Anyway... There were lots of forsythia near the bridge. One of my favorite things to do during this time of day and season is - drop the forsythia flower one by one down the bridge. It spins beautifully - like a propeller! and waves down to the ground. Watching the spinning flower was a quite pleasant thing for me... and its spinning and color.
Memory #2 - my high school
Gae-na-ri reminds me of our teacher Mr. Jung who passed away not long after our graduation. High school system in Korea is quite different from that in US which is similar to that of college. You make your own schedule for one semester and there are lecture rooms assigned for classes. So you have to move around lecture rooms for classes. However, in Korea, we sit in the same classroom from morning to till when the school ends. There are time table filled with each subjects and teachers of each subject go to different classrooms for their classes. So basically, your classmate in your classroom spend whole day together and it goes like that throughout the year. Also there is one designated teacher for the classroom who are in charge of you guys and spend the entire year with you.
The designated teacher of my third year in my high school (senior year) was Mr. Jung. He was English teacher who had a big head and wore big glasses. His resemblance to one of the character in very popular cartoon (Dooley) made him be called 'Gil-dong' who is a stubborn head of the household where Dooley happen to stay. Anyway... whenever we ask him to sing a song - sometimes we needed to be entertained because we spent so much time at school (~ 16 hours per day?) - he sang a song titled 'Miss Forsythia'. That song starts with the lyric 'There is a Miss Forsythia near the well looking for love..." He sang this song with quite funny tone. We noticed that his health was not good at the end of the year, but didn't think that he suffered from cancer, from which he died few years later. Teacher Gil-dong...
Memory #3 - my graduate school
I spent many years in the same university for my undergraduate and graduate study. Actually the university is located quite close to the city where I lived. Only one thing is... there is a mountain between the university and my city. So, it took one hour one way (sometimes more than that) to commute. However, when I was in graduate school, a road with tunnel opened connect my city and the area where my school is located. That saved lots of time - it took about 25 minutes by car - the distance was only about 11 miles. Once I was caught by the traffic... it took much longer than that though.
Memory #2 - my high school
Gae-na-ri reminds me of our teacher Mr. Jung who passed away not long after our graduation. High school system in Korea is quite different from that in US which is similar to that of college. You make your own schedule for one semester and there are lecture rooms assigned for classes. So you have to move around lecture rooms for classes. However, in Korea, we sit in the same classroom from morning to till when the school ends. There are time table filled with each subjects and teachers of each subject go to different classrooms for their classes. So basically, your classmate in your classroom spend whole day together and it goes like that throughout the year. Also there is one designated teacher for the classroom who are in charge of you guys and spend the entire year with you.
The designated teacher of my third year in my high school (senior year) was Mr. Jung. He was English teacher who had a big head and wore big glasses. His resemblance to one of the character in very popular cartoon (Dooley) made him be called 'Gil-dong' who is a stubborn head of the household where Dooley happen to stay. Anyway... whenever we ask him to sing a song - sometimes we needed to be entertained because we spent so much time at school (~ 16 hours per day?) - he sang a song titled 'Miss Forsythia'. That song starts with the lyric 'There is a Miss Forsythia near the well looking for love..." He sang this song with quite funny tone. We noticed that his health was not good at the end of the year, but didn't think that he suffered from cancer, from which he died few years later. Teacher Gil-dong...
Memory #3 - my graduate school
I spent many years in the same university for my undergraduate and graduate study. Actually the university is located quite close to the city where I lived. Only one thing is... there is a mountain between the university and my city. So, it took one hour one way (sometimes more than that) to commute. However, when I was in graduate school, a road with tunnel opened connect my city and the area where my school is located. That saved lots of time - it took about 25 minutes by car - the distance was only about 11 miles. Once I was caught by the traffic... it took much longer than that though.
I like driving that road because there were lots of forsythia along the road to the school - when I drive the mountainous area. They were so so beautiful. I smiled a lot when I see them... I felt spring approaching and right around the corner.
Do you have any memory about forsythia like these? :)
