Spring Greens

   Do you ever feel sleepy even though you slept soundly last night, in spring?
Maybe spring fever causes someone becomes sleepy and in semi conscious condition(it is called "춘곤증" in Korean). Scientists researched that spring fever emerges because of the change of length of day and night. Night becomes shorter than winter, so it causes people feel sleepy in day time. However, those scientists who researched the reason, seems like didn't find the solution for spring fever.
  In Korea, many people suffer from listless feeling of spring fever, too, and Koreans have their own solution. We eat spring greens to get rid of those feelings.
  In spring, you can see many Koreans squatting on the road side and picking wild herbs. They are not playing house, are preparing side dishes.
  There are many wild herbs in Korea, everywhere. In spring, fresh green sprouts shoot up on the flowerbeds, on the road sides, on the mountain dirts...literally everywhere! We pick those sprouts and season them. Those seasoned vegetable are called "나물(Na-mul)" in Korean and seasoned vegetables usually have aromatic, bitter taste(especially when you taste 봄나물(seasoned spring greens) they'll taste bitter). Those bitter taste makes people feel awake and helps to get out of sleepy condition.
  Also I was dozing oftenly in class this spring, but after I eat sesoned spring greens, it seems like that they keep me up. Especially, eating seasoned ixeris dentata(씀바귀) in every meal really helped me. In Korean, ixeris dentata have a meaning of 'bitter' in its Korean name. I feel I'm adapting to changed day times and I'm wide awake!