Sick as a Boshintang Dog

I was a healthy person in the US. I really was. I almost never got sick. I can't even remember the last time I got a cold in the US before coming here to the land of killer diseases. I have a cold now, a terrible one, and this got me to thinking: what's so different about Korea that I get so sick on a fairly regular basis here.

My initial theory when I first came over was that it was from working with kids all the time. I thought their little kid hands dragged germs to me from filthy kid things all the time. While that's probably true, I don't see too many kids around these days, filthy or otherwise (unless they sneak in while I'm sleeping), so I doubt that theory holds up.

Then there was the theory of food. I definitely eat differently here than I do in the US: lots of weird pickled stuff, lots of red pepper paste. Maybe my body doesn't like that stuff and is trying to teach me a lesson. I suppose a cold's not really the way to teach that lesson very well but still. Ah, but I'm sure Koreans would cringe to hear me say that about their food. They insist that their pickled spicy stuff is great for you, so well, maybe it's not that either.

It could always be that I'm just getting used to Asian colds and flus and so forth, but damn, I would hope three and a half years would be enough to get through the super-colds phase of living here. True, I get sick less often these days than when I first came, but when I do, yowza!

I've briefly toyed with the notion that it could be magic: a curse on foreigners or some sort of ill-will generated from failed students.

But then I have to accept that perhaps my super-colds, the shoulder I hurt a few years back, my little wrist troubles, and all the like, those aren't from any mystic source. I'm not in as good a shape as I used to be. Maybe I sit around a little bit more. Maybe I eat a little bit more. Maybe I'm a little less careful and a little bit more stressed. And maybe I'm just getting a bit older; I am, after all, already 30 in Korean years. Maybe it's not Korea at all. Maybe it's just life. Maybe this is how things work. Maybe this is the trade off I get for getting the better job, and the lovely wife. Maybe disease is trade-off for stability and wisdom. And chances are good I'm exaggerating my super-healthy American days anyway. I do that. So maybe it's all that.

Or maybe it's just the magic.

R

Volcanos and such

It's always great to see my friends and family, but man, I'm always bored senseless by the end of my Fort Wayne trips and ready to come back to Korea. I was pretty stir crazy by the end of this last trip and glad to be on this side of the world again. For all it's faults, I like Korea, but more than anything, I was happy to be back here so that I wasn't half the world away from Hye Sook. It was a weird feeling.

In any case, we've been around each other enough again at this point to be sick of each other. Not long after I got back in Korea, it was Lunar New Year. She and I took a trip with her family down to Jeju Island, a volcanic island off the southern coast of the peninsula. Down there we rode submarines and go-carts. We went to gardens and beaches. We even drove part way up the ole volcano itself. All in all, it was a good time, largely due to Taejin (Hye Sook's brother) planning the trip out so well. He lived on the island for two years while in military service, so he knew what he was doing. Hye Sook actually lived down there for three months too, oddly. She got a summer job at one of the resort hotels while she was in college. She refused to go back to that hotel, though, so it mustn't have been all peaches and cream.

Now I'm coming up on the start of the spring semester. My class sizes have all been cut in half, so it should be an easy go-round. I'm looking forward to getting back to the swing of things. There's only so much sitting at home, even here in Korea, that I can do before the screws start to loosen. I can hear them creaking loose already.

Enjoy the pics!

R

고향

12월 25일부터 1월17일까지 고향에 있었어요. 친구와 가족 보는 것 좋았어요. 그래도 혜숙을 많이 보고 싶었어요. 웹캠으로 채팅했지만 보는 것과 같이 있는 것 달라요. 마침내 부산에 돌아왔을 때 혜숙 같이 보낼 수 있어서 많이 행복했어요.

친구하고 많이 놀고 시카고에 갔어요. 12월 25일부터 1월1일까지 제일 좋은 시간이에요. 휴가 대문에 많은 것 하고 친구 많이 볼 수 있었어요. 그 다음에 조금 심심했어요. 낮에 동생 밖에 가족도 친구도 다 일해야 헀어요. 저녁만 볼 수 있었어요. 낮에 텔레비전 보는 것 밖에 많이 했지 않아요. 내 가족과 친구 많이 사랑하지만 내 고향 싫어요.

다음에 고향 갈 때 여름에 가고 싶어요. 날씨 더 좋고 할 수 있는 것 더 많아요. 그리고 다음에 꼭 혜숙도 가야 해요

R

Notice the first thing on the menu. A hyphen makes a big difference.

In the submarine

Hye Sook seasick.

Seagulls.

Hala-san. The tallest mountain in South Korea.

Oddly, a lot of the coastal rocks on Jeju are like this. It looks like some kind of weird honeycomb.

Getting ready for go-carting.

A unique temple on Jeju.

Inside the temple.

Taken from Hye Sook's toothpaste box. Mmmm, diseasy.

Jason trying to kill Angie and Damian.

Chicago at night.

Dad loves his dog.

Toby and Dad watching TV.