Now is the winter of our discontent

I've had a pretty severe case of the flu for about six days now; for awhile it felt like my worst ever, although it was probably just the first one I was on my own for. It's hard when there's nobody to feel your forehead and bring you noodle soup. I missed one whole day of work and two other days had my schedule cut to one session. I went to the hospital on Friday to see Dr. Synn, who speaks excellent English and who's a distant relative of Heeduk's; he prescribed pills and told me not to go to my first Korean language class and to school on Saturday, as it could turn to pneumonia. I went anyway, of course, and afterward checked in with him and he said I'm enough better that I won't have to come back for another checkup. I don't feel remarkably better yet.

The weather is brutal. The wind moans, the windows rattle. I was going to walk the 3/4 mile to E-Mart today for food, but after a block, with my face numb, I turned around and just got a few things at the mom-n-pop two blocks from home. I spend most of my time in the den, two feet in front of the electic heater; Tug likes rubbing his cheek against the wire heater cover as it rotates past.

(The cats are doing great, btw; today's the first day Tiki's joined Tug in lounging on the furniture rather than under it, and the boys are wrestling together and grooming each other. I guess they finally feel at home. However, as the tenor of this post is to be grumpy, I won't mention them.) (Damn.)

It seems everyone's dissatisfied. Ray always seemed so cheerful, but he's tired of Korea (after six months) and is talking about returning to the States to help at a little inner-city church in Oakland. Luke told me he's sick of LIKE and may skip to another hagwon when his first six months is up. A girl named Nicole started a few months ago at the Samduk branch and had some kind of run-in with somebody; she took off in the middle of the night, without her passport, which we all have to hand in to get our alien cards, or an alien card. I don't think she can leave the country.

It seems for the most part that the people who are the most discontented are the ones who work mostly with the little kids. It's very wearing when so many of them are rude and it feels as if there's no positive feedback. Fortunately, I'm working almost exclusively with SAT prep and such, which is what I need. I helped one boy last week with his application essays for Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Rice, and (ta-da!) Cornell.

Aside from the cats, it's just one of those times where everything is a drag: that movie shoot I mentioned got moved to Saturday, so I'm out; I spent the morning, flu and all, cleaning house so the ladies I got the cats from could come visit, only to have them cancel when they found I've been sick; got nothing I want to read, nothing good on tv, my Giants have a huge playoff game-- at 3 a.m., and I'm ugly.

...and sometimes I wonder if anybody's still reading the blog...

(Pathetic, ain't I.)

Oh, and I made myself some French toast, like my mom always used to do on Sunday nights when I was a kid, and felt better. Can't find Lassie on the tube, though.

My friend Suzanne was so right when she said I need somebody who cares when I come home. Thank God for Tug and Tiki. And French toast.