Bronchitis isn't as fun as it might sound.

I spent about three days in the throes of bronchitis this week. I had been a bit sick for a few days before going to Seoul last weekend on what was possibly the coldest weekend of the year. I had to take off work Wednesday and Thursday, and though I wasn't fully recovered I still had to go on Friday. But thankfully it is gone now. My Bible study leader came over and brought me some ginger tea and prayed for me, and many people back home sent me some good medical advice.

Over the weekend I went to work, caught a Korean movie (with subtitles) I'd been wanting to see, and started listening to Fall Out Boy. I also went to Home Plus with my girlfriend to buy real groceries (good cereal, strawberry jelly, bacon, pancake mix, carrots, and a few other things) and gave her some valuable driving tips. She's an infrequent driver and uncomfortable at the wheel and needed lots of confidence to make it the ten blocks to the store. I actually found turkey with her translating help, and we had that for lunch. For me it was the first time in six months, but it wasn't all that good or even that similar to turkey back in the States. It was darker and flavored with a seasoning altogether unfamiliar to me, but it was a nice change nonetheless. After that I went to my Bible study and received a lovely Sulnal (Chinese New Year) gift, which I then regifted to a family that invited me to dinner that night. They cooked a lavish meal for me and we had a nice time. Philip, my soccer friend, had wanted to introduce me to his family for some time, and so it finally happened Sunday night. His mother had studied opera vocals in Germany and Austria and so spoke German, and she insisted on using it regularly in our odd conversation despite being the only one who understood it. I caught a few words here and there ("Herr" stands out) and found the experience to be funny. His father is a history teacher, so we had a lengthy topical chat about that, and his second cousin who was there studying voice from his mother asked me lots of questions about American culture and the differences between American girls and Korean girls (she's a seventeen-year-old high school student who doesn't really study all that much and gets most of her information from stuff like Gossip Girl).

I'm working on Blood Meridian these days and have taken a strong liking to Cormac McCarthy. I also tried a bit of stream-of-consciousness writing and found the results pleasing. Next weekend I'll be going to Seoul to meet Yun Hye (Kris' girlfriend) for Chinese New Year and I'll be spending the long weekend with her family at a ski resort. It'll be a pretty authentic Korean experience, I hope.