Couldn’t think of a good title, so it’s kind of a summary of the post.

Yesterday I met with my friend John, whom some might know as Ritu‘s husband. I’d just finished my course of antibiotics and was eager to test whether or not my prostate is back to normal, which was a good thing, as we went out for a few beers and caught up. For having a pint of Guinness on draft, I was rewarded with a Guinness pen! Hmm. It writes okay, too.

It’s too bad I have no depth perception, or I’d have volunteered to have him kick my ass at pool. He’s a good shooter. He’s also looking quite well, at least for someone who’s busy as hell. He looks as if he hasn’t aged, which I told him, and he claimed I look younger than I did. (Is it possible? Perhaps… did gaining weight make me look younger?)

He also reminded me of something I sometimes forget… how being in Korea with a Korean face is so different from being in Korea with a white face. He finds it even more stressful than I do, living here, and yet, from what he said to me, his experience of India is much more analogous to my experience of Korea. Interesting stuff. I wonder if all long-term expatriates find that sort of thing. (Bearing in mind that, having grown up in a bunch of different places, John’s relationship to Korea is probably different than mine is to Canada.)

Of course, I didn’t drink so much when out with John… I didn’t want to hammer my system after (relatively) very little drinking in the last year. But I had a little more when I got home, and as of today, I’m not sure either way. But I won’t get into my few remaining symptoms, I promise.

However, I slept most of the day away. Argh! I’ve failed completely to adjust my sleeping schedule, and I think the only way I’m going to manage it is by sleeping whenever, but FORCING myself to get up early and stay up until evening. It’s going to be a horrible day, the day I do that.

Anyway, this evening Lime and I went out to look at electronic pianos. We checked out some in a Yamaha shop in Shinchon specializing in pianos, and it was amazing how obvious it was to both of us which piano was top-of-the-line. Sounds just like a real piano (almost), but with all kinds of other sound settings, including an outstanding vibraphone setting, and it has a record function, MIDI, headphones… good not only for apartment life, but also, perhaps, for messing around with content production, should I ever get into podcasting or something else like that.

We had some street food (I even nervously partook of some) and also stopped in at what’s becoming our favorite coffee chain, A Twosome Place, for a coffee, a sandwich (in my case), and some flavoured chocolates. I got Strawberry, which was okay, but Lime’s was better. White-powder on the top made me imagine it was coconut, but, weirdly enough, it was in fact cranberry. I’m glad she shared it with me, because it was really good.

And now? Now I’m home, with continuing back pain, and I’m going to finally write some comments on a few remaining student projects so I can mail everything out on Friday, along with notes explaining why the stuff is coming back to them so late.