One of the great tragedies of the film version of The Lord of the Rings, in my opinion, is the fact that the ending was left out. You know, the part where the story seems over, the world is saved, the journey finished, and then the characters get home and have a big mess to sort out there? That always seemed to subvert expectations in a way I respected, and seemed also to reflect the messiness of real life in a way that makes more sense than the kind of “one great act saves the day everywhere” kind of stuff that has since come to dominate popular culture’s version of heroic narrative.
Well, I guess it serves me right! Y’see, I’m back in Bucheon, after a long summer of many adventures. Which, it seems, are not yet over — I’m currently in pseudo-quarantine in my apartment, awaiting the test results for the H5N1 flu. I’m pretty sure that’s not what is causing my sore throat — I credit dehydration, exhaustion, and air conditioning having left me susceptible to the strep throat I always seem to catch when I am worn down — and I have not yet developed a fever, I’m not showing any of the other big symptoms (save for a big of violent shivering last night, which I often used to get with strep throat too) so there really is no cause for alarm. Still, I’m following doctors’ advice and (a) dutifully taking my Tamiflu and (b) staying at home as much as possible.
How possible that will continue to be depends on whether I can get Windows Internet Explorer on my backup laptop working well… it seems the Emart website has been updated in such a way that it constantly crashes whenever I try to do any shopping there, and I really need some food. By tomorrow, the canned stuff I left on my shelves will run out, and I really could use some ginger for making ginger tea.
No classes this week, also part of the pseudo-quarantine: ah, my lucky, lucky students!
Anyway, I know it’s been ages since I’ve updated this site, but if anyone is still reading, I will be posting about my summer adventures chunk by chunk over the next week, while getting lots of bed rest and fluids, slowly sorting out the shambles my apartment ended up becoming before I left (furniture and stuff from friends who departed has come in, but not yet been arranged), and catching up on some other work like class prep and sorting through the neglected pile of email in my inbox.
So, until my next update, not to worry — I’m fine, really. I have learned a lesson, though: the moral of this story is that unless you’re staying in (relatively) one place for the whole time, two months’ worth of traveling is NOT a good idea.