Getting Better

This last week has been a little crazy as all three of us appear to have caught the stomach flu. Last Monday we took David to the hospital (Yonsei Severance Hopsital, the first western hospital established in Korea back in the 1880's if I recall correctly). Our doctor, a very kind and devout lady was a great help. David was dehydrated so she ordered an iv. He was still pretty sick for a few days but is now mostly better and is able to get into all sorts of trouble again. Since it's cold (it's snowing as I write this but it doesn't appear that there will be much accumulation) I've been doing most of the shopping which is pretty funny since I don't know the various fruits and vegetables Arlene wants and she doesn't know the Korean words for them!

I was well enough on Thursday and Friday to meet some social obligations. My adviser and another professor took me out to dinner and coffee on Thursday evening and we had a good time. My adviser told us how his family converted to Catholicism after having walked from Seoul to Pusan (a rather long journey!) while fleeing from the North Korean advance during the opening days of the Korean war. I didn't quite understand the whole story but it seems like a large part of it was because of their experience of almost being killed several times (it seems by American fire) during their trip. On Friday another professor took me to introduce me to an author and a publisher who does work on prophecy and religion in Korean history. He was a very nice fellow and we had a good time.

Sadly, the husband of the Fulbright director passed away. I went to his viewing. In Korean culture the bereaved sit in a special room with the coffin (which is closed) and a picture of the deceased. there are different variations on what one does but in this case I went in, took a flower and placed it on a coffin and burned a stick of incense. Then I retreated a couple of steps and made two deep bows and one half bow. To do a deep bow, I, in my slacks and sports coat, got on my knees and touched my head to the floor. The half bow is done from the wait, I think about 60 degrees. After that I approached the director and family and said "him-du-shi-kae-sum-ni-da" which means something like "It must be difficult for you." After that I left and was given a rather large amount of food (when you go to a funeral you bring an envelope with money to give to help defray the cost. You write your name on it and if I recall correctly a record is kept of who gave what (so that they can return the favor).

On a lighter note David knows that when I am wearing jeans that there is a good chance I will leave. So one day he tried to pull my pants off. He also took them away once before I could put them on (he didn't know what to do with them though so he ended up giving them back to me!).