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Autumn Leaves: Recording the golden years
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Mostly teenagers
but whatever
keeps me rememberin'
keeps it green
2004-08-07 - 2:39 a.m.
Monday, Wol-yo-il, July 26
On the way to Cheolsan --- Slept late today with just enough time to shower and do a load of shirts and pillowcases before leaving for work at 3 p.m. This "insomnia" is getting tiresome. Since my alarm clock began stopping unexpectedly, I've lost the ability to force myself up so as to get on a more normal circadian cycle. I've pretty much reverted to the cycle I was on when I worked nights at the hospital: sleepy but awake between 4 and 7 a.m., solid sleep after 7. So it isn't really insomnia, just a screwy sleep cycle. I just call it imsomnia because I can't seem to get any serious sleep until it's light in the east.
Saturday, Joan was waving two CDs and saying, "Does anybody want a couple Christian CDs. I got them for free, but I'm not into Christian music." I nabbed them for Mrs. Baek; on closer study, they are more classical choral works.
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On the way home --- Mrs. Baek was delighted with the CDs; hope she'll be as happy after she plays them (chuckle). I think she'll enjoy the Corean choir from Berlin. That's the one with the cross on the cover and a painting of the loaves & fishes. The CD was made to raise money to feed North Korean children.
[At Yaksu yok, 59 minutes for the lines 7 & 3 part of the trip.] Now comes the long wait here and then 10 or 12 minutes to Anam. My commute can take up to 90 minutes, depending on the waits when I transfer from one line to another. Looks like a ten minute "recess" tonight. You can hear the train two stops down if they don't have the Muzak on. I believe I just heard the Hangangjin stop, but I might have heard the train going the other way that passed through here 4 minutes ago. No, it's showing up on the ETA board. It stops in Beotigogae {pronounced "paw-tee-go-gay"} before it gets here.
Okay, I'm headed down the home stretch.
I stopped for supper at the fritter place near the Cheolsan samgori (3 corners). She's such a sweet lady. I bought assorted fritters (shrimp, stuffed peppers, seaweed-wrapped noodles) for two chunwon, about $ 1.70. She added a sweet-potato fritter for the "baker's dozen." Then, as I was leaving, she called me back and packed up a plateful of "rice fingers" in spicy sauce. Something to season the fritters or to eat with them, I think she said. I was too flustered to make her words out clearly. She really is a sweetheart.
Lunch today was "chicken-fried" drumsticks, a slightly thicker batter than my supper lady uses, with a delectable honey-mustard sauce. I kept the rest of the generous little container-full and used the other half of it on my supper fritters, riding home on the surprisingly empty subway car. (No more than 20 people on a car that seats 60 or so.) Things are pretty much back to normal on the subway, though they're still officially on strike. It looks like the workers have nearly all come back. The young fellows on the platforms have returned anyway. The union is pushing for management to hire more workers, so they won't have to work so much overtime. (They don't get time-and-a-half.) They also want a raise, a little more than inflation / cost-of-living increases. C.O.L. has gone up quite a bit since I first came (nearly 3 years ago). The transit fares have increased twice; they're now more than one-third higher. Rent has gone up and the cost of food is also rising. Fresh produce prices increased about 10% after the heavy snow crushed thousands of greenhouses in March.
Here's Anam. Aahh! It'll be good to put my feet up.
Happy Trails!
~ Sil in Corea
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