Over.

The term is over! Yay!

I read an article today written by a professor of sociology at Ewha Womans University about "lonely goose fathers." These are fathers who stay behind in Korea to work and support their children, who are studying abroad. The mothers of the children go with them -- these are truly children, too; junior high school or high school kids, and maybe even some grammar school kids -- to take care of them.

In October, one of these lonely goose fathers died alone at home. His two high school-aged children and his wife were in Canada. He had undergone heart surgery several months earlier and was under considerable financial and emotional distress as he worked to support the kids and mother in Canada.

This death got a lot of people talking about this goose father phenomenon, which not rare in Korea. (Note the turn of phrase I used there, indicating that I don't know how widespread it is. How clever I am!) The importance placed on the education of children is so high that this is not considered weird at all. Yet.

I'm off in 5 minutes to do some Christmas shopping for the family, and to have dinner with Vivian, my Taiwanese friend. It really doesn't feel like Christmas, even with the decorations in the stores and such. My Korean friend Hyo-jong said that the Christmas spirit seemed particularly deadened this year.

Tomorrow, I pick up the plane tickets, go to the Cambodian embassy, and sign up for a tour of the DMZ for when Wendy and I get back. All in separate places, naturally. And all after the graduation ceremony. Two of my friends from spring quarter are graduating, and will get all decked out in hanboks (traditional Korean dress) for the ceremony.

This morning I went to the hospital to get shot up with Hep A and B vaccines, plus get a prescription for malaria prevention pills. Asan Hospital, the second largest in Seoul (and therefore Korea), has an international clinic, where the nurses and doctors all speak English and help non-Korean speakers to a sort of ridiculous degree. The amount of respect shown to foreigners would be fine (I got to go to the head of the line to make an appointment, for example) -- if that same respect were shown to fellow Koreans. That it isn't is wack.

Oh, and if this entry seems crazy, blame it on the Lariam (malaria meds). Among its possible side effects: nausea, bad dreams, and difficulty sleeping. "However, people taking Lariam occasionally experience severe anxiety, feelings that people are against them, hallucinations... depression, unusual behavior, or feeling disoriented. ... Some patients taking Lariam think about killing themselves, and there have been rare reports of suicide. It is not known whether Lariam was responsible for these suicides." Well, so far, I do feel a little loopy, but that could just as easily be from hunger as from the drug. Unless the "malaria drug" is not really for "malaria" but actually is an attempt to control my thoughts.

C'mon! Cheap humor is fun!