The View Up Here

A few things of note over the last few months: End of May/Beginning of June:  Got food poisoning. Badly.  Was hospitalized for four days and nights. Still paying back the loan I took from my boss to pay for that bad boy. I was told the offending bacteria was campylobacter, usually associated with chicken. Funny thing is, I hadn't had chicken at all for several days. I think the culprit came from a food cart at which I'd eaten some kimbap earlier that week. Never. Again.  No more street food.  End of July:  The Great Kitten Drama  Nearby my apartment building is a completely empty entire city block wrapped in green tarp fencing, into which people throw their trash. Inside, stray cats have made their home.  One night coming home from work I heard the plaintive and unmistakable mewings of a tiny kitten. Long story short, the mama cat deposited one of her two kittens outside my building's steps. I took the kitten in for a few hours and let her cool of...

The summer in Korea is no joke. I mean really. Temps above 100F/37C for the last three months.  A little relief at Jin Ha Beach It's been a bear of a summer, and even though we're now in September, after the end of "hot summer" according to the traditional Korean calendar, we are still sweltering.  But on the upside, there is a slight breeze with a tinge of cool air, and the sun isn't quite as high as it was. I can feel the difference, but still can't stand having anything against my skin. Unfortunately the reality has been that I have not been outside nearly as much as I would've liked. I'm feeling a little like I do at the end of winter in Western New York: antsy to get back outside and start enjoying nature. Funny how that works, from one extreme to another. Air Con is My Friend  The upside of being inside in the air conditioning so much is that I've been working on my short story project more diligently. The current story, temporarily named ...