I had a kind of lazy morning, viewing this as my last day of my “radiation holiday” – although I’m only returninig to work part-time, tomorrow, October 1st, I still feel that the pressure will begin to mount to return to full-working status. I both look forward to it (because I like my work and I miss the kids) and dread it (because if I’m feeling like I am still, currently, work is going to be pretty hellish).
Then I got fed up with sitting around, so despite the burning horrible pain in my mouth and neck, Wendy and I took the subway into the city to a neighborhood I hadn’t visited before, called Janghanpyeong. There we visited some “antique markets” that I’d read about. Much less ambitious than the vast flea market area I visited with Andrew and Hollye some weeks ago, but very focused on pre-20th-century antiquities. True antiques – the kind that would be illegal to buy and take home outside of Korea without a government permit.
Here are some pictures from the antiques market.
One of the amazing things about living in the outskirts of Seoul is that it is so vast that I could conceivably go into the city and explore a different, completely unfamiliar neighborhood like this one that I went to today, every week for the rest of my life, and not run out of new places. It’s spectacular. I disagree with those who say Korean neighborhoods are “all the same” or that they lack individual character. Certainly there are patterns, and certainly there is some sameness to the architecture, with the vast majority of it being that post-Korean-War, on-a-tight-budget style. Even still, there are all kinds of things that make each neighborhood different, like the presence of these antique markets in this one we explored today.
My evening since getting home has been pretty uncomfortable. I had felt earlier today that maybe I was “over the hump” as far as discomfort, but yesterday and this evening are the worst I’ve felt since that horrible Sunday 2 weeks ago. The reason is obvious: I had quit taking the hardcore pain medication because I felt that it was making me unnecessarily depressed (as a kind of side effect). But… I may have given it up too soon. I may decide to resume it tonight.
I really don’t like this cancer thing. I know I’ve “got it beat” – at least for now – but I really wish I could just get past all the side effects of the treatment, and get back to something resembling “normal.”
Speaking of antiques…
What I’m listening to right now.
John Prine, “Some Humans Ain’t Human.”
[daily log: walking, 3 km]
