Last Thursday Sun-ja and I went to an "art film" theater to see "Stranger than Paradise." With that film was shown a short film: "Cigarettes and Coffee" starring Tom Waits and Iggy Pop. It was not the same "Cigarettes and Coffee" that [redacted] told me about all those years ago ~ but a new one: 1993. On Friday I cancelled my lesson with Mr. Kim and slept in. Sat. nothing new. I watched a film with Duke: Paul Newman in "The Mackintosh Man."
During the film [redacted] called. It was great to hear from him. He's en route to Bali. But he sent his regards ~ especially to Young-sook. He claims to be genuinely interested in working here - so if I decide to stay another year he may come do it too! Oh! [redacted] called. I think it was Friday morning. It was great to talk with her. She talked a lot about her lover, [redacted]. And She has quit working at Tower, she has taken incompletes in her classes. She talked a lot about Chi and healing, etc. I am a little worried - for she sounded somewhat hysterical - but I think / hope that she'll be okay. I must write to her.
Sunday was truly a surrealistic day. I woke up and showered. Then put on my Sunday clothes (oddly enough). Link and I, both dressed up as Mormans left the house to go to a wedding. All the way there we joked about being Mormans. With some difficulty (and in the rain) we found our way to the wedding place: I understood why Sun-ja calls them "wedding shops." Our wedding (it was the wedding of Sam's son) was in a room on the third floor. Each floor had many rooms, and many concurrent and consecutive weddings.
... More later...
We asked some guy where to go for the wedding we were meant to attend: third floor. We pushed through crowds of milling, rain-soaked, angry, smoking, bedraggled and bedecked-out Korean folk until we got to the third floor where we were just as lost and mobbed as we had been on the first floor, but closer anyway. We milled about like Mi-kooks at the wedding. Finally somebody found us. It wasn't Sam, but (I think) a cousin of Sam - he spoke English. We were taken to the right room and got to push our way wetly into seats.
After a while the ceremony began - not so's you-d notice it by a disruption of the many conversations of the mob - they just kept talking. But a very bright light came on - it belonged to the man with the video camera - and it looked like the piano girl was playing. The groom - all in white tux - strode to the front of the hall. There was scattered applause. Then a bubble machine started going ~ bubbles everywhere in the back of the room. As they dissipated, on of the chandeliers in the back began, slowly, to drop. Elvis wasn't on it. The bride was - she was pneumatically lowered to the floor and given a hand off the platform. Then her dad walked her to the front where she was greeted, respectively, by smoke from a smoke machine, and then hubby-to-be. Dad turned her over to him. There was scattered applause. Then some guy behind a podium / sectarian altar said something while innumerable camera men scampered around collecting photo-ops. Then it was over. The nuptial couple bowed to the bride's parents and then to the groom's. There was scattered applause. Then everyone went to eat.
Link and I stuck with our interpreter. And together we went into a buffet-style cafeteria where one had to walk carefully to avoid slipping upon the food & liquor on the floor. We got some food. We were gawked at by most. We ate standing up. Then, as people began to leave, we got to sit. Got a bottle of Soju. Our liaison told us that he's Mormon, "Jesus Christ the latter day saints." Both of us suppressed laughter. Eventually we finished the bottle and split. We found our way back to the train station. And came home. Link went to the Mok-yoek-tang.
I came home where Duke was moaning about how bad he felt. I told him to go to bed - he did. Then Bea called and demanded that she be entertained. I said "Come over." When she got here we sat around for a few minutes and then went out for food. The most interesting part of the conversation was when she asked if I would take her cat. I have to talk to my housemates, I said. We ate, talked about Yamanin! and tried to find something else to do. We went to her apt. so I could meet her cat. He was unwilling to meet me, but we are at least now acquainted. It was not as traumatic a meeting for my skin as, say, meeting Stinky. Then I walked home.
When I walked home, it was very windy and dark. The sky was clear and black (no stars - though it was clear) and there were odd purply-pink clouds racing around and back. The leaves blowing on the streets all seemed to be glowing or tripping.
I got home. Duke was in bed. Link was in bed. Roy was in his room. He told me that Duke had had some kind of seizure - breathing oddly and spitting / foaming at the mouth. Duke denied it. Roy went to bed. I sat in the kitchen reading for a little while. Duke came out complaining about how sick he was. I went to my room, turned on the heater, and lay down on my bed.
I was awoken by Roy yelling my name. I sat up - confused: I was dressed, something urgent was going on, my room was lit, the clock said 10:30 but it was dark outside. I ran to the voice which had summoned me. Duke's room: the light on, Roy standing in the doorway, Link crouching by Duke's head, holding it with both hands; Duke, arms and legs shaking, breathing like a hyperventilating asthmatic with bronchitis. He was foaming / spitting stringy bloody saliva. This lasted maybe three minutes. I didn't know what to do. His eyes were open but not seeing at all. I crouched beside him, and tied too think of something useful to do - I checked his pulse - fast but regular. Eventually it ended. He breathed semi-normally. Still he did not respond to his name or to touch -- and he was very feverish. Roy said that's the same thing that happened before.
We went to the kitchen where Roy and I had smokes and Link shook - he said from the pain of his headache, but probably also from adrenaline / fright. We decided that it probably was a seizure, but not positive. We all went to bed. This time I got undressed and turned off the light. At five in the morning it happened again - this time more shaking, less spit. No doubt that this was a seizure. We talked briefly - decided that there probably wasn't time for another one, and went to bed. I slept very soundly.
Today Duke said "maybe I did have a seizure." This was in the afternoon, when we were both awake. I said, "You definitely had at least one," then I explained the night's events.
He went to work. Sun-ja came over and we studied. Then we went out together to the Chinese restaurant on the way too work. She told me more about what Americans are like. I asked her how she knew. The only interesting thing she said was that sometimes / often she forgets that I am younger than she is. That was nice to hear - especially considering that I often forget that she is older than I. Finally, I got another letter from [redacted]. Hooray! I must write back. But not tonight. All for now.