Food Poisoning, Chinese Characters and Ginger Tea

I must have swallowed something really nasty to feel the way I've been feeling siince Sunday: nauseous, weak, feverish, with horrible cramps. All I could do for a couple of days is lie in bed ocassionally gathering strength to get up and make a cup of ginger tea - it's said to calm an upset stomach. What could I have swallowed, I wondered. I had heaps of "choggae-gui", Korean-style bbq-ed clams, oysters, moon snails and other shells, on Saturday, on Muido island. The little pojang-macha ('eating tent') where we ate the shells and drank soju was very cozy, the ajumma very friendly and generous, bringing plates of boiled oysters as 'serbice' (Korean for gratis, or 'on the house') but, God bless her, she still has a lot to learn the hygene in food preparation . On Sunday, at Clare's, during a ginger-bread men making extravaganza, devoured lots of delicious cookie dough, on Monday had a heavy lunch at Bennigan's.... AND on Monday night paid dearly for gluttonous behaviour feeling as if a powerful propeller had been installed in my stomachthat mercilessly kept twisting, turning and tearing my guts. The ordeal lasted for about two days, now it's better, thank god. Having the uncalled for luxury of staying in bed for two days, I had lots of time to think about what I want to do, what challenge (on top of the aforementioned endeavours to learn Korean) I should embrace. I was sipping ginger tea (soooo good and soothing!) in a half-dazed state and it ocurred to me: I'm going to learn Chinese characters! It only makes sense. I live in the Far East (to use, for once, this politically incorrect expression), and for the people who live in this part of the World, the Chinese language and characters are what Latin and the Roman Alphabet are to Western cultures and languages. Although Koreans developed their own alphabet called Hangeul, the langauge still relies heavily on the Chinese. In spite of cramps and dizziness I learned 20 characters - so proud! I love the way they look and I love the feeling I get as I am writing them. So far, my favourite characters are "cha" (vehicle, transportation); yon/nyon (year) and "eum" (voice, sound). I believe that learning the characters helped my recovery. I was so enthusiastic about it that I forgot about the cramps and nausea, at least temporarily; soooo, if someone asks me: "what's the best cure for food poisoning?", I can say with assurance: "Gallons of ginger tea and conquering at least 20 Chinese characters."