A Hermit in a Hermit Kingdom and too much coffee

12:53 says my video recorder. I can't sleep 'cause I had a huge cup of Cafe Americaine at Daehangno's Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (or Mr. Bean's, as one of my student mistakingly calls this coffee shop.) Following a huge dinner at a traditional Korean restaurant and a pitcher of beer at the Micro Pub, I slaved over students' papers from 9:00 till 0:30. To keep alert I drank coffee and, of course, now I won't be able to sleep until at least the winter equinox.

Panic settles in: I should be sleeping to be ready for yet another day of oral exams tomorrow, 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. These exams are exhausting under any circumstances, but especially when all you do in-between, day and night, is mark papers and grade exam sheets. Dishes are piling in the sink, no food in the fridge, except a huge watermelon that I'll eat tomorrow to offset the ill-effects of today's gorging (first the English dept. staff then with the admin people). I have to be on top of things - I am leaving in a week! Haven't done any shopping, haven't done any "closing the house for the summer" organizing, haven't taken care of contract-signing, haven't ... you name it, I haven't done it. I have a week to do all of that, actually less than a week, 'cause on Saturday I'll go hiking, come hell or high water, even if it means taking my work with me and finishing it on the plane. If worse comes to worst I can also post the grades on the web from Canada - long live cyber age. The image of me flopping down on that airplane seat with everything finished and exhaling one big sigh of relief is so appealing that it alone keeps me working around the clock, like an energizer bunny.

Things around me a bit strange: a friend lost his job and his wife in a matter of a week. His contract was not renewed and his wife just packed up and left him. Every day, while he's at work, she comes around and packs her stuff and some of his (like his new digital camera). She even took with her a tub of kimchi! I am afraid that he's about to have a heart attack.. I've been trying to be supportive but I don't know what to say to him, nor what to do. I call him to check how he's holding up, but I have no time for more, and, if anything, he seems to be embarassed about the whole situatioin. On Friday, I'll take him out for a nice lunch and lend him my ears. Although we're not closest of friends, I feel terrible for him; he's being kicked while he's down. I know very well how that feels and I just can't stand watching people in this situation. In a few days he's aged a lot. I don't understand his wife. Aren't spouses supposed to be there for each other, for better or for worse? She didn't even give them a chance to adjust to the new situation...I am not saying that he's an absolutelly blameless party in this whole mess, but he certainly doesn't deserve this. Duirng lunch with the English dept. staff, everybody just kept on asking him about his wife and their plans for the future - any babies in sight, how many, how lucky he is to have such a Korean beauty for a wife. I could see him wringing his hands under the table.
What's happening to him right now reminded me how a second changes a person's whole life: he, reading the 'pink slip', conveying the message to his wife, she packing up and leaving... everything so uncertain, so unfair, so unpredictable.
I'd better go to bed, although I know I won't sleep. Crazy.