Barely been home ten minutes, but I thought I'd excrete a quick post before scrounging around for some dinner. I've been nursing a sore throat for the past couple days (seems as if all of Europe is sick), and I've got a stuffy nose that can only be unblocked by a good dose of something fiery.
On the way from the Myeongdong Lotte Hotel to the Smoo neighborhood, I asked the taxi driver when the Korean presidential elections were and was told that they're slated for next week, the 19th. I admit I'm morbidly curious as to who will win, but the taxi driver seemed rather confident that Lee Myeong Bak has got it in the bag. Perhaps Lee is Korea's Giuliani, seeing as he was mayor of Seoul. I asked the taxi driver what improvements he thought Lee had made during his time as mayor, and he listed improvements in traffic flow, modest improvement in Seoul's economy, and some rehabilitation of Seoul's overall image. He was worried, though, about the BBK scandal, so I asked him whether he thought that that scandal was at least partly manufactured by Lee's enemies. The cabbie, who apparently isn't a fan of Lee, admitted that there's probably as much politics as reality in the accusations against the man.
Whew... I've got bags to unpack and gifts to sift through, but I'm tired as hell right now and might not get around to all that until tomorrow. This has felt like one extremely long day-- low stress, but tiring all the same because, as I mentioned, I woke up at 4:15AM on the 11th, did the hour-long drive from Colmar (more precisely, the town of Hunawihr, which is right next door) to Strasbourg, took the TGV from Strasbourg to Roissy/Charles de Gaulle Airport, then had to wait from about 9:30AM to 6:00PM before I could check my bag. I read (or, rather, reread) a ton of Sagan's The Demon-haunted World, and started La révolution de la croix, the book on Nero and early Christianity given to me as a gift by my French Papa. Papa also wrote me a very kind and touching email, which I proudly reprint here:
HI KEVIN
Nous avons été tellement contents de te revoir ainsi que les enfants, qu'après ton départ nous avons trouvé un grand vide. C'est la vie. Je pense aussi qu'en vieillissant nous sommes encore plus sensibles à ce genre d'évènement. Merci encore de ta visite de ce que tu nous as apporté dans nos échanges verbaux; c'était très enrichissant. Nous serons toujours très heureux de te recevoir; l'Hôtel Melpomène est ta maison. Peut-être que demain nous pourrons encore nous revoir à la web cam chez Dominique. Profite au maximum de ton séjour. Xavier a été très heureux de pouvoir discuter avec toi; il espère bien faire un saut à Séoul un de ces jours. François aussi a été content de cette soirée; tous te remercient pour ces délicates intentions que tu as partagées. A bientôt!
Amitiés.
The Hotel Melpomene = Papa's and Maman's house in Carquefou
verbal exchanges = a reference to our talks re: politics and religion, subjects I simply can handle with any sophistication in Korean
Xavier = my French brother Dominique's big brother (D is the youngest of four brothers; X is next up)
François = the eldest son/brother in the Ducoulombier family
_
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