Last night while I was coming home on the subway I noticed my neck and right shoulder were really stiff.  By the time I got home I could barely move.  This morning the situation is not much better.  I might go to a sauna today to try and loosen it up.  Right now I wish I were in Bangkok.  I’d go have a massage and some kinks worked out, and I don’t just mean my neck.  

I don’t want to study today, but I guess I don’t have much choice.  I’ve just got to make some progress if I want to have any hope of finishing my next assignment by the due date. So I’ve got several pains in my neck today is what I’m trying to say.

***

My neck is still sore, but better.  I managed to study for about 90 minutes today, and finally finished the semantics chapter.  I should have had this done like, a month ago.  I wrote up a nice little journal (part of my assigned work) about how in English the phrase, “Excuse me,” can mean at least five different things, and maybe more, and the meaning largely depends on context.  While in Korean there is a different word or phrase for each situation, and I don’t think (though I could easily be wrong), they have an all purpose phrase like excuse me. The French use “je m’excuse” but if I remember right, it only carries the meaning of an apology.  One doesn’t use it to mean, “can I get by you?” or “can you repeat that?”  Anyway, I got over 300 words out of it, so now I’m thinking maybe I should do my next paper on pragmatics instead of how new words come into a language.

By the way, I did a really adult-like, sober thing today.  Since I spend so much time worrying about finding time to study, and freaking out over not getting it, and beating myself up for not studying when I could be studying (like now for instance), I had a look at my week and tried to write a realistic “action plan” for my studies.  Monday for example, is a busy day, so if I can squeeze in 30 minutes of study I’ll feel really good about it.  Thursday on the other hand will be really easy, so I should be able to work at least two and a half hours during the course of my day.  The plan I wrote will give me ten full hours of study, but it’s only a guideline, not an exact schedule.  Even if I only keep half the schedule, it’ll still be more than I have done at any time since I turned in my last assignment.  Progress, not perfection, right?

***

This afternoon at the sauna, I ran into another teacher I know.  Well, he knew me I should say.  He has had a haircut and wasn’t wearing his glasses, so I didn’t recognize him until he spoke to me.  Even then I couldn’t remember his name.  I remember it now, but obviously I’m not going to tell you.  I’ve only seen other non-Koreans at a sauna maybe once or twice, and never someone I knew.  It was a little awkward.  I told him how I was there today because of my neck.  He suggested I have a massage for it.  They have a massage service there in the sauna.  I’m too nervous about that for two reasons.  One should be pretty obvious; I’m afraid I might get a little too excited if you know what I mean.  The other reason is the Koreans take a very different approach to massage than say, the Thais.  Another friend told me Korean massages were almost like masochistic beatings.  To the guy there I just said I was a little afraid of the massage guys.  He said something like, “yeah, you don’t want some guy rubbing you all over.”  You know, there are times and places when it is appropriate to come out to someone.  When you’re both naked in a Korean sauna is neither one of them.  If I did tell him (almost slipped and wrote the name just then), chances are he wouldn’t care.  But to save the weirdness I kind of went, “yeah, uh-huh.” Like that.

I left the sauna earlier than I’d planned, because it just felt kind of weird.  Good day over all, considering everything.