Kkeut!

Is the conventional way to write the Korean word for "end." My vacation is winding down - I finished my romp on the continent the day before yesterday (Wednesday), was abandoned by Bob and Laura (reference Bob's most recent post) at 4AM this (Friday) morning, leave for Seoul tomorrow night at 9, arrive on Sunday at 4pm, and teach the following day at 415.

In this post I'll just talk about the last few days in London. I got in on Weds night, from Milan, receiving sweet entry and exit stamps in my Visa book. Wednesday was a day of intense mass transit. I left my hotel in Genova, run by some weird old lady about whom I'll certainly tell you in my next post, walked to my former professor Stefano's office, and then he walked me to the train station. We said our goodbyes and I took a train to Milano Centrale, where I spent my last remaining Euros on: a bus ticket to the airport, a piece of foccaccia bread with sun-dried tomatoes, a cup of tiramisu, and a bottle of drinking yogurt. I went to the waiting room and stuffed myself, then spent a little while trying to find the airport bus. I took the bus to the airport, killed time until my flight - actually I finished reading an Italian book that I had started on the train - then landed at London Gatwick, took the train to Victoria station, and then took 3 different subway lines to get to Bob's. He welcomed me in some nice pink pajama pants and offered me some leftovers.

I have been relatively busy over these last weeks, as I hope my later posts will prove to you, so I just took it easy yesterday. I got up late, shaved for the first time in too long (Bob has some sweet shaving cream), and did some grocery shopping and other errands with Laura. Then we came home and made some eggnog, risotto, and butternut squash, which we munched on when Bob came home from his silly 11-hour workday. Then we played a little bit with "Christmas Crackers," which, contrary to what you might expect, are not dainty little unleavened morsels. On the contrary, they're really corny party gags consisting of 3 toilet-paper sort of rolls, wrapped in shiny paper, strung together like sausages. A person grabs each end and yanks, and the contraption pops at one of the joints. The person who is holding 2 of the 3 wins, and inside of the middle joint there's some incredibly stupid think made of plastic. Laura got the lousiest die I've ever seen, I got a shoehorn, and Bob got a large yellow paperclip. Another one contained a multifunction comb/cookiecutter/astrolabe. The tubes also contained crowns made of wrapping paper, which we of course all wore, and really stupid jokes, which we of course all read.

After the festivities, we went to bed, and all woke up at 4, at which point Bob and Laura left and went to Spain or something like that. 41 hours before my departure! Best hosts ever! Since then - it's now 730pm - I've been bumming around their apartment, cleaning up our dishes from last night, eating leftovers, getting packed, watching stuff out of Bob's collection of movies and TV shows, and thinking of sinister things to do to their pad before I leave tomorrow night. Suggestions welcome.