Enforced Rest

Dearest Rachel –

We had planned on taking a shore excursion today in Busan – a Korean cooking class, believe it or not – but when we got aboard the ship, there was already a card on what would up being my bed, informing us that regrettably, it had been cancelled due to the lack of guides/instructors available. Our registration fee would be refunded to us, and we were free to pick an alternative day trip, is we so chose.

That’s not really how I function. While I may not plan things years in advance, like my dad (and now that he’s explained how organizing a trip for nine is orders of magnitude beyond that required for just the two of us, I finally understand just why he was like that so often), I still have to make those kinds of arrangements beforehand, or I’ll never do so. If nothing else, it’s nice to have everything laid out and paid for long before any of it happens. But also, things fill up, and setting one’s heart on a particular trip with such short notice is a recipe for disappointment.

Plus, I know just how much of a procrastinator I am. Maybe not of your caliber, but let’s face it; if I wait too long to do something, I’ll forget about doing it entirely. In this case, though, I’d have to pick something else (and presumably lesser, in terms of our preference), get Daniel to agree with it (or come up with something he preferred), get down to guest relations and hope it’s not completely full, so that we could squeeze in… in all honesty, that sounds “too much like work,” as Ellen would put it. This may be more of a tour than a vacation, per se, but it’s also supposed to be a vacation; that’s more effort put into something we’re not entirely ‘feeling’ than I think we’re willing to put ourselves through.

Besides, and I mean this with no offense intended to the Korean republic or its people, but we came here for Japan. We can read and understand a little bit of what’s going on, and while we’re hard pressed to know how to ask for something from time to time, we can manage, for the most part. Here in Korea, we are that man in a strange world that Paul Simon describes in the third verse; we don’t know the language, we hold no currency. We’re completely lost for the day, and there’s little point in looking for a bodyguard at this late stage in the game.

For what it’s worth, I think that a day of enforced rest might do us good. We’ve been out and about on excursions for five days straight – as well as the frequent (well, more than half the time) separate ventures into town. Sure, we retire to our cabin straight after dinner, but that’s because we’ve never really been into the entertainment scene on any of these ships we’ve been on (and I need to assemble my thoughts for you before I forget them). It’s not as if we fall asleep right away.

Then again…

Last night, while I was putting together a last few paragraphs, I looked behind me, since I noticed that Daniel’s latest video had gone silent, and a new one hadn’t kicked in. Sure enough, he’d fallen fast asleep in the middle of what he was doing. Well, I still had stuff to do, so I finished it up, only for him to sleep soundly through it all (not as if I was making tons of noise, but still). So, I switched the lights off and made my own preparations for bed, and was out by ten o’clock.

It’s a testament to the fact that we’ve adapted to the time zone that we are now able to have dreams, rather than a night of passed-out blackness. Even Daniel was talking about something fairly chaotic figment of imagination he’s been seeing lately; they probably disturb him more because they couldn’t exist in real life than anything else. By contrast, mine seem more disturbing simply because they are just an exaggeration of what could happen in real life.

Last night involved my standing in a house with a huge plexiglass window (at least, I assume it wasn’t real glass; given what was going on, why would I keep standing there watching it all if I thought those panes would cave in on me?). Often the distance was first one tornado, and another, and another, until the sky was filled with black, whirling columns, spearing the land from the sky. Many of them seem to be staying put but a couple were approaching, until one of them slashed through the side of the building I was standing in, at which point rainwater flowed violently into the room, and I woke up.

Only to find Daniel, still peacefully asleep, having presumably been asleep for nearly ten hours already (although he was now under the covers, so he must’ve gotten up and taken care of certain nighttime business while I was asleep). It would seem that he needed the extra rest, where we don’t have to get up, get dressed, eat, and be ready to go first thing in the morning, while my unconscious was telling me that things have been a little too chaotic as well.

Insured, while we may be sorry to not have had another trip to go on today, perhaps for our own bodies’ and minds’ sake, it’s all for the best. Still, will go if you’re at some point, and I’ll let you know how that goes.

So now, as always, honey, keep an eye on us, and wish us luck. We’re going to need it.