I crashed for awhile when I came home today.  It’s the end of a long work week.  Forget about having a day off last Tuesday—this was a very, very difficult week at work.  Today was the worst of all, and we suffered through technical glitches that made our job harder.  I immediately took a nap when I got home.  I still haven’t recovered from the power outage a couple nights ago, when I went to sleep early and stayed up all night sleepless.  I now feel much better.  After I got up, I made myself a bachelor’s dinner (a.k.a. rummaging through the refrigerator to patch together a palatable meal) and ate on the couch in front of the TV.  I don’t watch television much here in Korea.  For one, my son either keeps me busy, or his children’s videos monopolize the TV.  Secondly, I did not sign up for a cable package, so my free TV selection is limited to about 12 channels, five in English and seven in Korean.  I channel surfed briefly through my meager selection.  CNN and the other news channel featured their fifth day of 24-hour coverage of the Pope’s death and funeral.  I’ve been watching the coverage off and on since it began, but my heart wasn’t in it tonight.  I could relate to all the masses waiting to catch a glimpse of the Pope lying in state, because last summer I spent 20 hours on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. waiting to view President Reagan’s casket lying in state.  It’s a generally a dull, miserable experience but ultimately rewarding.  I don’t think I will ever do it again, though.  I read yesterday that “Star Wars” fans were already camped out at Mann’s Chinese Theater waiting for the May 19th debut of the final “Star Wars” installment.  No, thank you.  I must be getting old.

I turned to sports.  On ESPN I watched a bit of the “Frozen Four,” the semifinals for U.S. college hockey.  It was Minnesota versus North Dakota (North Dakota won and will play defending champions University of Denver for the championship).  The college players were pretty good.  The “Frozen Four” may be the only major hockey event an American hockey fan has to look forward to, because earlier this year the National Hockey League canceled its season due to a player lockout.  Tired of the cold, I channel surfed over to the Korean stations.  I rarely watch Korean television.  It typically isn’t the type of programming I enjoy, and language can be a big barrier to enjoyment.  However, I found an interesting Korean Baseball Organization baseball game featuring the Samsung Lions and the Hyundai Unicorns.  The Unicorns are the 2004 KBO league champions.  Their pitcher was an American.  Asian baseball is a bit different than Major League Baseball, but I really enjoyed watching something that I understand regardless of language.  One of these days I would like to see a game in person.