Acupuncture
Current mood: relaxed

This morning I didn't have to come in for kindergarten in the morning. I slept in a bit, then called my parents, then headed out into the sunshine with no plan. I thought maybe I'd walk along the beach, as I usually do on weekends and I didn't this week. Then I thought maybe I'd do something girly like get my nails done because they're really long and it's cheap to do. Eh. No real interest.

I've been thinking of trying acupuncture since I got here, and Robin's friend Leah had just recently gone to a place near SLP, so I headed in that direction. It was 11:20 or so when I arrived. The secretary didn't speak a word of English, so it was strange to register, but it all got done. The doctor spoke English well. She said it would take an hour, so I figured why not? I laid face down on a table with a hole for my head. She found the areas of my back that needed the most work and then began the acupuncture. It didn't hurt at all! I was nervous about it a little, but I could just feel a slight tinge each time she tapped a needle into my back. She also put one in my hand and one of my foot...which hurt a bit more. She put a heat lamp on my back and walked away. I could feel different needles twinging at different times...and then I didn't feel them at all. After 15 minutes or so, she came back, took out the needles, and then attached some suction cups to the worst knots on my back and left me there again. That part of the experience wasn't very relaxing but afterward, I felt the knots had loosened. I was lead to a massage chair with a little footstool attachment that I put my feet inside for a foot massage. The chair had a seat not unlike a toilet seat with a heater in the center. Along the back, there were three other heaters. They brought me some green tea and then lead me to an automated massaging table to realign my back. I'm not sure if that worked, but I was so relaxed when I left the Oriental Medicine center...and it was covered by my heath insurance so it only cost around $5!!

Domestic Dispute
Current mood: exhausted

TGIF.

Last night I got home from Hapkido a little later than usual. I got ready for bed, crawled under the covers, and called Jamie to have a little chat. It ended up being a rather short chat indeed, and after hanging up, I had trouble falling asleep.

After I finally found dreamland, my dreams were upsetting and unusual. I couldn't have been asleep for more than two hours when I was abruptly awaken by loud screaming from the apartment above. I hear a lot of noises from 1601 (the apartment above). There is a piano that must be situated somewhere directly above my room, and muffled piano playing can be heard most often on weekends. They have a dog or other small animal that can sometimes be heard scurrying around their floor. I have never, ever heard the types of noises coming from the ceiling that I heard last night. The woman was screaming as if her life depended on it. It seemly came from directly above my head at times, but not always. My roommates woke up as well, and one (Kim) decided to call 119 (Korean 911). This ended up being the worst idea ever.

I first woke up sometime in the 4:00 hour. Kim must have called around 5:00. The police didn't understand her English well, and called back several times. The screaming had stopped abruptly and a bit disturbingly, and still the policemen called. Finally, they showed up...to our door. My roommate sent them upstairs, and I heard their little dog scurry to the door and make noises (Barking? Perhaps.) I went back to bed, believing that our part of the ordeal must be finished. The phone rang again. Robin picked up. The next thing I heard was Robin ranting that the police had called again, and whomever she was speaking to began giggling when she couldn't understand Robin's English. She'd had enough.

We all went back to bed and woke around 2 hours later to begin our days. I sincerely hope that I never need to police's assistance as long as I live in this country. What a joke. What a disturbing, disturbing night. I hope I can stay awake through the rest of my classes today...

Games
Current mood: sleepy

Last night I was feeling a little lonely, so I invited myself along with Holly and Simon (one of the couples I work with) as they went out to dinner with some of their friends.

Dinner was fun. We went to essentially a meat buffet. There are a lot of restaurants in Korea where you cook your own meat at a grill right on the table. This restaurant was different, because instead of ordering the meat from a server, you go up to the buffet and fill a plate with your favorite selection of marinated or plain raw meat, then bring it back to the table and grill it yourself. You also select your own greens for wrapping the meat or eating as a side dish. There is the requisite soup and/or rice as well, and there was also a soft-serve ice cream machine! It wasn't good ice cream by any stretch of the imagination, but it was so novel that I couldn't resist.

After dinner, we went to an arcade designed for adults. It took up two floors of a building. The first floor held a batting cage, bowling lanes, ping pong tables, air hockey, tiny noraebangs (karaoke rooms), and just about any interctive game you can imagine. The second floor had pool tables, darts, and a few more electronic arcade games. I did a little dance, dance revolution and a boxing game (my right arm still hurts, but I did well!!), then there was this game where you play the drums... I also did some car racing and motorcycle racing games. It's not exactly a usual weekend activity for me, but it was a fun time. Five out of the 13 of us ended the night at a bar down the street that served beer bongs of varied sizes, along with your regular pitchers and pints. The tables were custom made for the bongs, though. The tables had built-in, refridgerated cup holders that were exactly big enough to fit any size beer bong up to the base of the long stem. So every drink was as cold as the first drink. It's got to be the best place to go in the summer time.

After our nightcap, Holly, Simon, and I split a cab home. I got in at 3:00 a.m. which would be a late night for me in the States, but a relatively average night out here as it turns out.

My first doctor experience in Korea
Current mood: accomplished

I have been having a little problem with my ears since shortly after I arrived. There's an itch in my inner ear, frustratingly below the point where a q-tip can reach.

Another teacher at my school recently went to an ear, nose and throat doctor and told me about his experience. The best part: the doctor spoke English. He told me where to go to get to the doctor (if you're standing in front of Starbucks, facing the pink building, cross the street, go past the pink building and it's the next building. It'll have a pharmacy in the bottom level. Find the elevators and go to the 4th floor. The signs are all in Korean, but it you look into the offices, you find the right one because it says ENT along with the Korean Hangul).

The doctor saw me right away. It cost $3 to see a doctor (since I have health insurance), and $1.50 for medicine to take three times a day for a week. The meds came divided by dose, two little pills together, in little wax paper pouches. I couldn't believe how inexpensive and easy it was. It's nice to have health insurance. I think I should track down some other English speaking doctors and just start getting everything checked out, just because it's cheap and I can.

Burning Things
Current mood: relaxed

Today's weather could not have been nicer. It was sunny and warm, and a perfect day for burning a pile of pine boughs that was several stories high.

I took a walk to Haeundae Beach, a weekend ritual for me, and stumbled up on a festival of sorts. Ok, I didn't really stumble upon it. I knew something was going down at the beach... I just didn't know it was so involved. Two stages were constructed on the beach. On one, apparently important people were orating in Korean. On the other, random people were singing worse than any bad karaoke I've ever witnessed. Adjacent to the stages sat a curious pile of pine boughs fashioned to look like a giant's Christmas tree. As a part of this particular festival, this tree is burned as a way to send wishes into the sky. I didn't stick around for the bonfire but instead explored the food vendors, people carving Buddha candcastles, kite-flyers, and spectators on the beach. From there, I walked to Dongbaek Island (not really an island, but a peninsula) and visited a famous mermaid statue, the APEC building, and a rock carved in the 14th century with the characters for hae, un, and dae, the namesake for the area of town where I live. I took a few good pics, so I'll have them up on kodakgallery soon and maybe I'll put a few on this site as well.

On an unrelated note, I think I'm going to start taking Hapkido classes. It's a martial art that looks something like a cross between Taekwon Do and yoga...it's just a really stylized fighting technique. I went to observe a class on Thursday night and I was impressed. I think it could be a great cultural experience as well as a workout. I plan to start three days a week, maybe within the next week or at the beginning of March at the latest. I don't think I'll have time to earn a black belt, but it's not unrealistic to hope for a red one in 10 months. Oh, and the uniforms look just like karate or Taekwon Do, except they're black. Sweet.

Strangest Super Bowl
Current mood: happy

Yesterday was an unusual day in many ways. When I woke, there was a dusting of snow on the ground. It's winter in a city at the roughly the same longitude as Washington D.C. so I never imagined that snow would be a novelty. However, it almost never snows in the city of Busan and it was the first time since I arrived in December that I had seen white on the ground and trees. The kids were ecstatic in class and although the snow is just a memory one day later on this spring-like Tuesday, it was fun while it lasted. To this Midwestern girl, it felt like home.

Anyways, the Super Bowl ended before noon on my Monday morning. With the help of a few football fan coworkers I managed to avoid hearing or seeing the final score, which was not an easy feat. Paddy (a Seahawks fan) and I finished our last classes at 6:50, grabbed our coats, and headed to the subway immediately. We didn't have time for dinner, so we stopped at McDonalds before we ran to (oddly enough) an Irish pub where we were meeting a few other teachers from my school. I was grateful to see a sign on the door warning to respect fans who weren't aware of the score or outcome. I knew it was (obviously) a tape-delayed game, but what we didn't know was that the game was also edited for time. "Wait, they're in the red zone? When did that happen?" At least 10 minutes of the game and the entire half time show were unfortunately discarded to the cutting room floor. I don't think I missed any noteable plays or questionable calls, it was finished early enough that I was able to catch the subway home, and watching the game with friends on a big screen tv was definitely preferable to catching the highlights on espn.com. GO STEELERS!!

So in the span of one day I saw snow, ate at McDonalds, and watched an edited-for-time, tape-delayed version of the Super Bowl in an Irish pub. Maybe not exactly how I would have spent the day had I been back in the States, but that's about as close as it gets.

Mexican
Current mood: good

I recently discovered, during one of my whiney "I miss Mexican food" rants, that Koreans don't even know what Mexican food is. They don't know what's in a taco or burrito or enchilada or quesedilla. They have never tried fajitas. My parents were kind enough to send me some flour tortillas, black beans, and taco seasoning in the mail, so I invited Robin's boyfriend, Jaeoh, over for dinner.

I had to make a special trip to a large grocery store in order to get some cheddar cheese (Australian WHITE cheddar, that's all there is) and lettuce. I made quesedillas first, then arranged some cheese, seasoned chicken, black beans, and lettuce on a tortilla and Jaeoh tried his very first taco. He had never even seen a tortilla before! Poor guy. Mexican food is a staple in my diet at home. I can't tell you how excited I was to be eating tacos last night.