Toto, I've A Feeling We're Not in [Maryland] Anymore!

Oh man. I know I've been updating significantly more often than normal, but there has just been a lot going on. Don't get too excited.  Or used to it!

A lot of things have been springing up this week that just seem to be reminding me how different of a place I am than last year at this time. Korea is a lot of things: good, random, and negative. Some of them have just been more obvious this week than before.

On Tuesday I watched a teacher (who will remain nameless, not that you know them) kick a student, full force, in the shin. The kid had been acting up in class and was in the middle of his punishment. This particular punishment had been holding his ears with both hands and doing squats in front of the class, facing the board. He was laughing and apparently not taking his punishment seriously enough. So she kicked him with her school sandals, hard enough to make his eyes well up. Craaaaazy. Um, seriously, could you even dream of that happening in the states? The teacher would have a suit filed against them faster than the child could call their parents. So that's the bad.

Then we have the random.  There are always little blips of misunderstandings and miscommunications that pepper my days.  Yesterday I went down to the English room to teach my first and second grade returners.  We usually lock the door, but since I have class in there on Tuesday afternoons we just leave it open.  I walked in to find to young girls (about first grade) hanging out.  They were playing, coloring on the board, etc.  It was clear that they were quite comfortable.  After about 5 minutes of talking to them and getting only blank stares and giggles in response to me saying "I don't think you're supposed to be here...." I gave up.  I waited about another 5 minutes for my class to arrive, figuring I could have one of them translate for me when they got there.  No kids.  Finally I go down to my office and get the one teacher I recognize (classroom teachers use our office during their planning time).  I say "So, can you think of any reason why my first and second grade returners wouldn't have come to class today?"  The response: "Oh, because first grade is not in school because of the flu." 

What?  Yeah.  Apparently the whole first grade was banned from school because there were too many kids with the good old in-ploo-en-suh.  My co-worker said she doesn't know when they'll be back, but they definitely weren't there yesterday.  My returner class must have been included in that.  And everyone forgot to mention that to me.  RANDOM.  I ended up having her come back to the English class with me and we determined that the two girls were first graders whose parents had sent them for after school.  Now there is usually an after school hagwon program run in the English room on afternoons, but they don't start until 1:30pm on Tuesdays because I have class in there.  These parents had sent their kids early, to hang out unsupervised, even though they were banned from school because of flu.  Awesome.  I stand firm in my beliefs that we will never kill this flu (no matter how many weeks we close down schools) as long as kids are still allowed to attend hagwons multiple nights a week where they simply trade around germs with kids from other schools.  Oh Korea, you never cease to amaze me.

Then we have the good: TODAY IS PEPERO DAY!

Mmmmmm.

What, you may be asking, is Pepero Day? Just about the greatest fake holiday ever. Basically, people exchange boxes of cookie sticks dipped in chocolate. It is kind of like Valentine's Day, but not just reserved for romantic couples. You give them to friends, teachers, coworkers, etc. They are manufactured by Lotte (surprise surprise) and were basically created to rip off the Japanese Pocky sticks.

There are a couple questionable (and therefore awesome) things about this holiday. It is celebrated on November 11, because it is said that 11/11 resembles (you guessed it) five little Pepero sticks, all lined up. I love the following Wikipedia quote: "Lotte denies starting the holiday and instead states that they noticed a bump in Pepero sales around November 11th and after continued popularity they decided to then encourage the holiday with special gift boxes and other promotions."

Really, Lotte? You're really going to stick with "we just decided to encourage it"? Awesome. Second is their story of how it actually began: "According to one story, Pepero Day was started in 1994 by students at a girls' middle school in Busan, where they exchanged Pepero sticks as gifts to wish one another to grow "as tall and slender as a Pepero"." BAHAHAHAHAHA. Nothing says "I hope you stay skinny" like boxes upon boxes of chocolate covered cookie sticks. Why does this make me think of the "weight loss bars" in Mean Girls? I love it.

I sampled like 5 different flavors thanks to gifts from kids.  These are ones I bought yesterday to try.  The naked (far right) was decent, the chocolate (middle) was good, and the chocolate almond (left) is to DIE FOR.  Nom nom nom like its my job.

But seriously, this is marketing GENIUS. The guy who thought this one up must be rolling in the dough. According to this article, Lotte made FORTY SEVEN MILLION U.S. DOLLARS on Pepero last year. That is an insane amount of money spent on a FAKE holiday.

I invite you to enjoy these two YouTube videos in which the Native English Speaker goes from cynical and jaded (video 1) to excited and crazed (video 2). Thus the magic of Pepero Day.

This Just In!

Swine flu free! 

Woo!

Will You Still Be My Friend If I Have Swine Flu?

Cause we may soon find out! More on that later.

I swear that all of a sudden on Monday winter came to South Korea. When we woke up on Sunday morning it was around 65F. By the time I left work on Monday afternoon it was around 36F. That is INSANITY. All of a sudden it was crazy cold and windy. It came out of no where. Thankfully I had received a box from my Mom containing my new winter coat and gloves on Friday so I was prepared. I would have frozen without it. The worst part of the weather change as just getting a little insight into how much it is going to suck to commute here in the winter. You literally go from freezing outside walks, to warm platforms, to straight hot trains. And I'm talking hot enough to induce sweat while not wearing your coat at all. It is a pain and a half to have to strip down to your inside clothes each time you get on a train. I know Koreans don't sweat as much as I do, but Jesus, I don't know they are standing on these trains still in their winter coats! I would suffocate.

Work was fairly uneventful, except for the fact that my sixth graders are talking about illnesses and I got the extremely awkward job of explaining exactly what diarrhea and constipation and some other lovely medical issues were to a group of 13 year olds. Awesome. PSYCH. I love Monday afternoons though, because that's when I get to hang out with my fifth an sixth grade returners who are often a highlight of my week. This week they asked the dreaded question: Do you have Facebook? (So far only one has friended me...) When I said yes, they asked if I played Farmville or Mafia Wars or a bunch of other things. I said no, and that I didn't really play any Facebook apps. This was met with a blank look and one of the student saying "Then...what DO you do on Facebook?" Yes, children, I'm old enough to remember when Facebook wasn't available to everyone and was only used for good old fashioned Internet stalking. I'm ancient!

Monday night I decided to be really daring and go get my haircut solo. After soliciting some suggestions from people (namely Renee) about what to do with my hair, I printed out a picture and walked into Hair Goddess, a salon literally right across the street from my apartment. Now I was feeling rather Korean and adventurous, so I decided to get it shorter and get some bangs. I was (I think justifiably) nervous about trusting my first legitimate bangs in a very long time to someone who spoke no English, but everything worked out. I did a lot of pantomiming and pointing at the picture and she did a wonderful job. And the total cost? 10,000won (or about $8). And you don't tip here. Doesn't get much better than that.

Before.

After.

After my haircut I headed over to the store to buy a hairdryer so my bangs wouldn't look craaaazy in the morning and came home to do a little relaxing.  A little later, Andie knocked on my door to ask if I had figured out how to turn on the heat in our apartments yet.  While we were talking, our new neighbor Sang (the guy who moved into South African Laura's empty apartment this weekend) walked by so we got to meet him.  Three of us pushed all of the buttons on my hot water heater and still could not figure it out.  Thankfully I had a ton of blankets and prefer to sleep in the cold anyway.  Upon talking to Angie I found out that she couldn't figure out the heater either! (Note: Since then, Liz has showed us how it works and everything is under control.)

Crazy Korean hot water heater that four college graduates can't figure out.

On Tuesday it was fun to see/hear everyone's reactions to my haircut. They ranged from my lower kids pointing and saying "Teacher....hair.....change-ee." To my higher kids and some teachers at afterschool saying "You got a hair cut! It looks much better." Someone once told these people that when someone changes something, you should say it looks better. Here that does not carry the same unspoken "It looked like shit before" that it would in the US. Oh non-native English speakers.

I also got to g-chat with my brother for the first time on Tuesday, which was nice even if it was only for a few minutes. We discussed some possible places to visit when he comes to visit in January. For some reason I couldn't convince my brother (who is no big fan of cold weather) that we should go to Mongolia. Something about not wanting to stay in a yurt in 10 feet of snow. ::shrugs::

I also had a miiiiini (maybe not so mini?) breakdown at school. As stated on our school calendar, I currently have off for winter break from December 23 - January 31. I was originally under the impression that I would work at camps from December 28-January 15, thus fulfilling my three weeks of camp requirement and leaving me the last two weeks of January off to do as I pleased. I was also informed that I would most likely be able to take a week of vacation during the 2 week school break in February (between February 13 and 28).

Tuesday morning I was informed that we could not have camp the week of December 28- January 1 would not work because it was not a full week (even though, obviously, that is why I picked that week from my choices). So then my coteacher said camp would be the last week in January- the 25th through 29th. Operating under this impression that I sent my brother a frustrated e-mail saying he'd have to come the week of January 16th-26th and I'd find stuff for him to do in the mornings when I had to work from 9am-12pm.

THEN my coteacher went to talk to the principal who said that we couldn't have camp that last week because we might be coming back from winter break early. After extensive questioning, I learned that because of all this swine flu shit, there is a chance (no one can give me even a guess on the percentage of possibility) that we will get out on winter break a week early and have to come back from break a week early. This would mean that I would get out on winter break on December 16, and return to school on January 25. Because there is a chance of this happening, my principal refuses to schedule camp during that week in January. Therefore I have to work three weeks of camp from January 4-22, and then possibly have to go back to school on January 25. I could not, in good conscience, tell my brother to get a plane ticket to come out here that last week in January. If we get out early for swine flu (which who the hell knows if that is happening or when we'd know for sure) I'd be back at work full time that week and unable to do anything. Him being here a few days of half-day camp I can deal with, but not all day school.

I asked my coteachers how they plan anything, like going to visit family, booking plane tickets, etc when plans seem so unstable. So Young told me that one of the "duties" you agree to as a teacher here is the duty of "obedience." Basically whatever your principal says, goes. You change your plans. You cancel your reservations. You get principal approval to travel during your vacation. She said another teacher in my office had plans to go to Europe last summer, and the principal said she thought it would be fine. Like a month later the principal came back and told her she couldn't go. She'd already put down a deposit with a travel agent, etc, and she just lost it all. She was really upset, but here its something you just accept and do what they say. Which is bat shit crazy and totally foreign to me.

I was BAWLING in the office. It had just been a long day and I really wasn't feeling so well. And in a matter of a few hours I had gone from having two consecutive weeks off in January and my brother coming to visit for 10 days to possibly not having ANY vacation in January and not knowing if my brother would be able to come at all. It was just the end of my rope for the day.

Since then, we have worked out that my brother will join me for some of the Southeast Asian tour I am planning for my February break (Thailand? Cambodia? Laos? Malaysia? Indonesia? Asia is my oyster.) and then come back to hang out for a bit and see some sights in Korea. It is still just crazy to me how much control the principal has over all the teachers! Can you imagine a principal in the US telling someone they had to change the plans they had for a school break? Insanity.  Perhaps equally insane is that no one ever mentioned this power to us.  Not our recruiters, and certainly not SMOE at that WEEK LONG ORIENTATION THEY HAD US AT.  Which is some major bullshit.

Not a whole lot went on Wednesday, except that I was feeling progressively sicker. I mean I've not really been able to breathe at all since I moved to Korea, but I was starting to get achey, had a headache with severe congestion and a runny nose and I was absolutely exhausted. All week I've gone to bed around 9pm and all the sleep in the world wasn't making me feel any more with it. On Wednesday night I took my temperature and I was running a slight fever (around 100F) so I went to bed figuring that if I felt worse in morning I would go to the hospital.

I woke up yesterday definitely feeling worse. I called the international clinic and made an appointment for the early afternoon. I arrived early (as per usual) and noticed that they must be seeing a lot more patients because they've added a couch to the waiting area in the clinic. I talked to the doctor and she said that I had the flu. I was still running a low grade fever, I had aches, a headache, cough, and congestion/stuffy nose. And just the general feeling of crappiness. We talked about the articles I'd read last week and I was mentioning how crazy it was that the Korean SAT is only offered once a year. If you are sick and don't make the test, you have to wait an entire other year. She said that all major tests are like that. When she took the Korean medical exam the girl next to her was hooked up to an IV but she was still taking the test! Crazy! She also said that though swine flu usually presented with worse, whole body aches and a higher fever, she wanted me to get the H1N1 test. She told me that in the past week or so they've seen a huge explosion in number of people with H1N1 at the hospital. And she said that they're starting to see more atypical cases, with almost no fever or missing symptoms.

They gave me a mask and sent me off to the H1N1 testing area where they gave us numbers and told us to have a seat. My English speaking volunteer left me there to fend for myself and headed back to the clinic

Can you tell how thrilled I was to be sitting there?

After a while I saw people with numbers who I had seen close to mine were heading upstairs, so I went and talked to the guy with the clipboard. Apparently my number had been called so he sent me upstairs. When got up there, people were filling out paperwork...all in Korean. I had no idea which line said name versus which line said address. So I gave the girl at the desk my alien registration card (kind of a get out of jail free card? hahah) and looked confused (not difficult). She told me to take a seat and listen for my name. First I was called to a nurse with decent English who took my blood pressure and temperature, and asked some questions. One of which was "Have you had any exposure to people with H1N1?" I responded that I work with over 600 kids a week and that I knew we had some confirmed cases at my school but there were probably even more unconfirmed that I had been in contact with. Then I went back to the waiting area before being called over by a girl with only a little English. She asked if I spoke Korean, and when I said know, she actually groaned and said "OH NO!" While it is easy to be like many foreigners and say "It shouldn't be a surprise that I don't speak Korean, and you should have someone able to speak English to me," I can't help but think that if you were a Spanish speaker in the US and went into a hospital assuming everyone would speak Spanish to you, they'd look at you like you were crazy! It worked fine. The last stop was a girl who spoke no English at all who did my nasal swab. Now, I am not positive, but I am PRETTY SURE she touched my brain with that long ass Q-tip. Waaaay worse than any strep culture. They told me that I will get a text message within the next two days telling me whether the test was positive or negative.

I went back down to the clinic where they wrote down the words "positive" and "negative" for me in hangul (since the text message will be in those pesky Korean characters) and had my prescriptions delivered- 7 days of Tylenol Extended Release, 7 days of Sudafed, a bottle of suspicious looking cough syrup that I think might actually just be diluted honey...at least that is what it tastes like, and a course of Tamiflu. Now I've always had a soft spot in my heat for the Zpack, a medicine that I swear you can start to feel working immediately. I remember in college when I had a horrible upper respiratory infection that they sent me to the hospital for, thinking it was pneumonia. It wasn't, and they put me on the Zpack and I honestly went from feeling like I was dying to being able to breathe in a day. I think that Tamiflu gets put in the same honored group as the Zpack. Being completely honest, I feel better today than I have almost my whole time in Korea. I can breathe completely through my nose, which is something I never take for granted anymore.

Now my mom doesn't believe I have the flu. She thinks I just have the same unresolved sinus infection I was give medicine for last month. And this medicine just happens to be working. Yet at the same time she is freaking out and telling me I can't go to the temple stay this weekend that we've been planning for over a month. (You can't have it both ways, mom!) Since I am feeling better and I'm 4/10 of the way through the Tamiflu, I am going. I am wearing a mask whenever I am with a group of people for an extended time (on the train, etc). I went and bought two masks today and have been introduced to the challenges of wearing a mask and glasses at the same time. Each time I exhale my glasses get all steamed up. Which is obnoxious as hell.

Outlook: foggy.

Anyway, the train leaves at 7:10p tonight and I am really looking foward to a relaxing weekend to regroup at the temple.  Updates forthcoming!

Much love.

Crazy Swine Flu Stats!

The only way I will willingly wear a mask to teach.

Well, word on the street is that SMOE is talking about the possiblity of shutting down all the schools in Seoul for a week because H1N1 is kind of exploding here.  I have seen a marked increase in the number of students wearing masks, and the amount of hand sanitizer popping up in classrooms.  We're also back to daily temperature checks of the kids. 

Today at lunch one of my coworkers, who doesn't speak a whole lot of English said "I want you to be very careful of your health.  With the flu.  Many students are having it.  I live near Aju (where I work afterschool) and they have many many students having it.  I think you should get masks."

And this was after I hadn't been feeling too super all day.  Thanks!  (Note: I went and had my temperatue taken at the nurses office after this convo and I was exactly average.  Oh my god, I am going to submit my story to MLIA.  LOOK FOR IT!)

Anyway, so I started looking online to see if I could get any more info and found some crazy stats.

"As of Friday, a total of 10,664 students were either confirmed or suspected of H1N1 virus infection in 1,123 primary, middle and high schools in Seoul. Some 103 schools have partially or completely closed down for the time being in Seoul alone, including 12 kindergartens, 55 primary schools, 21 middle schools, 14 high schools and one special education school." (source)

"According to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, the total number of students infected with the new flu virus dramatically increased from 3,800 on October 1st to nearly 9,400 as of October 22nd. Notably, the figure surged 66% in a week as it stood at about 5,600 on October 15th.  Compared to the beginning of the month, the number of schools with confirmed cases also jumped significantly from 754 to 1,089." (source)

"The accumulated number of students who caught the disease jumped from 3,845 on the first day of this month to 9,378 as of Thursday." (source)

This is another interesting article about the effect that H1N1 is having on high school studens who are trying to prepare for the Korean SAT that is administered in mid-November.  I am sure these kids being stressed to the brink of disaster, in addition to going to school an academy nearly around the clock, is not doing much to help their immunity.

And this article talks about how the Korean Medical Association is urging public schools to shut down for 2-3 weeks to curb the spread of swine flu.

According to articles like this, the government is really cracking down on these kids who spread "rumors" about the possible negative effects of the vaccine.  While I'm ALL FOR vaccines, I can't help but wonder if the police officer making the threats to would-be-rumor-spreaders has seen the INSANE videos of that Redskins cheerleader who developed hypotonia after getting a regular flu shot.  If you haven't seen this video, check it out.  It is totally bizarre, and the chances of it happening are incredibly slim, but you can't ever say something like this has NO negative side effects.

Some websites are talking about vaccines for students as early as November, but it is looking like I'll have to hold out unil January, according to this article.

If they send us home for a week, it is looking likely that we will have to make it up during winter break.  As Dan, one of my favorite after school kids said after looking up the word on his phone "It will be subtracted."  Dan's little sister likely has H1N1 and he was rocking a mask today.  Sinead, another teacher at after school, works at one of the poorer schools in Seoul.  They were told that they had a handful of confirmed cases, but most likely many more who had it but were unconfirmed because the H1N1 test cost too much.

My mom said what is on everyone's mind: "You picked a crappy year to go there."

But, as I said to her, I never travel abroad half assed.  Semester at Sea threw us for a loop on Wave Day.  Swine Flu can bring it on.

Fun Week!

Well this week was actually more exciting than the last. 

At my after school program I run the Fun Based Activities class.  Basically I play games/sing songs/watch videos/make crafts for an hour and a half twice a week.  It is absurdly easy work that is fun about 90% of the time.  The other 10% the kids are annoying, haha.  This week I spent almost half of every class playing "What's The Time Mr. Wolf?" It is basically an Australia hybrid of Red Light/Green Light and Mother May I.  The kids had a blast and I think I tired them out at least a little bit.

Here are some photos of my students from various classes looking crazy:

On Wednesday, I met wit Sang Ah for tutoring.  We didn't meet Monday night because she wasn't feeling well.  We spent about 40 minutes going through the book and then I pulled out one of the fashion magazines that my Aunt Janice sent and we talked about famous people for about 45 minutes.  It was really good practice for her and it was funny to hear who she thought was the most beautiful, least attractive, etc.  We talked about actor, actresses, sports icons, etc.  She thought I was crazy when I said I would choose Park Taehwan over David Beckham any day.  Thankfully we were able to bridge our cultural gap with the international love of Zac Efron.

Cross culturally adorable.

I was also intrigued to find out that Sang Ah never really went to high school.  She plays golf competitively and apparently here you are able to opt out of high school after 9th grade.  She played golf all day and she would attend school once a week.  That day she would meet one-on-one with a teacher who was kind of like an advisor I guess.  I am not totally clear how that works, and with the language barrier it was a little difficult to ask more questions.  I am going to ask my coworkers if they know what the deal is.  Sang Ah said that you can't opt out completely any more, but you can get early release if you area really into a sport/performance type/etc.  Interesting.

In the afternoon on Thursday we had an honest-to-god air raid drill.  Like I was living in the US in the 1950s.  I was sitting at my desk Facebooking (as I am wont to do on a weekday afternoon) when all of a sudden I started hearing the sirens.  Then, pretty much instantaneously the statuses started popping up "Is anyone else in Seoul hearing the sirens?"  "Whoa, anyone else getting that broadcast?"  I asked my coteachers and they explained that it is a drill that occurs every other month on the fifteenth.  When the sirens go off, all traffic and buses stop so that military convoys can go down the streets.  Fighter jets fly over to check stuff out.  Apparently it is nation wide.  It is kind of a scary reminder of how serious the situation with North Korea continues to be, even when it feels like there is really no effect on my day-to-day life.  Apparently they used to have the drills monthly and the kids had to get under their desks, so I guess this is an improvement!  Here is a video someone made last year that will give you a feeling for what we heard:

Thursday big day) was also our school's performance after classes were over.  Two teams were picked from each grade to perform either a song, dance, skit, or instrumental number.  Sadly they didn't start until about 2:20pm, and I had to leave for after school at 3:00pm, so I missed all the older kids who I actually teach.  The little ones I did see were SO FREAKING CUTE though!

Tiny little girl in a hanbok singing a traditional Korean song.

Kindergarteners

Or, possibly, the Lollipop Guild.

First graders in PRECIOUS costumes singing.

Their song covered the history of Korea, from dynasties long ago through the 2008 Olympics.  Each child would come otu when their part of the song was sung.  It was great!

Some older girls/boys singing.  Not sure what this was about, haha.

Second grade instrumental performace.  They were wearing these hilarious little pink sailor suits.  Priceless.

Beautiful ballet dancer.

Friday night I ventured up to Brigid's apartment in the northern reaches of Seoul for a delicious beef galbi dinner.  So good.

Yesterday was a jam-packed day.  It started with meeting Chicago Laura at the Sports Complex station for the Seoul Design Olympiad.  We were supposed to meet at 11am, but I was running late so I decided to take a taxi.  The first two cabs I flagged down did not understand the destination "Jamsil Sports Complex" or "Olympic Stadium."  Sports Complex is the name of the metro station, so I thought that would be easy, but apparently not.  Finally I went into Paris Baguette and the girl there wrote it down in Korean for me.  Life saver!  Just after the taxi took off, Laura called and said she was running late.  This gve me some time to get breakfast and read for a bit before she arrived, so it worked out pretty well.

Laura is a graphic designer who was jonesing for a design fix and I am so glad she suggested we go to the Design Olympiad.  Held in the Olympic Stadium from the '88 Summer games, this was a huge design expo that covered everything from textiles, to architecture, to interior design, to product design to meet specific needs, to graphic design and brand marketing, to fashion.  It was awesome!  At various places around the stadium there were Haechi sculptures design by different groups.  Think of the Cows on Parade, or the fish in Baltimore or Miles of Mules in NEPA.  There were Haechis of every size and shape and design!

These Design Olympiad posters have been all around the city for a whie now.

Awesome Haechi made out of recycled bottles.

I love the texture he has.

Laura and I with our new friend.  So cute!

A whole herd of Haechis.

The stadium was all decorated and the exhibits were in these huge bubble tents.

One of my favorite exhibits was the one on recycled/green materials.  They had some awesome stuff.  I want these plants preserved in resin in my house!

All different resin based materials.

Beautiful!

I also loved some of the recycled lighting fixtures.

Wouldn't it be cool to have a space themed room with those meteor lights?

Some of the product designs really made me laugh.

Funny and cute.

Please check out the "Safe Sex" work gloves in the back, all decorated with condoms.

Illustration in a book.  If there is one important thing I've learned in Korea, it is that pandas poop green tea.

After walking around for a while, Laura and I sat down to watch a fashion show rehearsal.  Let's just say it was no ANTM or Project Runway, haha.  The clothes were fun, though, and the models must have been FREEZING!

My personal favorite is the guy 4 people in from the right with the super furry half jacket and leather pant.  Magnificent look.

One especially interesting announcement was made while we were there, informing us of H1N1 screenings that were taking place as people walked around and how if we had any symptoms (ie- the congestion and runny nose I've had since I arrived in Korea) we should go to the medical tent.  Probably needless to say, I did not.  Each time you went from one exhibit area to the next you had to go through these "Clean Zones".  In them, they watched you put on "hand sanitizer," and they fogged you with some sort of machine.  One even had a biometric scanner thing that was reading our body temperatures as we walked through! Crazy town!

Not sure this really helps prevet anything...

There was also a children's area that had these cool activities for kids (shows, huge play ground, green cooking classes) and bizarre sculptures.

Half rhino half bird?  Part lion part dinosaur?  Sure! Why not?!

Moral of the story, it was awesome and I plan on going back to make some purchases before it closes.

After leaving Olympic Stadium, Laura and I headed over to the World Cup Stadium for the FC Seoul soccer game.  You know what?  I LOVE SOCCER.  I love the energy and excitement of the crowd, I love the movement on the field, I love it.  At the stadium we met up with Erich, Frank and South African Laura.  We got our tickets (in the correct area this time) and headed down to our seats.  Now this stadium is huge, with a capacity of morethan 45,000 people.  There were many many open seats last night.  The game was between the Seoul team (ranked #2) and the Busan team (ranked #11).  It (sadly) ended in a 2-2 tie, but it was quite a good game.  Definitely less agressive than American or European soccer.  There was a crazy cheering section for Seoul (think Barra Brava at DC United games) with huge flags, lots of cheering, jumping, and singing.  Unlike the DC fan sections, however, these fan sections are DIRECTLY behind the team goal for the first half of the game.  So anytime you run down to try and score on the other team, you are faced with an entire section of crazy fans!  The game was tons of fun and I can't wait to go to the next one.

The stadium at dusk.  So pretty.  As you can see, the Busan side was kind of lacking. (Even though they have the red "Special Chicken Zone" on the visitor side.)

Diehard Seoul fans.  Can we talk about that flag real quick?  I think they stole it from DC United!  The colors for the two teams are the same, but we definitely don't have an eagle logo...

Busan (bad guys) in white, Seoul (good guys) in red.

Every time the home team scored, FIREWORKS went off.  It was sweet.  Except for the smoke afterwards.

Lyrics to the support chants were shown on the big screen.

Direct translation:

Ohohoh oh ~ oh!

Ohohoh oh ~ oh!
Ohohoh oh ~ oh! Seoul!

(I can't read most of the last line because it is too blurry)

South Africa Laura, Me, Frank, Chicago Laura

Fan/Noise maker that I bought for 80cents.

THAT ALSO DOUBLES AS A POSTER OF ADORABLE KOREAN SOCCER BOYS!

Enjoying some cold beers on a chilly night.  I snuck into the back of this picture.

Group pic with the awesome scarf I bought.

SA Laura, Me, Frank, Chicago Laura, Erich

After the game, SA Laura and I decided to go downstairs in the stadium to the movie theater and catch a movie.  Yes.  The World Cup Stadium has an entire shopping mall and movie theater under it.  Awesome.  We had about an hour to kill before our movie started so we had some Cold Stone and talked for a while.  Then we saw District 9. It was a very well done movie that really made me think about the way humans have historically mistreated anyone who is different from them.  It was also interesting seeing it with someone from South Africa (where the movie takes place) because she was then telling me about how it was really just a huge commentary on South African politics ranging from actions during the apartheid to recent riots against foreigners and refugees.  It was impossible to watch the movie and what they were doing to the aliens without thinking about the times human beings have been in that place as well.  Very interesting.  I was nice to have someone to take the loooong subway ride home with, and I crashed soon afterwe arrived home.

Since yesterday was so busy, I am looking forward to relaxing today and doing a little cleaning.  Plus I see some Pizza School in my futue...

More Catching Up!

On Sunday, Brigid and I met to go see Rent the Musical.  Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal, who were the original Mark and Rodger on Broadway and in the movie, played their characters and it was...amazing.  Seriously fantastic.  I am kind of glad I went on the last day or I would have had the urge to go see it again.  I was really excited for Adam Pascal since he was the originial Broadway lead in two of my top 5 musicals (Rent and Aida) and he did not disappoint.  But even better was Anthony Rapp who totally OWNED that musical.  I was all a twitter from seeing them for DAYS afterwards.  It was totally worth the money.

After the musical we headed over to Insadong to do some shopping and eat some delicious dumplings for dinner.  We walked around Insadong for a while where I picked up a birthday gift for my mom and a handmade tea set for myself.  It was just too beautiful.  Plus I bargained her down more than $30 from her original offer, so I really can't complain!

My tea set.

Monday I came home from school feeling especially crappy.  I couldn't breathe all day and by the evening I had a splitting headache.  I went to bed really early and when I woke up on Tuesday morning feeling the same, I called Sienna and told her I felt too bad to come into work.  After hearing my voice she said it was fine and told me I needed to stay home and go to the hospital.

I did a little research online about hospitals and ended up finding a state department suggested hospital in the next district over.  I called and booked an appointment at Asan Hospital's international clinic for 3:00pm.  Then I went back to sleep for about 5 more hours.  I caught a taxi over to the hospital and it turned out to be only about 10 minutes (and around $4) away.  The wonderful and sweet nurses got me all checked in and I saw the doctors, both of whom spoke excellent English.  The main doctor decided that I needed to have a head x-ray done to take a look at my sinuses and she orded some blood work because during my initial medical check the bloodwork had shown a higher than normal white blood count.  When I got sent out to the other departments they sent me with an English speaking buddy, so that was awesome.  They whisked me off to have my blood drawn and my head x-rayed and while I was gone they called in my prescription for Sudafed so it was delivered to their office.  They were fast, efficient, extremely nice, and obviously knew what they were doing.  My buddy also escorted me to pay my bill and get my Asan medical card with my personalized ID on it.  I could not have asked for a more pleasant experience.  If you ever get sick in Seoul, consider going to Asan Medical Center.

Today I took another sick day because I felt bad again and I had to go back to the clinic to have my x-ray read so we could figure out what was wrong.  Dr. Choi pulled up my x-ray on her computer and let me look at it.  She pointed out where my sinuses were and then showed me another x-ray as an example of what my sinuses SHOULD look like.  While your sinuses should show up on the x-ray as basically black areas, my right sinus was almost completely white because there was so much fluid in it.  Diagnosis: acute sinus infection.  Result: I came home with a big bag of meds.  I scored a month of Augmentin, a month of prescription strength Sudafed, and a stash of Nasonex to use so that I can prevent the NEXT sinus infection.

I felt like a drug dealer carrying all of this home!

I taxied back, popped into the store real quick and hung out around the apartment for a bit before going out to dinner with South Africa Laura and Angie at this cheap and delicious little place down the street.  Tonight I am going to hit the sack early in preparation for a long day back at work (and after school) tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone who wished for my speedy recovery.  Hopefully I will kill this thing and be back to breathing in no time!