Guess What's Heeeeeeeeere??

It finally opened... the storefront has been sitting empty, half-constructed since February or March, teasing and baiting everyone and it's finally real - Taco Bell in Itaewon!!!

Not that I went, mind you... even I am not desperate enough for a taco to wait in line for an HOUR AND A HALF!!! 

However, there were plenty of people who were, lol... the line stayed there all weekend. Maybe in September I'll try to get in! My mouth is watering.

My Doctor Makes Housecalls

Maybe it's because I teach his son during the week, but I just got the kindest phone call ever - from my doctor!!

You might remember when I first moved to Korea that I found this really nice English-speaking Dr., Dr. Gwak, who chatted with me about kids, and child psychology, and ADHD during my first visit to see him. Then the next time I saw him (about my sore hip/leg!) he asked me if I'd consider teaching his son. Well, I said 'yes,' and for the past month I've been making the hour commute into the city to his place to teach his lovely 10-year old son, Vio.

Viot is quite wonderful, particularly for a 10-year old boy! He's interested in English and speaks it quite easily. He loves science, and of course is then easy to entertain, even during our 2 1/2 hour Saturday lessons - all in English!

I went to see Dr. Gwak on Friday after leaving school with the very baddy-badness of food poisoning, and he was of course very concerned, and very helpful. He didn't let me pay for the consultation (we usually pay about $12 per visit, which the school reimburses us for), and he texted me about a hundred times through the weekend to check in on me.

Okay, so at 100 I'm of course exaggerating, but he texted a lot, including (in typical Korean fashion) a list 4 messages long of different diagnostic possibilities and potential symptoms to watch for that ranged from the banal to the most terrifying!). He asked about dizziness, what kind of dizziness, a schwack of other symptoms and starte ranging a bit on the paranoid side by the time the weekend was coming to a close.

Then today came, Monday evening after a long day of work and yoga and the doctor's number popped up on my cell phone. He told me Viot and the rest of the family had been concerned about me, and that Viot had asked his dad to call me and make sure that I had recovered well from the Friday badness. My little 10-year old boy (make that 8 1/2 in North American age) was worried about me... aww...

How sweet is this kid, and his dad???  Mind you, I'm glad we live far enough apart that he's not comfortable showing up on my doorstep, because I have this feeling that they juuuuuuust might!!


P.S.  Mom, I am fully recovered from whatever it was that was trying to get grips on me... back to normal, healthy and happy and addicted to hot yoga, so don't worry!!  :)

Time Flies on Speedy Wings

Good morning! I am finding it hard to believe but it's already the 11th of July - I barely remember June being here!!! I have some catch-up to do with blogging, but it's on my list!  :)

It's a lovely Sunday July morning here in Korea. By lovely I mean it's overtcast, gray, and doing that "misty rainy" thing that it does in the summer sometimes. Since talking to mom the other day it occurred to me that I can't remember the last time I've seen a rainbow in Korea... maybe it has something to do with the air pollution? The temperature still manages to keep itself at 24C even at 9am, and I'm sure in a few hours the mist will clear up and we'll be right back up at 35C again.... of course one thought of winters at home and I'm sure not complaining!!  :)

Monsoon season was to have started, and though I guess it has it's very temperate compared to other seasons I've seen. There have been a couple days of heavy rain, but mostly it's brief showers, or brief downpours, nothing yet that makes me wanna build an ark tho!!

My weekend has been pretty chill, particularly compared to my birthday last weekend (which will hopefully be posted before I go to bed tonight!). On Thursday at some point I managed to cross paths with food poisoning, which I toughed out on Thursday thinking it was just a quick flu, but by Friday morning I was running from my classroom for the bathroom so I asked the boss to send me home.

Once I visited my Dr (who no longer lets me pay when I visit his clinic) and he did his assessment he concluded that it's food poisoning, and that in 1-3 days I should be right as rain. They gave me a shot in the butt that just made me worse for the first 2 hours, and since laying down and sleeping for 18 hours off and on things are getting better now!

I stopped trying to eat much in the way of food on Thursday after it seemed a waste of time to swallow it, and yesterday was the first time I actually ate real food, which was very nice! After the soup settled in I managed a coffee, which considerably improved my mood :) and it got better from then on in to bring me to today. Though I'm a bit low in the water department that's easily remedied, and I'm about to step out for some more soup!

I've tried watching a few movies... "Funny People," an Adam Sandler movie, was not funny at all so I shut it off. "Planet 51" was pretty cute, an animated flick about an american astronaut landing on an alien planet as an 'alien.' I also plugged in "The Beach" again since I'm considering Thailand for my upcoming holiday, but I shut if off after I'd had enough of the dreariness of Richard's situation (maybe I'd enjoy it more another weekend!). There are a couple movies in the theatre now that I want to see, so maybe I'll check them out this afternoon!

For now though, that's my weekend... resting at home with my 2 crazy pups, chilling and letting the fine adjummas at Kimbab Heaven cook for me. Could be worse!  ;)

Unplanned School Vacation

A few people have been asking how school has been since coming over here. I'm about 2/3 the way through my Master's in School Psychology and Applied Child Psychology through the University of Calgary back in Canada. It's an online program that allowed me to work full-time and do school, which was fantastic (but costly on several dimensions).

So as I sit here currently courseless in Korea, the answer to that question is mixed. Regular semester courses have been fine, I have lots of time to watch the classes, assignments are easy to manage since they're spread out, and group work can be handled between weekends and early morning/late evenings when they're needed.

Stats kicked my butt, and I am nearly sick with the thought that I have to do *2* more courses in it!! I wish that I could even say that the foundation for one would give me a reason to be calm about the others, but they are all 3 completely unrelated! It was packed into 6 weeks though, so easy come and easy go.

I was to have started an ethics course this week just past. I actually went to the first class on Friday morning. Most teachers have been fine with my inability to attend the classes in person since I'm over here in Korea and they're over in Alberta... class time there is Thursdays 5-8pm, which makes it Fridays 8-11am here, so there's no way my boss would give me the next 6 mornings off. As I was saying, most teachers have been fine with my doing the first 30 minutes and then watching the recordings at the end of the day, but no matter which way I explained it, this one wouldn't budge. "You will have to make arrangements for the  next 6 weeks as you will be expected to be present or you will not pass the course" was the email message after I wrote to ask her if there was any room in the requirement. Today's message was "I hope you can accommate the University demands in another time good luck."

I had the thought that I should email the Program Director, because I'm pretty sure the way this whole program runs is that they can't MAKE you be present, but that you are required to watch all course videos and complete all assignments and discussion boards.

Right now I'm too annoyed, because I think she may have just set my M.Ed. graduation back a year, so I'm going to hold my tongue for a bit and check out my program manual before looking up the boss. Grr.  I'll figure it out.