Just a Brief Update

School has been good these days, same same but different every day and I love it. There are times when I'm emotionally spent and have no spare ounce of patience for jumping screaming silliness once I leave the confines of my classroom, but mostly I leave school with more energy than I went in with - how's that for a job situation??! :)

One of my munchkins has left the class, which I'm sad about, but she went off to another school to be with her friend (Korean school, mom said English was too hard for her). She was the lowest level with reading and writing of all my kids. Crappy thing about it in Korea, nobody tells you ahead of time. Even if the school knows a student is leaving they hardly ever remember to say anything to the teacher. It sux that we don't get to say good bye. Oh well, I'm not much good at goodbye anyway I guess! I have a new student coming at the end of this month or the beginning of next, she is friends with Aran, one of my current lovelies, so we'll see how that goes!!

Korean class has been going well. I still go twice a week and it's only 2 subway stops from my house. My teacher is energetic and I really think she is doing a great job. As time goes on I'm slowly noticing that I understand more and more of what's being said around me, and I can have simple conversations with the hairdresser and shopkeepers downstairs that I just couldn't do before, so I'm really happy to feel like I'm making some progress!! Here's a pronunciation guide for you, now you can learn some Korean too!! Combine the red side with the green, for example (g) + (a) = ga!

I have, as I mentioned, started seeing an accupuncturist about my hip/leg/back problem. I've been going 3 times a week, it costs me $5 per visit (as opposed to the $50-$90 it costs at home). I always just want to scratch my head about the enmity that exists between medical practitioners from different fields, at home and away!

My family doctor tells me that I can try other things (e.g. see a chiropractor, go to a herbalist etc.) but doubts it will do me any good, instead prescribing muscle relaxants and stretching; My accupuncturist tells me to STOP taking the muscle relaxants because they're not relaxing my muscles anyway (which she can tell by the tension as she stabs me), and that pills are pretty much useless and more harmful than helpful, and then tells me just to let her take care of things with the poking and the heat and the 'ouch!ouch!ouch!'ies.

Today at the accupuncturist's I brought Jill, one of my coworkers. She had her foot stepped on by a 'big' girl in a high heel out at the bar around Christmas time, and since then has had severe pain when she walks. None of the 'normal' doctors know what to do about it, and xrays/scans have turned up nothing, so she decided to have a go at accupuncture.

In typical Korean fashion the doctor saw both of us at the same time even though I didn't need a new assessment. I was asked to come in with Jill to her assessment. I walked her through what was going on (which I think actually proved useful to my mid-western American friend who was a little wierded out by the whole thing!) and then they put us in a private room so we could get changed together (unlike my other visits where I got to change in front of everyone else!).

Once we had lain down a girl who was probably about 8 came into the treatment room. She stood between us, staring dumbly at us for a good 3 minutes no more than 6 inches from us at times, smacking her lips and looking back and forth between us. We both tried talking to her, in English and Korean, she just wouldn't answer. Honestly it was a bit creepy. After the 3rd time she came back in the room and stood between our beds I had run out of my less-than-endless patience with the absurd... my butt hanging out of my shorts and her standing there staring, it was very odd. So, very grown-up as I am, I just decided to ignore her and she did eventually go away... very, very strangey!!

If you're insterested in learning a little more about acupuncture the North American Spine Society has a great pamphlet/brochure on acupuncture that you can read by clicking HERE, along with 2 other handy information sites you can find HERE (out of Australia) and HERE! If you're interested, there you go! I'll keep you posted on what the result is over the long run, I'm assuming I'll still be going for awhile  :)

Otherwise, life in the land of the morning calm is pretty calm. It seems that the monsoon season may have arrived, though it's only raining not monsooning. I miss the sun and feel like I haven't seen it in awhile (though I'm sure it's only been a couple of days!). For now, back to school as I dream of sunshine.

Nice Things for Me

You might remember this place? The little coffeeshop Coffeenie by my apartment that I like to go to on Saturday mornings for a vanilla latte and a waffle! When I first arrived, somewhere in the first week, the coffeeguy took a polaroid of me and the pup-in-a-bag. I didn't think they actually put it up until last Saturday when I saw me!!!

Photos on the wall...

A group of some of the photos...

Me and mags-in-a-bag!

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The first Saturday after MY FIRST PAYDAY(!) I went with a couple of girls from work to get a pedicure... lovely, lovely pedicure! Me with my takes-forever-to-choose problem and the 200 colours of nail polish... lol... actually, I picked my colur off the top of my head this time, and I loved it!

         

     Mariko in the chair, Jill on the bed and getting her nails done above...

We (the 4 of us girls at work) have decided that it is going to be a payday tradition, and a pedicure will follow paydays from here on in - LOVE IT!!

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Today I went for a massage. The women at the clinic didn't speak much English, but I made the appointment on Monday so I sucked up the courage and went in after work today. 3 words: OH. MY. GOD!

I went in and it turned out that the women in the clinic were all from China (including the owner), not from Korea (expats themselves, they don't know any English!). They (all 3 of them!) escorted me to the change room and after skeptically chatting and arguing while holding up 3 different pairs of the same sized shorts in front of me, handed me a set of clothes to change into. Have to say I was kind of happy about the clothes, as the one thing I don't much enjoy about massages at home is being naked and hiding under a towel - it just feels so weird! 

So here's me in my schnazzy getup... better than the buttercream yellow from the hospital in Seoul, wouldn't you say?!  :) In the massage room there was a heat pad on the table, and a warm fuzzy blanket to lay under. The masseus spoke great Korean, so we muddled through a short conversation. My massage was a 'Sports Massage' (I didn't want any of that aromatherapy relaxation crap, I wanted my shoulders and hip fixed!), and by the time it was done I felt like I'd been through a workout!

My arms, back, shoulders, head, neck, and legs were pushed, pulled, pinched, poked, slapped, kneaded and elbowded seven-ways-to-Sunday. At one point I thought she might be trying to snap my toes right off my feet, but then she went onto something new. She did this awful chicken-wing thing to release a knot in one of my armpits, and something equally terrible to get a knot out of my chest. Though I couldn't see to be sure, I'm thinking that at some point she may actually have been breakdancing on my back while spinning on her elbows!! Toward the end she had me sit up with my legs out straight in front of me and she jumped up on the table behind me... pulled my arms back, put her feet on my lower back, pushed on my back and pulled on my arms - I thought I was gonna POP!!  I'm laughing now as I picture how ridiculous it must have all looked, lol... what an incredible massage!

When the hour ended I could have sworn I'd been in there closer to 90 minutes, but it was just under and hour, and it was freakin' fantastic. I loved it, and I actually think it's the best sports massage I have ever had... I made another appointment for next week! I'm going to go once a week for the first month and then every other week, woohoo!! I always said I'd like to do something like this - and now I am!

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2 other things... today when I was leaving the massage clinic I saw a sign for a reflexology clinic on the 3rd floor... that's where they work on your body through different points in your feet? I've always wanted to try that, so now it's on the list... there's a good chance that after 32kms on the bike tour that are coming up this weekend I'm gonna need all kinds of therapy!!

Oh, and last but not least... I'm trying a month at the gym in our building to see if I actually go... so far so good, running in the morning when it's ick outside... cross your fingers for me, will ya??!

Thank U Card to Mongolia, Northern China, and Kazakhstan

Dear Mongolia, Northern China, and Kazakhstan:

     What do you think of the colour of ink I chose, a nice sunny kind of yellow, right? You know, I always kinda wanted to visit you Mongolia, and maybe even you Kazakhstan (sorry Northern China, not you so much), but after today's run-in with the yellow dust that you so thoughtfully sent our way, I have to say that you have moved yourselves much further down the list of 'must-see' places on the new map hanging on my apartment wall.
     My lungs feel heavy and my eyes are burning, and right now I can say that I don't like you very much. Now perhaps if in the future you could restrain your winds and keep the dust on YOUR side of the continent, I think I can speak for most of us here when I tell that we'd really appreciate it. Maybe I'd even consider moving you back up the travel list at some point. But I digress. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go take a shower - after going for an innocent walk: I feel so dirty!

     Sincerely yours,

          Dusty in Korea

Earlier this week when I'd been out for a couple of walks I noticed that my eyes were near burning when I got back. Nothing looked amiss outside, so I assumed it was just another one of those cases of mysterious flyabouts in the Korean air that occasionally irritate me. Today around noon when I was sitting at the computer working on my paper, and while staring off into space out the window I noticed that the sun never really had come out for the day - when I examined the sky more closely, I thought it kinda looked strange and hazy, a weird pinkish colour that didn't belong in the middle of the day. But, when I took Mags out for her walks nothing seemed up, other than the sore red eyes I had when I got back into the apartment building.

Turns out that for the next 2 days (i.e. today and tomorrow) were are supposed to stay home or otherwise severely limit any outdoor pursuits (e.g. long walks in the park with my pup), due to a yellow dust storm out of China. Notice how it doesn't look so yellow in the sky? Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky...

Now I've always heard about this dust, but never really have I been affected by it, until this year. It started raining this afternoon and you could actually see the dust in the run-off looking suspicially like pollen, though you can't see it in the air when you're walking. You can see it on cars that have been parked for awhile and have since gotten a bit wet from the rain - icky and gross!

The photo above shows what the sky looked like from about since I woke up this morning... that's not gray cloud in the sky, that's the famed dust. People were walking around here and there in face masks, some, not all, but once I heard that's what it was I was a little put off about being out walking around in it and made my way back home (where I will stay now until the weekend's over). I have about everything I need in my building so I don't need to go out anyway, other than to take Mags out (short pee walks only for now!). I'm off shortly to a shower after reading that wikipedia article, I don't really want it all over me and now I'm obsessing about maybe feeling it in my lungs - must breathe some clean steam - now!!! (Oh, and Mom - it's not toxic or anything just desert dust for the most part, not to worry!).

Tonight before I knew about the ick in the sky I met a couple of old friends for dinner, shabu-shabu, yummy! For this meal that boiling broth in the centre is used to cook the noodles, dumplings, veggies and meat, and then you just pull out what you want to eat and plop it into your bowl, adding more uncooked stuff as you empty out the pot. At the end of the meal (i.e. once you eat all your meat n' veggies) they bring a rice, chive and egg mix that they cook in the bottom of the very hot pot, making a kind of porridge once the soup is all done... very nice, very nice. 

Though I didn't really feel all that full after we ate, we topped it off with a Baskin-Robbins double-junior cup (who could go wrong with Twinberry cheesecake and chocolate mousse?!) and that was better!  :)  Korea has the greatest looking cakes - baking in general usually looks so amazing. Unfortunately, it is rare that it tastes as good as it looks, but you can ALWAYS count on good ole' Baskin-Robbins. (sorry for the terrible camera reflections in the glass, I took the shots in a hurry!)