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.