Hospitalization and Anger (TMI if you don't like brief poop talk)

As most all of you know, I was in the hospital this last weekend for intestinal and stomach pain. Turns out, I had a non-mechanical blockage of the intestine--a paralytic ileus. Which is a pretty serious thing. I thought I was just gassy or something, but no, I was in a bad way with an infection that can be life threatening (but usually isn't).

Here's the thing. I wouldn't have gone to the right ER (the one where they actually gave a shit) if my mom (a nurse) hadn't pushed me to tell them it was probably an ileus. When I decided (at 4am) to go to the hospital because the pain was too much and I was worried I wasn't going to get any sleep and that I might be sicker than I thought, I sent my mom a text describing my symptoms and she sent back a frantic push that I needed to get an ultrasound or CT. When I stumbled downstairs and (doubled over in pain) made my way to a taxi to ask them to take me to a hospital, the driver laughed at me. Laughed at a crying, doubled over woman. He said something about Seoul, I'm assuming he was a taxi driver from Seoul and trying to tell me he didn't know where anything is, but that's no excuse for not helping someone in obvious pain. He could have called 119 or used his stupid GPS to find an ER. I could have called 119, but I wasn't convinced it was that serious. I got out of the cab, slammed the door and cussed while crying and clutching my stomach.

There's a small hospital across the street from my apartments, but I don't like it--I went there for an ob/gyn check up since that's the only English on the sign and I didn't like the doctor. It also looked closed. I jay-walked across the street, praying I wasn't struck by a crazy Korean driver that would come zooming out of no where. I was lucky, there was an attendant sleeping at the desk and the door was unlocked. I hobbled up to the desk and pulled out the Lonely Planet phrase book and pointed to the words "pain, constipation, diarrhea" which confused the attendant and I tried to explain "One year constipation. One day diarrhea." in broken Korean. He called the nurse and doctor and they hooked me up to an IV and gave me some antibiotics and were confused by my crying and whimpering when the needles came out (I tried to explain since the doctor spoke some English, but it just hurt the argument that I knew what real pain was) and then freaking out a bit more when the nurse hit a nerve and my thumb went tingly. ***Update: My thumb feels pretty weird and when I bump the place the nurse poked me the thumb goes numb*** I was put in a room and left there until I walked out an hour and a half later since the IV bag was empty and my blood was backing up into the tube. The pain was the same. There was no call button that I could see in the room.

The attendant (same guy as before) told me the IV makes the problem disappear and there was nothing to do now and to come back at 9am for outpatient consult with the doctor. I tried to tell him the pain was the same, the IV didn't make the problem disappear (this was all through a phone dictionary, his limited knowledge of English and my very limited knowledge of Korean). So, I hobbled out of the hospital, stopped at the steps and doubled over again because the pain was still strong and I was worried I wouldn't make it across the street. He just repeated to come back at 9am. It was 6:30am, I had to go home and wait it out. WTF Korea?

I Skyped my mom, since she's my mom and was the reason I decided I should go to the hospital in the first place. She told me that the hospital was crazy, I had all the classic symptoms of intestinal blockage, that it was a serious thing, and that I had to push for the tests to see what was wrong. I did, at 9am, I went back to talk to the doctor. He told me it was just inflamed intestines and that I had to take some pills and go home. I called my mom again to let her know what he said. She asked if they did any tests to look inside, I said no and she repeated that I needed to get them if only to rule it out because I had all the symptoms.

I brought my computer with a list of symptoms of intestinal blockage and a list of symptoms for the gastritis--pointing out that I had all the symptoms on the blockage list and only two on the other. The doctor said that those were "common symptoms" and I said, "Yes, of intestinal blockage." He said that I couldn't get a CT at that hospital (even though there was a room for CT and a room for xrays) and that there was an insurance issue. I said I'd pay out of pocket and flashed my American insurance at him. He finally wrote the order for a CT and said I would have to go to the ER at Sang Mo Hospital. I had to press him to write the constipation under the "symptoms" section of the order, and he said, "but that's not your current issue, you have diarrhea" and I had to explain again that this was only in the last 24 hours and that for a year I had been constipated on and off. He finally wrote it down.

I went to the desk and asked the nurse to write the name of the hospital in Korean so I could show the taxi driver. They just spoke the name and told me to get a taxi. *facepalm* I said "ssuda juseyo" (write please) like I do with my students (the geniuses are only 5-11 years old and understand the "writing" gesture and the instruction to write). The nurse wrote it down and wanted to the flag down a cab for me--pretty much acting like I was an idiot because I wanted her to write down the name.

I got to the ER feeling like an idiot because I was under the impression (from all the Koreans) that I was over-reacting. My co-worker had to come and sign me in because I guess I'm not allowed to do that myself? I was downplaying the situation with him because I was still under the impression that I was not in any danger. I continued to feel this way until 6 hours into my hospitalization when a new doctor finally showed me the images from my CT and xray and explained how my colon was 2-3 times normal size and both it and my stomach were filled with air. That it might mean surgery. That they should never have removed the tube from my nose. That I would have to stay for 2-3 days.


I still don't know if it was my fussy nature that made them release me. My mom said that she wouldn't have let me out until my first successful BM. The morning shift doctor said I could go though and that my xray from that morning looked "good." Whatever that means.

I'm still freaked out. Every burp feels like a warning sign, but they don't stink like they did. I'm having slight indigestion right now, so I'm trying to keep track of that to talk to the doctor about tomorrow. I am angry that I had to push to be taken seriously. That I was pretty much ignored by doctors and nurses while in both ERs, and that I just don't know what the heck was going on. I was trying to think of the closest English speaking country with good hospitals in the event that I just wanted to fly there. The American doctor (someone my dad knows) and nurse (my mom) who were consulted both said it was a serious condition, but the Koreans acted like it was a nose bleed.

So there's one more thing I won't miss about Korea-- crap communication with doctors and nurses. I don't understand why Koreans don't draw maps or use visual aids when talking to non-Korean speakers. Pictures help! Seriously, if I need to know where something is, draw a flippin' map! Don't just repeat your Korean directions. Ugh. If I need to know when to take pills, write the time or draw a clock. To the nurse's credit, she did eventually write the time on the pill pouches.

I am grateful to all the nurses and doctors who did help me out, and to the ones who tried to talk to me despite communication barriers. And my awesome roommate (who was in for a thyroidectomy due to stage 3 cancer--which made me feel stupid for whimpering over needles) who walked me to the place I needed to go to pay for the stay and explained when I needed to take my meds in her broken English.


Anyway, I'm feeling better but freaked out.

Cherry Blossoms--Wow, Korea can be something other than grey!

This post is overdue. A nod to the more beautiful times of year in Korea--those fleeting weeks of Spring and Fall, yes "weeks."

During the 1-2 week period in which the Cherry Blossoms are in bloom, Korea seems very fairy tale like place of peace and beauty. The pink-white flowers seem to explode everywhere overnight, along with huge, white, fragrant magnolia blooms and yellow canola (or as they say here "rape" --no, not "rapeseed" just "rape," that caused some confusion in my adult class and I may have traumatized the housewives) flowers. The world seems like nothing could go wrong ever. The bees are out and quite happy, the world just seems like a beautiful place.

Friendships and Wanderlust

Korea is an intense experience. It's lonely in the deepest meaning of the word, many people cry to themselves and ache for some sort of human connection--any human connection. Then you meet some people you get along with and the world is awesome again. Until there's drama, and then it's aggravating but you still have some solid people in your life. Then you find a niche community of people you really, really click with, and it's time to leave.

All the relationships forged in the living abroad experience are strangely attached and non-attached. Some people cling to their new found friends and try to get them to move closer and work in their area, others are more free and understand that we're all parting soon but we can connect while we're in the same place. Most everyone in Korea is in transition, and that means that we have to build on a constantly shifting foundation. It makes for an interesting experience, one that mixes the difficulty of getting to know someone with whom you can open up with a time pressure that makes the soul-wielding occur at lightning speed or not at all. Friendships here can circle around meaningful or jump right in. Korea's got a time warp feel--it takes months to figure out where to go grocery shopping, but you can meet someone and within a week know their entire history and a list of their aspirations.

It makes it difficult for a person like me to focus on a single goal, I'm hearing about all these exciting things people have or are going to do and I've connected with some to an extent that I don't want that to disappear just because our respective contracts are up and our time has been served. I can't sit still for too long on one idea, but I want to dive into it all. For now, I'm committing to coming back to Southern California but my eyes and feet are looking at the road, rails and skies. Plotting the next adventure. I've had a taste of the world and I want more.

As I pack up, donate or sell off the winter clothes and items I don't need at the moment, I'm really glad I stuck it out and I'm thankful for everyone who reminded me that I was strong enough to do so.

I'm going to the Boryeong MudFest this weekend, so there will be updates with photos when I get back!

Cheers!

Eric in Korea: The Final Days

So, I'll just quickly sum up the rest of Eric's visit. I'm sure most of you have looked through the Facebook photos and heard about it via talking with either me or Eric.

The day after we came back from Jeju, we went to the DMZ. We had to get up at the crack of before the sun came up to get to the USO office in Seoul by 7am. We were tired during the outing, but it was a great experience any way. The snow added to the surreal nature of the DMZ. We were told of skirmishes and all the land-mines still buried under the preserved land. Our tour guide was a humorous Philipino-American who kept apologizing for his pretty perfect English. Eric and I were able to stand on North Korean territory, it was pretty cool. I napped on the bus rides and Eric crashed when we got back to my place at 2 or 3 in the afternoon.

The next day, Eric and I met up with my friend Allison to get lunch and hit up the Korean War Museum then the Picasso exhibit at the Modern Art Museum. Korea's war history is pretty fraught with losses, but the museum stands triumphant and proud as the people in this country. Our lunch was delicious Thai food in Itaewon. When we got to City Hall and found the Picasso Exhibit, it was getting darker and colder. We got some Ho Ddeok (cinnamon and sugar filled pancake-things) and entered--a palace? Turns out the Modern Art Museum is inside the grounds of a smaller palace in Seoul. The exhibit was pretty awesome. Loads of artists packed into a tiny three story museum. When we finished up at the museum, we stepped outside to a glorious view of Seoul. Skyscrapers lit up with scaffolding and flashing, huge television screens in the background, and directly in front of us the buildings of the old palace, tastefully lit so their traditional architecture and painting highlighted at night. On the steps of the art museum, viewing the hodgepodge that is Korea, the stillness of the snow and the silence of the palace grounds, as we exited our fairy tale land of painted interpretations of life, hit us as the encroaching and imminence of modernity roared in the not so distant outer world. I don't know if we got dinner, but I'm assuming we ate something. ^_~

Next day was New Years Eve, this was an epic adventure. Eric and I started out in Bupyeong with my friend Jeffery and his friend (whose name I'm totally blanking on) got dinner at the local (only) Indian (Nepali actually) restaurant. From there, we headed into Itaewon to meet up with a group at The Wolfhound (they have alright veggie burgers there--not that we were eating again-- and beer that tastes good!). After we had a couple beers, we followed Jefferey to City Hall to see the celebration he said happened there every year (I think it actually happens at Jongo 3ga, but hey, I trusted his experience). We got there and there was nothing happening. There was a giant digital clock, but no seconds. A small crowd of Koreans was gathering, so maybe there had been something there last year. Eric pulled out his iPhone and we counted down despite the lack of pomp. After trying to buy wine but realizing the store didn't sell corkscrews, we opted for cheap beers from the 7-Eleven (yes, they're here too) before heading to a rockabilly show in Hongdae (the partying place of Seoul).

The RockTigers put on an amazing show and I have a crush on the lead singer whenever I'm at the show. She's a Korean woman with short hair! Unheard of, the men like women with long, straight hair, so until they are safely married the young women straighten out their long locks--then chop it all off and perm it when they turn 50. And tattoos! Tattoos are taboo and illegal to get in Korea (though there is an underground community of artists here), so you know people with them are bad ass. All the band members have tats. They are great musicians and all the male members (everyone except the singer) have Pompadours. The bass player has an upright with flames painted on. Amazing.

After the rockabilly show, we followed some slightly annoying girl to my favorite place here (though, I've only been there this one time)--Club 500. 500 is like a scene from Matrix Reloaded. The club looks like a cave, you're supposed to remove your shoes usually but on New Years they had us keep them on, and there are little alcoves for the dancers to find sanctuary. Trance, dance and pop music blasted from the speakers and there were instruments for people to jam on. At one point there was a jumprope game using a string of flags someone had brought in. The only down side was the bar kept closing so the folks could take breaks, so I had to walk to the local Family Mart (or possibly a 7-Eleven) to get water.

After we were all (except me! and those I cared for enough to share water with) dehydrated and tired, we headed to a norae-bong (singing room) to wait for the buses to start running again (5:30am). They had some impressive music, "Origin of Love" and "Gay Bar" were two of my favorites. They had bad beer, so I was sober pretty much after The Wolfhound, I'm such a stickler for taste. I was exhausted though, and the company was not top notch at that point--we had picked up a few stragglers and a couple of them were pretty annoying, despite most of the folks being solid.

Eric, Allison and I departed from the Norae-bong at around 6am to find the buses. Allison used her mad knowledge of the subway (aka, her subway map and having been to the station we were near before) to get us to the bus stops we needed. Eric and I had to stand the whole 45-60 min home, Eric fell asleep standing up. We passed out just as the sun was coming up at 7:30. Woo. Happy New Year.

New Year's Day 2011. Sleeping until 2pm. Anxiety over sleeping when I want to be awake and spending time with Eric. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Meeting up with my friend Erika and her awesome boyfriend Lucas for drinks, then their friends Danielle and Lise joined us later. Then home again, home again to crash.

Sunday. Souvenir shopping in Insadong. A memorable anniversary (4 years! Crazy, right? I was 19 when this thing started, now I'm 23) dinner with Eric at Namsan Tower's revolving restaurant. They custom made a vegan menu for me. Everything was delicious except the main dish--stuffed red pepper--sadly, it was basically rice with some over-powering kim (seaweed) inside of a tasty pepper. We sat down to dinner just as the sun was setting and we got to watch Seoul light up as night fell. It was amazing. Totally worth the $100 a piece. After dinner, we had to rush back to Bupyeong to meet up with Allison to catch Tron. That meant I had to do my homework the day before and watch the original for the first time ever. I loved the original for not taking itself too seriously and it's complete adorableness. The re-visitation; however, left me feeling bleh and disappointed in the hype over the visual and music. I don't regret seeing it, just felt like it could have been done better. It was pretty and I'm sure Daft Punk had put more into the soundtrack than the overplayed overture.

Monday. The dreaded Monday of separation. We slept in, then ran around Bupyeong collecting random things from the Underground Market, lunched at First Nepal (I had meant for us to make it to Sandal Baram, but we didn't have time after waking up around 11). We got back to my place and had to head right back out to get Eric to the airport. Emotional goodbye.

Then I was a wreck for two weeks. Insomnia and depression hit like heavy-weight champ.

I'm all better now! I do miss everyone a hell of a lot, but I'm doing well out here. I'm gonna look like a rockstar next time ya'll see me in person.

<3

Jeju: Day 3--The Sex Park Adventure and other nonsense

Jeju is an island just south of South Korea. It has a more laid back nature and is called "the Hawaii of Korea" since it's warmer and the are known for their citrus and cacti as well as this island being a honeymoon destination for Koreans.

Jeju has a park, which most of you have now heard of, called Loveland. Loveland was designed by art students from Seoul and is a celebration of sex. Mostly vanilla, and 98% straight, but that's far more public acknowledgement of this essential part of humanity than anywhere else in Korea. There is also an acknowledgement of female masturbation--which is unusual anywhere that isn't the porn and sex toy industry.

So, of course, this was the main reason for my wanting to go to Jeju-do. I saw photos of my fellow English teachers climbing on statues of giant penises and a woman jilling off and knew this would be my favorite place in Korea--aside from maybe the brewery, but I can live without beer for a year.

Eric and I started our third and final day in Korea by packing up our bags, watching more Starcraft and English instruction tv, and another bowl of cereal. We hailed a cab, and were off to find this legendary park! But we had to turn around because I had forgotten my cell phone at the hotel--go me! After running back upstairs and finding, we restarted our adventure. We were off---again!

We walked in and were greeted by a sign with a stone penis on top, and all the directional arrows were shaped like penises. The journey through the park is not one to be rushed, there are lots of little statues heading with the bigger ones. I can't really do it justice in words, so here are some photos (though the Rosloff clan has seen them already):






After browsing through the park and the accompanying shops, Eric and I decided to head back down to Seogwipo to try and get to the museums we had missed before. We hopped on the bus and got off at the Sound Museum. A museum for sound? How cool!

It should have been called the "Thomas Edison photographs, phonographs and RCA dog figurine" museum. They love Thomas Edison at that place, sooooo many photos of him. A ton of old phonographs, which were cool to look at but not worth the price of admission (I think it was around 7,000 won). And the owner may have possibly been obsessed with RCA dog figurines, they were all over the place.

The highlight of the museum for me was the giant keyboard, like the one in "Big," watching and listening to Eric play Carol of the Bells, and playing on a beaten up drum kit in the hands on room. Other than those things, the museum didn't have much to offer.


Next, we hit up the Chocolate Museum next door. The smell when you walk in should be the first sign that this is not the chocolate museum you want to go in--it smells of paint. Regardless, Eric and I paid the 2000 won each to get in and were gifted with 4000 won in coupons for the use in the store of the museum. I was hoping for some good dark chocolate or hot chocolate (I'd been on a kick of drinking it almost every night at home during the coldest part of winter), but was disappointed to find the museum only had milk chocolate and no beverages other than bottles of soda. We used the coupon to get some green tea chocolate (I regretted purchasing milk products but did so anyway as I'm more familiar with self-disappointment than stepping up for the animals at times. Don't worry, Alex, I did eventually snap out of it and had a long discussion on animal rights and my reasons for being vegan and why I would not bend again).

With my curiosity over what a chocolate museum in Jeju had to offer satisfied, Eric and I decided to hit up the Korean restaurant across the way for lunch. I usually cringe at the idea of going to a Korean restaurant, but my supervisor at Garim had been really awesome with finding things for me so I was more comfortable with searching the menu for options. We ended up having sub-par (in my opinion) bibimbap with veggies that looked as though they wanted to join Bok Choy in a suicide pact against having any life after cooking. Eric liked the meal alright, which was a big relief for me as I feel guilty when my veganism and adjusting to being vegan in a foreign country interferes with another person's ability to enjoy lunch--though, if Eric weren't as awesome a person as he is and had insisted on having meat I wouldn't have enjoyed my lunch.

We had to walk for a bit afterward to try and find a cab so we could get a ride back to the World Cup Stadium to check out the Eros Museum. This tiny museum had a creepy dancing Santa outside of it, but is worth the small admission to see how obsessed with sex the world is and always has been.

There are poorly blown up photos of landscapes that have the shape of a penis or vagina, old tools and statues with phallic (which, by the way can apply to the clitoris I just found out) and vaginal imagery and (of course) erotica and porn. The museum was pleasant and had a different vibe to that of Loveland. The Eros Museum was made of older art and only when things like giant penises set up to look like canons, a masturbating fat Buddha, and the signs of different sexual positions being exhibited with the partners separated did I really laugh. I found it fascinating to see how something so vital to our culture and on everyone's minds has been pushed away from the mainstream. The ridiculous images of giant penises that had to be slung over shoulders. What is it about penises that makes size such an obsession? Anyway, it was at the Eros Museum that the only tip of the hat to pregnancy as part of sex could be found--it was a single metal piece of a pregnant woman's torso.









With our whirlwind tour of all things sexy at an end, we hopped on the bus to have one last delicious beer at the Jeju Brewery before getting on our plane home. Our plane ended up being delayed because of the snow in Seoul, and we had to do laundry before our tour of the DMZ the next morning at 6am. Ugh. Oh well, totally worth it. Nothing could make me really have a bad time. Eric was on the same continent as me!

There was no game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. :( Small hiccup, but I got over it.

Post Korea Decisions

Even though I'm only halfway through my contract here, I find myself trying to figure out what to do with myself after I'm finished. I want to travel to Chile to teach English so I can learn Spanish fluently and experience South America--a goal I've had for a long time--but I don' t know what I will do for the time between September and January (the earliest I would be willing to leave the States).

I have no job prospects at the moment. The biggest commitments to the States I have are: Eric, my family and my friends. And they are spread all over the place.

I have made a couple really awesome friends here, and one of them teaches at a university 2 hours away from Seoul in a quiet town with a beautiful mountain near by. She's trying to tempt me into staying on another year in Korea (though, I know she's not trying to really persuade me one way or another as she knows what a difficult call that would be). A university position would be the only way I would stay on here. They get two months off in winter and two months off in summer. Which means, I would be able to go home for the holidays and not miss the epic party season. Though it would mean missing people on a day to day basis. And it would mean procrastinating my time in Chile another year. Which means my Spanish would be getting weaker unless I took classes and actively pursued it here. Same for the violin. I need a teacher, and at the moment I really want to go somewhere with my violin playing. I want to go back to school and major in music (along with my green business plans).

As I already had plans to teach in another country, the time I'd be spending in Korea is not time I would be spending in the US. It's just time in a country I'm not as interested in as Chile or Argentina or France. I'd also have to learn more Korean if I were staying on another year.

I will not be able to pay off the debt that I thought I would at the onset of this venture, mostly because I spent far too much money on living expenses and ordering things online. But, if I stay another year I would be able to pay off a bigger chunk since I'd be saving on cost of living start up stuff--oven, space heater, fan, etc.

Santiago is closer than Seoul by 1000 miles, and the time difference is much more manageable. But, I would have to start all over and figure out what to do for the time before I was willing to leave the states again. I was looking into Americorps, since there contracts are only 9 months-1 year.

If I'm good, I could go back to school for music and take online classes while I'm in Chile.

I also want to be able to take my sister to Europe after she graduates from high school in 2012. And then I think it would be epic if she moved in with me for a bit so she could start to find her feet as an adult.

So much to think about. What says you, internet?

It's definitely Autumn here.

So, October 30th a group of foreigners (myself included) rented a bus...a karaoke bus...and went to see the fall colors at Guinsa Temple. This motley group drove the bus driver mad by belting out "Bohemian Rapsody" and had to tone it down so he would drive the bus the rest of the way. Yes, half the bus was drunk by 12 noon (not me, I'm not drinking alcohol at the moment, and I thought that the people who were drunk at the temple were disrespectful and rude). Welcome to Korea. Playground for drunk waygooks.


It took us three and a half hours to get from Seoul to the temple, but it was worth the drive--though I would have liked to have left earlier than we did so we could have had more time in the National Park. The Engrish used for the lyrics to "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd were gold, pure gold. I couldn't capture it all, but Allison (my amazing and nerdy friend out here) was in tears because of the stereotypical errors popping up on the screen.

The temple is huge! The colors blended perfectly with the landscape and the changing colors.
I hope to be able to go back and do a temple stay there, they have an awesome guide there who speaks English fluently and says things like, "Buddhism is a philosophy, and it can be used with any religion or no religion. It's an upgrade for your mind. Like you need to upgrade your computer, Buddhism will upgrade your mind. When was your last upgrade? How old are you? How many lifetimes since you updated your computer?" She's pretty cool, big smile teacher glasses and a warm demeanor.

(That's all soy sauce, soy paste and chili paste, there were several vats like this)

I think a temple stay there would be more what I was looking for in the temple stay I did down at the Golgusa Temple (though that one was cool because of the Sunmudo martial art practiced there). I'll blog about that next.

We wondered around and oo-ed and awe-ed at the colors, then walked down to a restaurant to get lunch/dinner before trying to make it to a river ferry through part of the forest. We didn't make the ferry, but it's all good. I had a wonderful day and met some cool people.

Sandel Baram

Sandel Baram, Organic Wind, is a fantastic all vegan, organic buffet near me. It's Korean food, made with vegan, organic ingredients. It's delicious! Sadly, the hours aren't that great for my schedule, they're open Monday-Saturday for lunch and only offer dinner on Friday nights. It's 15,000 won a person, and that includes drinks. Not bad for all you can eat organic food that's delicious!

Where the tasty magic happens


Plate 3, not the best presentation

To get there you can walk or take the number 24 bus from Baegun Station to the stop for the high school after the Hyundai apartments. Headed towards Baegun Station, you have to look for the galbi restaurant across from the high school, if you get to the Hyundai apartments, you've passed it.

Walk toward the galbi restaurant, pass it and head down the hill to your right. You will see Sandel Baram at the bottom of the hill, it's a gray building with a seashell-like exterior.

Chickety China, Part 1: On the Boat to China

September 18th: Departure Day
A beautiful, crisp, blue-skied, autumn Saturday in Korea! The weather had just changed to something I've been craving, and now I had to leave. Oh well, on the bright side, today was a travel day, so I was going to spend most of it walking to the bus and on the boat. I finished packing (yes, the day I leave and I'm still packing), and double checked the gas and hot water were off and all the electronics were unplugged, then went downstairs to do meet up with Janetta to begin our journey to Beijing.

We had a short Metro ride from Bupyeong to Dongincheon, and the plan was to catch one of the two buses that would take us to the Incheon International Port. We had a bit of difficulty tracking down which exit from the Dongincheon Underground Market (read: Dongincheon Labyrinth) would take us to the correct bus stop, but we eventually found our way and flagged down a young Korean man (most high school and uni students have some English skills and we had a tiny bit of Korean knowledge) to help us figure out if we were on the right side of the road--we weren't. It was back under the street to cross over to the correct side--Asia loves underground crosswalks, which would be awesome if the streets were in a grid and the crossings went directly across the street every time. We followed the folks with suitcases and eventually found the port.

Walking up to the main building of the port, Janetta pointed out that tons of people were moving things out of suitcases and into boxes then leaving the suitcases in stacks off to the side. It was pretty crazy. We passed a couple of older men (probably nearing 90) carrying stacks of boxes coming to three times their size on their backs secured with straps made of packing tape. Sadly, we couldn't get a good picture of this impressive looking display, but we did get some photos of the cargo swapping action.


Then it was time to queue. We stood in a "line" (read: a mob that split off at different windows) for about an hour to get our actual tickets and room assignments. After the madness of defensive queuing (pushing and line cutting aren't uncommon in Korea and are regular practice in China), we had to get Janetta a re-entry visa since South Africans are only issued single entry visas, even if it's a year-long work visa, unless multi-entry is requested; Americans are automatically granted multi-entry for work visas as far as I understand it.

So, it was more waiting. This time, we were able to sit in a hallway that wasn't crowded and munch on some Asian pear slices. The visa process didn't take much time, so that helped. At this point, Janetta hadn't eaten in quite a while (she had to take a bus for about an hour to meet me at the Metro station near my house and had only had some grapes for breakfast at 9ish--it was about 2pm by the time the visa was processed and we had our tickets), so we headed to E Mart and McDonalds.

I had heard on Alien's Day Out, a blog by a vegan in Korea, that E Mart had Purely Decadent Soy Ice Cream. It's true! Calorie counting be damned, I had me (well, I shared with Janetta) a pint of Chocolate Brownie Almond and it was delicious! We bought some snackage for the ferry and Janetta ate at McDonald's.

We got on the ferry and explored a bit, it was like having a 3 star hotel on the water, things were clean but not fancy. The ferry also had a restaurant, bar, karaoke room and duty free shop. We were rooming with two young Chinese women (we paid to get a 4 sleeper instead of the room o'bunks--First Class, baby!) there was a mini-fridge with complimentary bottled water and a nice little table in the room. It was nice to have space to walk around and the option to sleep if we wanted. I recommend the ferry to those on a budget and with a little more time (it takes 15 hours to get from Incheon to Qingdao).


Janetta and I met another South African teaching English in Korea, Albert, he was also on his way to Beijing via train from Qingdao. Albert lives on one of the Islands to the west of Incheon and is planning to move to France to live with his girlfriend. This was just the first English teacher we met on our epic journey of epicness.

We got to Qingdao intact.

Knock, Knock.

At 12:30am this morning I was awakened by my door buzzer going off (it's very loud and sing-song-y), I was very confused and was going to ignore whoever it was when I looked at the little screen on the wall and saw it was the police. I stumbled around, half awake trying to get my barrings and figure out why they were outside my door at 12:30 in the morning. I got dressed and (as I'm a curious, law-abiding person) checked on what they were after. They only knew a few words of English, they were, "Do you speak Korean?" "A man," and "falling." After a few seconds of me looking confused and them not knowing what else to say, they went on their way.

I went back to sleep trying to figure out what this meant. If someone had fallen, it'd be simple enough to find the body, and they couldn't be knocking on every apartment on all fifteen floors.

This morning, I asked my co-workers and they suggested the guy who previously lived in my apartment--the one who left me a crutch, a shot of Johnny Walker Red, lots of dirty things (tissues, bandages, cotton swabs, walls with mysterious brown markings I will say was curry or chocolate for my own sanity), and other such nonsense--was who the cops were after. Turns out, Paul (the previous occupant of the room) was in a bar fight and that's how he broke his leg. This bar fight was against a group of Korean Americans who (this is all told from the point of view of those who were friends with Paul) ganged up on him and pushed him down the stairs, breaking his leg. Paul filed a law suit. The group filed a law suit. The cops knock on my door at 12:30am asking about a man falling.

Yay.

Why 12:30am? Surely there are more convenient times for police business.

Eagle Loves You

Today, my Beginner 2 classes (that is, kids who have taken the "Starter" level and one semester of "Beginner" level English) were playing a mixture of pictionary and charades, everyone had a good time. Then we moved on to 'Telephone.' The first class made silly sentences like "I'm a sausage." That got a laugh, but it was nothing compared to the riot that occurred in my second class.

In my second class, the sentences were going pretty smoothly, they weren't getting lost in the string of players. Then Eagle, a pretty *ahem* lively student (I really like him, he participates when the activities intrigue him but I have to talk him into putting the air soft gun away every class), started a sentence that made the students around him throw there hands up in the air, grab their faces and hair, laugh uncontrollably and one student (Tiger) ran into a wall to avoid passing it along to the girl next to him.

Every student giggled, covered their face or tried to spell the sentence instead of saying it.

The sentence? "I love you."

Captain's Log: Personal:

I'm going to try to make regular posts here about my travels and life in Korea.

Leaving on the 7th. Getting everything together, packing unneeded items to go to Arizona. I'm nervous and pretty stoked about this whole adventure.

~Sarah/Veggie

Machismo and Homophobia in Korea

Machismo isn't nearly the ordeal here that it is back home. Men carry purses, both for themselves or just holding their girlfriend's bag are common, wear shiny clothing, get androgynous hair styles and are pretty metrosexual in general. The biggest difference is that men will hold hands with their platonic male friends here, and in some cases they stroke each other's arms and backs the way couples do back home. It's more common to see women doing this, but I have witnessed men showing affection to their friends here. On the flip side, heterosexual couples will settle for hand holding until after 12am--when the drinking has clouded the country's perceptions of what constitutes too much PDA.

As much as it seems that the affection between same-sex friends is acceptable, homosexuality is still heavily frowned upon. There is a section of Seoul with some gay clubs, but it's not common to know if someone is gay or not unless you're in one of those clubs. It was rather recently in the country's history that homosexuals were even acknowledged as existing in Korea. It used to be a "we don't have that problem" view.

I'm rather confused as to what would fuel this homophobia if the affection between people of the same sex isn't seen as wrong. Is it really just a crossing the line of orgasm? People are satisfying their need for skin on skin contact by snuggling with friends, why would it be so wrong for couples to do this?

Oh, Korea, you confuse me sometimes.