i have officially been in korea for 4 months and 2 days. it's insane. my time here is going by so fast. there are days where i wake up and i feel like i just got here still, but it's been 4 months. oh man.
usually around the 4 or 5 month mark i have been informed that you start feeling hatred or anger toward the new country that you are in. i definitely felt that starting on monday.
monsoon season has started, which means RAIN RAIN RAIN. and humidity. and we all know how much i love the rain, yah i hate the rain. though i have come to appreciate oregon rain. it's clean and doesn't smell awful. and it's vertical, none of this horizontal rain. i have bought a larger umbrella and i still arrive at school completely drenched. thankfully my parents sent me my rain boots, so i have basically been living in them for the past week, and will continue to do so until this terrible season is over.
i was able to finally get into a good sleep habit for me, which is like 5-6 hours a night. i was also not waking up in the middle of the night like i usually do. sunday changed that. i couldn't go to sleep to save my life. i was up until after 2:30. and then woke up bright and early at 5:30 when my alarm went off. 3 hours. monday was the same.
tuesday i woke up in a bit of a better mood as it was sunny for the first time in a week. (and yes i might have done a little happy dance). tuesday night was "Team Thailand" planning and homemade 파 전 which is basically a pancake of some kind with vegetables and squid in it, or at least this one was. it was super good, but definitely didn't settle with my stomach as i was up most of the night in the bathroom. so 2 hours of sleep tuesday night.
this morning, i woke up in the worst mood ever. i was angry, it was pouring again, i didn't want to be in korea anymore, i wanted to be at home in my own bed. i didn't teach today, which meant i sat at my computer for 8+ hours working on summer camp stuff. didn't help my mood at all. it made me go crazy. and apparently say crazy things. i was so happy to see 4:40 and basically ran out of my office.
which brings me to the reason for this post. (thank you for listening to me rant).
red lights and stop signs in korea are just for decoration i swear. it is absolutely insane how many people run both of them. all over, even in school zones with students in the crosswalks. it's mostly taxis and buses, but there are the crazy other drivers out there as well.
so on my walk home, in the disgusting muggy weather, i get to one of the major roads and wait for the crosswalk to turn green. i am the only one there. it does and i get about halfway through the road and out of no where comes a care barreling down the road, fully intent on running the red light. i literally had to jump backwards in the crosswalk to get out of the drivers way. what does he do when he speeds through... honks. seriously?! *knock on wood* i am bound to get hit before i leave.
i don't know how many times i have been at a crosswalk and just watch the buses drive through the red lights like it's no big deal. it amazes me that i haven't seen more car accidents.
my goal tonight... sleep more than 4 hours.
recently i was informed by many different people about something in Korea called "fan death". what is "fan death" you ask? allow me to explain.
it is a widely help belief and gigantic misconception, that if one is to keep a electric fan running inside a closed room (so my apartment with my windows closed) that you will die. yes you read that correctly, an electric fan running in your closed apartment can cause you to die.
my co-teachers recently asked me if i had a fan, i told them no, and they said good that i wouldn't have to worry about fan death. i made the mistake of asking what fan death was, and so began the ridiculousness of the explanation of fan death. my co-teachers, along with many of my friend's co-teachers are so set that "fan death" exists and real. it's rather entertaining. they state, "it says so on the news, and the news wouldn't lie to me"... yeah okay.
so the other night jennie, dolly and i were talking about it and we decided to google it to see what we could come up with. when you google "fan death" the first page that pops up is of course wikipedia. listed on there page are these reasons as to why "fan death" does exist and what can happen.
1. An electric fan creates a vortex, which sucks the oxygen from the enclosed and sealed room and creates a partial vacuum inside.
2. An electric fan chops up all of the air particles in the air leaving none to breathe and suffocation to occur.
3. The fan uses up the oxygen in the room and creates fatal levels of carbon dioxide.
4. If the fan is put directly in front of the face of the sleeping person, it will suck all the air away, preventing one from breathing.
5. Fans contribute to hypothermia, or abnormally low body temperatures. If the fan is left on all night in a sealed and enclosed room, they suppose that it will lower the temperature of the room to the point that it can cause hypothermia.
6. The fan overheats after it has been left on for too long, and ceases to cool the room, instead causing the already sweltering heat to increase uncontrollably until the person dies.
7. The fan contributes to prolonged asphyxiation due to environmental oxygen displacement or carbon dioxide intoxication.
while not all koreans agree with this ridiculous notion of "fan death", because of the media there are many that do actually believe that it is true. when i was discussing this with my co-teachers, i brought up the idea of the air conditioner doing the same thing a fan does. because it basically does, it's putting out air and usually when you run your AC, you keep your windows closed so you don't let the cool air out. they insisted it was different and it was only with a fan. which doesn't make any sense.
so there you have it folks... the ridiculousness of "fan death" in Korea. i hope you got as good of a laugh out of it as i did.
edit: dani has informed me that her AC does not work and there is a mess that involves her not getting a new one. so she plans to use "fan death" as a perfect excuse as to why she should get a new one STAT! we'll see how that goes.
this past weekend turned out to be pretty awesome.
friday=payday! ii love with friday and payday fall on the same day. it was also a very good thing because i was running a lot lower in my bank account than i really like to. so that was good. it also meant i could actually go shopping for things i needed.
saturday jennie and i had planned on going into seoul to do the much needed shopping. though friday, jennie got her medical packet for peace corps, so that meant she was going down the the hospital in seoul to get all the medical stuff out of the way. this meant i was on my own for the first part of my day. which totally meant i slept in. sort of. i wake up automatically between 5:30 and 6:30 because that is around the time i get up during the week. and also because i have an entire wall that is nothing but windows and the sun shines right in bright and early every morning. it's rather annoying. once i got up and ready for the day i made my way to seoul in hunt for my dad's father's day/birthday/christmas present. (for fear he might read this, i won't say what i got him) i will say that i got lost at some point trying to find it as i got off the subway. we all know how good i am with directions, i ended up walking the other direction for a good mile or so before i realized i went the wrong way. after a ton of digging and searching i found exactly what i was looking for!
met jennie for lunch in itaewon and after she managed to talk down a store owner from 85,000won to 60,000won for a backpack for me. so now i will be set for busan (if we go), mudfest, and thailand. and i'm sure for a bunch of other trips i will probably take. once that was done, it was time to head to myeongdong to do some much needed shopping for essentials. forever 21 and H&M are basically the only two stores in all of korea that are going to carry clothes that are going to fit me. because i have curves, unlike basically 95% of korea. scored on finding a skirt and i FINALLY found plain shirts. i swear everything over here is sparkly, frilly, fluffy, or something along those lines. H&M was having some sort of sale and they had plain shirts and tank tops, so both jennie and i stocked up. after wearing one today, i am tempted to go back at some point and get some more, cause they are awesome. by the time we got home we were exhausted.
one of my goals while i was out shopping was to find an external hard drive because i am afraid i am going to run out of room on my computer. i checked it the other day and had a small panic attack. i have one external hard drive, but it is used for my TimeMachine, which backs up my computer, so i can't use it as a regular external hard drive. i want to be able to move a bunch of stuff i don't currently need on my laptop to there, so i can save some space, but there are a few things i want to download that are going to take up quite a bit of room. well i didn't end up going to yongsan, cause we were exhausted, so i'm still on a hunt for that.
so once i got home i went through the things on my computer already to see if there was anything i could get rid of. what did i find on there... THREE copies of both my 2nd and 6th grade work samples. why i have 3 in different spots on my laptop i have no idea. so i was able to get rid of 4 giant files. and a bunch of other random stuff that i forgot was on there. i went through and completely organized things, cause we all know i am OCD like that. it's not that they were unorganized, i just made it better. or at least that's what i tell myself. ;)
sunday jennie and i went into seoul and met amy at a soccer game. we went at saw the national olympic korean team play jordan. now i have been to my fair share of soccer games over the last 23 years of my life. but never have i ever been to a soccer game where the fans were out of control. throughout the whole entire game, they were constantly booing the other team, yelling profanity at them, telling them they suck, and just being all around assholes.
in america, if someone is injured, usually you kneel, and when they get up you usually clap. not over here, they shout awful things at them and tell them to get the hell off the field and tell them they suck. it's awful. so at one point when the jordan goalie went down, and was obviously in serious pain, the fans went wild with the booing and it was awful. by the end of the game i was rooting for jordan, just because korean fans her absolutely awful. korea ended up winning 3-1. damn.
another thing that was annoying about the game... the high school girls sitting behind us. i swear to god i was going to strangle them. korean girls already have sort of a whiny voice and it's worse when they scream. so imagine that, then take it and multiple it by a hundred and you have the screaming girls that were behind us at the game. they were awful. the whole time. at one point i was going to turn around and hit one of them. amy nicely turned around and asked them to be quiet, they just glared at here and giggled. they were quiet for a bit and then started up again. so what did jennie and i do, we were mature and completely blocked their view by standing back up. they were trying to take pictures and we kept standing there right in front of them. at this point i didn't care. nothing we said was going to get them to shut up, so we fought back. jerks.
overall the weekend was good. i am ready for the weekend again. i can't believe it's only monday. boo...
all i want at the moment is to get a new Epi-Pen before i got to thailand. is that really to much to ask? in Korea, it is!
my current Epi-Pen i have is expired and it is not useful if it's expired. since i am going to thailand and because it's summer now, there are going to be bees everywhere. while it would be fun to get stung, swell like a balloon everywhere and have to be rushed to a hospital where i don't speak the language, i think i will pass. sine i have health insurance here in Korea, I figured i should just get it now and not have to worry about it at home. so after having to show my Epi-Pen to my coteachers and describe my allergy to them, we found a post on Dave's ESL Cafe about this specific issue.
In the past apparently foreigners have been told it is illegal for people to carry them around. Well scrolling down I found a post from 2 weeks ago describing exactly what i had to do.
1. make an appointment at Samsung Medical Center. (which is only opened M-F, so i would have to miss work and take time off)
2. bring my old Epi-Pen and insurance information.
3. after the doctor asks a bunch of questions, i would get the prescription.
4. i then have to go to apparently the only drug center in the ENTIRE country that provides Epi-Pens.
the price is a little ridiculous. 70,000won for the consultation with the doctor alone and then the Epi-Pen would be around 100,000won. (so basically $70 to see the doctor and $100 for the pen)
So i go to the hospital website to make an appointment. I then get an email with a phone number to call and a woman to ask for. This is where everything went to hell. Something that should be so simple has turned into a gigantic pain in my butt.
Not only was the woman so incredibly hard to understand, but she did not listen to me at all. Here's a little of our conversation:
Woman: "What are your symptoms?"
Me: "I don't have symptoms. I need a prescription for an Epi-Pen because of my allergy to bees.
Woman: " Bee sting? When did that happen?"
Me: "No, I don't have a bee sting. I need a new Epi-Pen cause the one I have from the US is expired."
Woman: "Epi-Pen? Please spell it.
Me: "E-P-I dash P-E-N"
Woman: "Please hold" (and this is where i got hung up on the first time.)
After getting a phone call back and an apology, she informs me that i have to have a prescription to get an Epi-Pen and i need to see a doctor in order to get the prescription. ummm.... HELLO! THIS IS WHY I CALLED! she finally understood, has be pick a date and puts me on hold again. this time someone else gets on the line, doesn't speak English and hangs up on me again. by this time i'm angry. she calls me back again and then tells me that instead of coming there i have to do something different.
Woman: "You have to go to your area doctor to get prescription for Epi-Pen."
Me: "No i already called my area doctor and they said they don't do it and I have to come to the Samsung Medical Center to do it."
(THIS SAME CONVERSATION OVER AND OVER FOR ALMOST 10 MINUTES!!)
After i hung up, because there was no getting through to this woman, i was furious. You would think it would not be this hard to get an Epi-Pen if i have an allergy that requires me to carry one. my coteachers were very confused as to why the woman was useless. so my 5th grade coteacher called them back only to find they were closed. so i went home completely frustrated and extremely annoyed.
today i came into my office and my coteacher said the hospital finally called her back and they informed her there are two ways to get the prescription. go to my local doctor or go to the International clinic at the hospital. not exactly what i was told yesterday, but i was getting somewhere. Then she informs me she talked to another native teacher yesterday that knew about Epi-Pens. He recommened Yonsei University Hospital because it is cheaper than Samsung Medical Center.
so now i have to start the process over again. i don't have to make an appointment as it's walk-in hours on saturday. i would still have to go the the drug center to get my prescription though. since they are the only place. that just means a long subway ride. on the things i have to do to stay alive and healthy. yeesh!
"What are you going to do after you are done in Korea?"
That is the question I am asked the most only second to "Are you going to stay a second year in Korea?" If I haven't expressed it before, I am doing it now... I hate both of these questions. I have been in Korea now for 3 months, so I honestly have no idea if I am going to stay or go home at the end of my contract. The thought doesn't really cross my mind unless someone asks me. Right now i am still enjoying being in Korea and a new culture. I still learn new things all the time and right now I am fine with this. I am working on getting the hang of the alphabet, so hopefully I will be able to read if I need to. Not that I am going to understand what I am reading...
Going back to the original question... I honestly have no idea what I am going to do when I am done in Korea. Looking at the people around me, I have a friend looking into the PeaceCorps, others who are going to be starting graduate school, others who are looking into graduate schools and other who have no idea, just like me, what they are going to do after their time in Korea. While I know I have only been here for 3 months and I have plenty of time to figure things out, I don't want to suddenly realize down the road that I have run out of tie and have no plan at the end of my contract.
Some people come to Korea because they want the adventure and chance to travel. Others come because they aren't sure what they want to do post college. So they come to Korea to grow, think about what they want out of life and to figure out exactly what they want to do with their life. That was/is my plan. Korea is giving me time to gain some experience in a new culture, get a chance to do some traveling and give me time to figure out what to do next. This is definitely not someplace I want to stay forever. While this is an awesome opportunity that I have been given I don't see it as a life-long job for me. I want something more.
I was looking at my teaching certificate the other day and I realized I have until my birthday of 2012 to take at least 3 semester hours of classes towards my Master's degree in order to keep my license in the State of Oregon. Reading this I starting freaking out. So I emailed Mike Charles at Pacific. I was then sent around and finally ended up getting an email from someone in the Education department who has answered most of my questions. While Pacific was find for my undergrad and with a few minor bumps in the road (awful 6th grade mentor teacher) I was able to get my degree and teaching credentials; I don't really see myself going back there to get my Master's degree. Which brings up the question... where am I going to go to get my Master's. I'm going to have to figure something out. Looks like I need to start doing my research. Oh joy.... if anyone has any ideas, feel free to share them with me. The more the better.
In other news... my baby sister is graduating from high school on Saturday!! When did she get to be old enough for that?! This makes me feel incredibly old.
