January 23, 2011
It having been about three weeks since my last entry, I suppose there’s some major catching up to do! First and foremost, I found my purse, so my entire freakout is now null and void. What happened was the next weekend I went back up to Hongdae – braving the Seoul subway system all by my lonesome and emerging victorious – found the bar (Gogo’s Music Bar), and asked if they had found my purse. They had! I guess it wasn’t stolen, just kicked under a table or something, because everything was still inside. My one regret is that I didn’t think at the time to give them a tip/reward to thank them for keeping the purse intact. Perhaps if I go by that way again I can rectify the situation!
Perhaps my relief in finding my purse was not accurately conveyed in the above paragraph. Fact of the matter is, by that time I was convinced it was gone, and I had accepted it, so when it turned up, it was less of a “thank GOD”, and more of a “oh wow, that’s really great, although if I hadn’t gotten it back I still would have survived fairly competently”. Still, I’m psyched that things all worked out, and now I can look back on my awesome New Year’s party night with no regrets!
On that same weekend I went to the Artsonje Gallery where I saw a manga exhibition from nine famous manga artists. It was really neat, and each artists’ style was completely different and interesting. I also stumbled upon the express subway line to Incheon airport, which I may or may not take advantage of at some point in the future.
School has continued to be good. For a few weeks the Korean teachers were meeting with us once a week to discuss the students, but that has now stopped (for reasons unknown). Liel, a sweet girl in my elementary class, is obsessed with cats, and has taken to showing me all new cat stickers, pencils, and paraphenalia she purchases on a day to day basis. Young Sun, the Korean TA who accompanied me to the hospital for my initial medical review, has now disappeared, and a new intern has taken her place. Apparently they change every three months or so.
I have taken to drinking orange juice every day in an attempt to stave off any infections I may pick up from my students. Working with so many different kids, you get exposed to a lot of different things. My brief love affair with Hansot, the Korean take out joint just up the street, has more or less ended – their bulgogi is still delicious, but I’m starting to crave different fare. Same goes for Paris Baguette. Jenna showed me a Korean diner that does take out, which I will probably be hitting up frequently.
Last weekend I took an exciting trip to Seoul to find the travel clinic in Itaewon. The reason was that I needed a typhoid shot for my upcoming trip to Thailand. I went to Good Morning hospital in Pyeongtaek, but they didn’t have the vaccine, so I had to go to Seoul. I got the vaccine no problem, then had some Middle Eastern food and headed over to the Korean War Memorial to see the Da Vinci exhibit. Sean, Sacha and I tried to go see it a few weeks ago, but we got there after it closed. It was very interesting, although not worth the 15,000 won entrance fee, and after that I wandered around the War Memorial museum, which was really fantastic. I may take Mom there when she comes up next weekend.
I’ve also been preparing for Mom’s arrival, as she’ll be staying at my place a few nights before and after our Thailand adventure. I’ve bought towels – which reminds me that I have to buy face cloths too – a foam mattress pad, a comforter, a pillow, bathroom sandals... hopefully she’ll feel at home, and if not I’ll give her my credit card and tell her to go to town at the Lotte Mart. I’ll be heading up on Saturday morning to Incheon airport, where I’ll meet her at noon at her hotel. From there we’ll spend two days in Seoul, two days in Pyeongtaek, seven in Bangkok, two more in Pyeongtaek, and then she flies out. It’s going to be AWESOME!
What else, what else... I’ve been doing lots of writing recently – not as much as in November, obviously, but still a decent amount – and have found that grabbing my notebook and going to a cafe is really conducive to writing. My computer decided to be horrible for a few weeks, in that the screen would randomly shut off and I would have to flip open the lid multiple times to get it to turn on, but a few days ago it miraculously fixed itself. So I have no idea what’s going on there, but I’m very grateful. I’ve also been rewatching Scrubs, and it’s even funnier than I remember it. American Idol started up this week, which I’m really excited about... I have a batch of postcards to mail out to Canada on Monday... I bought a Death Note lighter... my rice maker stopped working... Korea’s advanced to the quarter-finals of the Asia Cup... my Korean language skills are improving at a horrendous rate... I saw Tron in 3D and it was spectacular... and that’s about it!
Tomorrow will be another lazy Sunday, which will in all likelihood involve some WoW, some shopping, some TV watching, and *hopefully* some Korean-learning thrown in for style. Without a teacher to help me make sense of things and basically egg me on to succeed it’s been really slow going, and I’m still at that stage where I know so little that the sheer amount of words and grammar is just overwhelming. My search for an agent for my novel is proceeding without success, although I send out a letter every two days, so maybe I’ll start to see some results soon. And now I really have run out of things to say, so I suppose it’s as good a time as any to sign off and go watch some Scrubs!
