Two posts within the space of three days...aren't you people lucky!
I felt that I needed to pick up the pace of my blog after recent slacking and obviously give you guys something to read. Perhaps what seems boring and mundane to me might seem a little bit more interesting to people aren't going through the experiences that I am and today presented me with an oppertunity to actually write about a couple of enjoyable moments in the latter part of this week.
Yesterday I had the dreaded dr's appointment at Suwon Hospital. I had to go for another x-ray before seeing the dr and it showed that there had been no further damage to my foot or my ankle which was a positive. The dr examined my ankle and then asked me to walk to see how it would hold up, I haven't walked around for almost two weeks now so I was a bit nervous about putting weight on my foot though once I did it was perfectly fine and even the dr was surprised about how able I was to be able to move.
I am still walking with a severe limp at the moment and a couple of times I have had sharp pains in the top of my foot but they told me I don't need the crutches anymore which is a bonus and to continue walking and see how things go. I still have a bit of a lump on the top of my foot and although the pain is a constant they seemed to think that the swelling would go down soon enough. The problem is now that I am supposed to go a month without doing strenous activitiy which I imagine is going to be pretty difficult for me considering I am about the most active person I know!
Still if a month is all I have to sacrifice for a full recovery then I am willing to do it as the last couple of weeks have been fairly miserable. Who'd have thunk a person needed to use their feet so often to enjoy life!
As well as being of the crutches yesterday we got a double bonus as it was confirmed that our holiday period from school will be between July 25th and August 3rd. Charlie doesn't reckon he will be able to afford to go anywhere outside of Suwon with us but me and Kevin are pretty determined to get out of the country. He eyed up some preliminary flights to Thailand yesterday which sounds pretty good to me. We have a couple of weeks before booking things becomes a necessity but I think I will do a little research to see if I can find us a decent deal.
It's one thing to look forward to I guess and hopefully by then things will be full recovered and I will be able to enjoy the complete experience of Thailand. I think we are planning to head towards Phuket which is where most of the beaches are. I imagine at that time of the year the weather will be absolutely beautiful. I'm looking forward to where ever we go but it would be a fantastic experience to go to a country I have always wanted to visit.
Today it was time for another kindergarten field trip with the kids, and a morning out of school was just what the dr ordered. This morning was the first time the kids have seen me without a cast on for a couple of weeks and almost immediately it was like I'd never had any recent injuries as they were climbing all over me and asking me to pick them up and carry them round as usual. Of course I obliged as I guess the best way for my foot to get strong again is to be carrying 25kg kids around on my shoulders and legs!
This months trip was to a swimming pool, and as it turned out it was actually pretty close to home. Just about the bowling place we visited a couple of weeks ago at the 'sageri' past the market. My boss brought his two kids with him as well and they joined us for a fun morning of swimming, playing with volleyballs and splashing each other. The kids were really good actually, I think they had as much fun as I did in the pool. It has been such a long time since I went to a legitimate swimming pool (and by that I mean one that isn't incorperated into a water park) My boss' wife took some good pictures so if you are interested then they are at he usual website where the rest of my pics are.
The time in the pool was soon up and we went off to a near by 'Lotteria' for dinner. After my last experience with 'the worst fast food restaurant in Korea' I was a little worried and despite my chicken burger being drowned in a couple of kinds of not exactly nice tasting sauce, I avoided the need to be sick like at the Seoul Zoo.
To get back to school we took a route through the market and it was good to get some fresh air after being cooped up so long.
My afternoon classes went by pretty quickly and the kids had their weekly installment of uno in class to give them that friday feeling. After work I was pretty determined not to just stay in my room and play around on the computer so I took a trip up to E-mart by bus as there was a couple of things I needed. As it turned out I didn't come away with anything that I actually went for but I managed to by myself a new pair of shorts and a couple of t-shirts which were very much needed.
This evening we ventured to the usual galbi restaurant and ate like pigs as every friday night. I decided to come home and take it easy as earlier I was falling asleep on the bus which is a sure sign that I don't need to be heading out for a ridiculously late night.
Tomorrow the three of us are supposed to be meeting up with Marie and one of her Korean friends and heading to Itaweon. I say supposed to because I have heard a report that it is going to rain tomorrow and there really isn't anything that exciting that makes me want to head out into the rain! Hopefully it'll hold off as Lord knows I could do with an afternoon out to do something different and do some kind of exploring after the past couple of weeks.
Aside from writing about my thoughts, feelings and experiences of Korea I sometimes feel the necessity to do a little bit of summation for everyone. Usually that turns into the form of some kind of list and this afternoon when I was on the bus I saw something which sparked me into writing the following list about 'Things I will never understand about Korea'.
I have been here about two months now and so far I don't think the novelty of living in Asia has worn off. Speaking to my boss today he says that he can see signs in Charlie that the culture shock is finally settling in, and things about everyday life are starting to frustrate him. I know Kevin loves to rant about things (as he's told me so himself) and inspired by that and seeing a couple of 'dress-a-likes' earlier on I felt it important to share my own little piece of mind with you.
1. Matching Dressers....Matching Dressers, Dress-a-likes (Think I might have made that word up) whatever you want to call them, couples who dress in the same clothes in Korea are everywhere. This may not be a new phenomina as I am sure I have seen some tasteless attempts at fashion before but in Korea, I really don't get it.
If I had a girlfriend who tried to dress like me, firstly I would be a little annoyed that I was going out wearing the same clothes as me, but also I would be a little concerned thinking that I am wearing something very girly, or she is wearing something made for a man.
Whichever, people, seriously, it is not cool. So please stop doing it. We get it. You're together. Dressing alike is just abysmal and especially like a couple I saw the other day who even went to the length of having the same trainers and socks on.
2. Sun Protection...Now I'm not advocating that non application of suncream here. Or doubting that it is very hot in the summer. But when I see fifty and sixty year old people walking down the road wearing big old visors or sporting a parasol, I start to question why they have yet to adjust to the fact the country the live in is hot. It's not just women though. At least parasols are feminine, I've seen plenty of guys carrying them too. They must be very comfortable with themselves. Even so, I can't help but laugh when I see someone carrying an umbrella to protect them from something which is supposed to be used in the opposite kinds of conditions!
This probably shouldn't be on the list as I do understand why Korean's want to cover up and keep their natural whiteness but I think it takes a little bit more than a few spots of evil sunlight to accomplish a tan.
3. Staring...I bet you couldn't have guessed I would put this on there.
Yes, I am foreign. And yes I do look a little different to you. But is there really any need to spend 30 seconds eyeing me up and down like I am an alien from outer space. It's such a frequent occurance now that I have learnt to deal with it and staring back works really well (and is also hilarious to see their reaction) but that doesn't mean that the action of staring isn't extremely rude. I've seen some crazy things while I have been here and that has certainly made stare more than three non-Korean's walking down the road.
4. No Deoderant...I'm sure the answer to this one is out there somewhere. But I have no idea why Korea doesn't sell deeoderant of any form. Have the Korean's secretly cracked a formula for oderless sweat? Or are they just so worried about their damage to the o-zone layer that it has been banned. Sadly I don't have the answer as to why such a crazy 'problem' exists. All I can say is that I am glad I brought some with me. Incase you haven't noticed, it's quite hot people!
5. Neon Lights...I understand the necessity for neon lights. OK so buildings high up need a way to attract people into their businesses and without the use or lights they would have no way to achieve this. But do businesses on the ground level really need them too? Seriously, all over your window? Does that really help? Or does it just give you a massive elecricity bill at the end of the month! I thought that the 'neon factor' was just a stereotype that you see on films with Japan in them but apparently not. Sure it makes the place look pretty but it can't be doing much good to the environment. It's a wonder there are any trees or plants around this place sometimes.
6. Subtly disguising the unsuttle as something subtle....It'll make sense in a second. Now I did some research before I came to Korea and it didn't take many wikipedia or google searches to start digging up dirt about things to watch out for in Korea. I figure if it didn't take me long to work out the meaning of a love heart and pink lights and a building or why some barbers have two rotating poles rather than one and why there are so many buildings around bars that have blacked out windows, everybody in Korea knows the score so why the need to cover it up so much?! The red light district in Suwon is a one minute wrong turn off the main street where the station is one and it's not like the people there are hiding anything so it seems a bit puzzling to me that exactly the same thing going on around the rest of the city is doing it's best, bad attempt to let everyone know what is going on there!
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