Why This Was A Bad Idea

Please understand, this comes in a moment of frustration.

Why I thought it was a good idea to start my professional/adult life in a foreign country is escaping me right now.

I do not understand health insurance, nor have I ever had to deal with it before. (Thank you Mom and Dad! Shout out to you, Roseville Public Schools, and Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance for taking good care of me).

I can't speak Korean... and more importantly I can't understand Korean. When the "International Health Clinic" automated appointment line is in Korean... I am SUNK.

I have a job that happens to be far away from international health clinics.

People have schedules. I get that.

When you say the only appointment is at 2:30, that means I have to take a half day off of school to spend nearly an hour and a half on the subway in order to get there and back. THAT AINT GON' HAPPEN!

but seriously, I just want to know -

CAN A GIRL JUST GET AN INHALER!?

I want to breathe (for those of you who don't know, I've got me a good case of Asthma), 

and that soon will not be possible if I don't get my poop in a group and get this figured out.

Chuseok

Korea celebrates their own sort of Thanksgiving - Chuseok (chew-sock). It's a harvest festival, and it has to do with when the moon is at the height of its awesomeness. Depending on when it falls in the week, the companies and schools may give people anywhere from a whole week to 3 days off. This year I lucked out and we got a whole week off of school! I went on a trip with All The Single Ladies (Meg, Meg, Jen, Becky and I - the single lady new hires) to Japan! This is the chronicle of our adventure :)

On September 14th, we met at Hagye station at 7am... and left on the subway around 720. We wanted to get to the train station near downtown early in case there was any confusion getting our tickets. We have some great colleagues at our school who helped us a lot with booking parts of our trip, including renting a car, hotels, and train tickets. We arrived with plenty of time, got our tickets, and chilled on the platform enjoying some dunkin doughnuts coffee. The train was pretty empty, but it filled up at the next stop. It was a 4ish hour journey from Seoul to Busan (NW corner of SoKo to the SE corner). We weren't all sitting together, which was fine because most of us slept or read anyway. 

Once we arrived in Busan, we used their underground (with our same public transportation card! go TMoney!) to get to our "hostel". I put it in quotations because they called it a hostel, but it was really a hotel. So nice! The view was pretty great, and we all got to share a room with our own bathroom - pretty sure it was a family room... but we're pretty much family so its all good :)

 our "hostel" room

 chalkboard walls - lots of different languages!

view from le hostel

We checked out the beach quick, found some delicious indian food, and then went back to the hostel to get our swim suits and spend some serious time in the sand :)

Once the sun was going down, we headed back to the hotel to order some pizza. I believe I've posted previously that pizza here commonly comes with corn and sometimes sweet potato.... we asked the man at the desk to order pizza for us (I'm not THAT good at Korean, yet!) but said ... please no corn. He recommended a pizza and we were like, sure... why not!? It had corn on it. Thanks, Neil! Anyway, we took it up to the roof and enjoyed the skyline with some sweet potato, corn, and cheese pizza (which grew on me, I'm not going to lie). We went and chilled on the beach some more in the dark, found some awful mexican food - I think I ate a block of cheese in a crispy tortilla... and walked home. I consequently experienced heart burn for the first time. Uff da! 

September 15th

We woke up at the butt crack of dawn and cab'd it to the International Ferry Port. It was more than a challenge to get there, however. We required two cabs - 5 girls... lots of stuff. I was in the "lead" cab, and we told the driver the station to go to. He drove, asked us questions, the two cabbies stopped next to each other (IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD) and shouted, we took off.... he asked more questions in Korea. We showed him the map. Everybody was freaking out. Finally the cabbies just stopped (not in the middle of the road, thank the Lord) and chatted extensively about where we were going. A Korean/Canadian man saw that we were having trouble and asked us where we wanted to go. We told him the International Ferry (which is what we had told the cabbie 15 times). He looks at the cab driver and says "international ferry" but with a Korean accent... and the cabbie says yes. Seriously!? It's like "costUHco" versus "costco". COME ON! Anyway, we got there. Figured out our tickets.... got bumped to a later ferry somehow.

 Meg and Becky on the boat

 Our ferry: The Beetle

Check ya later, Busan!

Once we got off the ferry we went through customs and met a nice police man. I think he was looking for foreigners doing "Visa Runs". I was unfamiliar with this concept but the single ladies told me some visas require you to leave the country every so often. He helped us locate our rental car, shepherding us into the station and calling someone on his phone.

 Helpful Tsushima police

 The lady who rented us the car with her incorrect signage: "Mr. Mergan"... uh... do you mean Ms. Megan?

The Merg-Mobile! (A Nissan March)

We drove to our hotel - navigating in Japanese, driving on the wrong side of the road.... lots of laughter! We made it, but were too early to check in. We changed into our swimsuits, and asked for help regarding where to eat lunch. They gave us a map, and we were on our way. When we got to the restaurant, it looked closed... but it wasn't. There weren't any pictures on the menu, so we just pointed to what other people were eating. Ended up with some pork cutlet soup, some vegetables in goo, noodles, and ... more stuff? Way too much food.

The restaurant.

 Pork cutlet soup?

look at all dat food.

Next up, we headed to the beach and enjoyed the sand and sun :) Our hotel had its own beach, which was empty for most of the time we were there. There was a sweet man made break water, and some rock forms that we adventured onto. Just beautiful. So calming.

 The view of our beach from the hotel.

Hotel Kamisou! Great place.

That night we tried to get some sushi, but because it was Sunday, it was closed (or so we thought... can't read the Japanese). We ended up going to a restaurant that was straight out of the 70s, decorations wise. We ordered some salads with barbeque chicken - by salad, I mean cabbage shreds/fluff. We were pretty glad they had pictures on their menu :)

September 16

Woke up - had a delicious fish breakfast. Wait, what? Okay, so I wasn't so sold on it being delicious. The common reader may not know this - but I don't generally dig the sea food. I gave it a go, even though it came to me raw, and cooked right in front of me... eyes and all. There was some delicious tofu, and breakfast always came with a salad. A little hard to process at 8am but whatever! It's fine! (had to Sandra Peter it up). That day we headed out to drive the whole island. It was beautiful - so much coast, lots of mountains, coves, beaches... awesome. We saw some ruins from the war - a giant gun turret thing? You can tell, I'm a real war historian. We also stopped at a scenic stop - complete with pagoda and informational boards (my mom has rubbed off on me). We made it to Tsushima city in time to eat a lunch in their mall. Pictures on the menu! Hooray! I ordered what I thought would be a noodle soup with mushrooms or chicken (big white circular things in the soup)... which turned out to be something I'd describe as goo balls. Legit. Like, liquidy, sweet dumplings that had been fried.. but not finished. Not a fan, but whaterr. We headed up to the public foot bath, getting a little lost. Those are the tiniest roads I've ever experienced. Along with finding the footbath, we found what we assume to be the only white guy on the island. He was doing an interview for a Japanese TV show... so we ended up getting interviewed for Japanese tv. Why not!? Drove home, ending up in a fantasy freaky forest right after the sun had set - we tried to plan enough time to not be on the road at dark... but... island time, you know. Went into town to try a different restaurant - no pictures on their menu. There were, however, pictures on their sign outside the restaurant... so I brought the sign inside. The ladies were more than amused, and it all worked out well :)

At the foot bath

 pictures helping us get dinner!

 japanese tv. no joke.

 drying squid. yum.

 breakfast. yummmmmmm?

Becky and I in the water at the shrine we visited

September 17

I woke up and went for a run - its really easy to get up early when its beautiful and sunny! Such great views! Breakfast that day was cooked for us - I think they knew we didn't know what we were doing, because they didn't bring us any more raw fish while we stayed there, haha. We headed to the "hot spring" after breakfast, not really sure what to expect. What we found out was that it was a naked bath house - pretty common here... but still a surprise. It was a smaller operation, as we were on a small island with fewer people. There were three hot pools (two with jets), one cold bath, lots of sitting showers, a power blast shower (which was just a little too intense for me), and a sauna. No orientation - we just kind of watched and did what the adjumas did. I lost a lot of layers of skin... and am now a much smoother, cleaner person. (Side note, if you want to know more about this... read this) We ate some ice cream from a vending machine, tried out some massage chairs, and dropped Jen off at the beach. Meg, Meg, Becky and I went into town and finally got some sushi! The chef knew a bunch of english, so we ordered a "sampler" for each of us, along with a bowl of noodles, and some sake. I ate some octopus, among other things. I tried it all. I liked almost all of it. By the way, sushi here is what I've known as "nagiri" back in the states - not rolls, but just slices of raw fish over rice. We got a bento box (take out) for Jen, and headed to the beach. The rest of the night, Becky and I went down to the beach while the other ladies went into town to return our rental car and pick up more sushi for dinner. 

September 18

This was our last day in Tsushima. Meg, Becky and I woke up early to watch the sun rise on breakwater. Meg tries to do that every time she leaves a country/state/location on vacay - what a great ritual (I might steal it from now on).We went back to bed, waking up to pack up and check out, leaving our bags in their storage room. Meg walked into town and explored while Meg, Becky, Jen and I spent some more time on the beach. We worked very hard via translator apps to order a taxi at the appropriate time to take us (and all our stuff) into town. We met up at the sushi restaurant for one last delicious meal (yes, three meals in a row of sushi... except for breakfast which included fish anyway) before getting on the ferry back to Busan. We got to the port earlier than planned, so we just chilled out at the port. Once we arrived in Busan we took a taxi to our Hostel (same company, different building). We showered and went to The Wolfhound, an Irish pub. I shamelessly ordered chicken tenders and chips (fries) with a double Jameson ginger which ended up being a glass of whiskey, but who's complaining. Played some darts, met some guys from the UK, a couple from South Africa, and a girl from Hopkins! Night life is seriously bumping in Busan, which I really didn't expect. 

September 19

We made our way to the bus with a couple of issues... but it happened! What we didn't really know is that we were traveling ON the holiday, which to me means empty roads. Like, the roads are never packed ON christmas. Not the case here. Our bus ride from Busan to Seoul took twice as long as the train because we sat still for quite a while. Uff da. Anyway, took a taxi from the bus station home... and went to bed with serious intent to sleep. 

The Charger Challenge

Since coming to Korea, my MacBook Pro charger has broken. Sad day.

I've been making it work for probably 4 weeks - no big deal.

This week, when I returned from Japan, it decided it had gotten tired of being forced to work. No more power for my little MacBook. I decided to go in search of a new charger here in Korea instead of trying this newfangled thing called "international shipping". I heard and read about certified apple retailers in SoKo, but decided to go rogue and look through this maze of technology. 

After a 45 minute subway ride and asking 10 separate people for directions to one specific store I found the place I was looking for! Unfortunately, not the product. They had 45 watt and 85 watt chargers, but mine is 60. The 60 watt charger is only sold through the service center (God knows why...) which is open Monday through Friday. I was there on a Saturday. Oy. After leaving the store to process (and google the shit out of 85 watt chargers), I went back in and bought that puppy for 109,000 won. Jen and I wandered back towards the subway station, intending to eat and then head home. She spied a sign in a smaller stand that said "apple service". I approached them, and found the charger I actually required for 60,000 won. WIN! I bought that, walked back to the other store, returned the incorrect 109,000 won charger and felt happy.

Got home much later, used my computer for a whole 20 minutes... and I heard a "pop". My screen goes a little dimmer - the charger is no longer providing power to my computer. And then the charger starts smoking.

Here we go again.

Back to the maze of technology I will go sometime this week.

Oy.

Day by day

Secondary retreat went well - it was really great to see kids out of uniform, not focused on school work. We did a high ropes course, zip lining, orienteering, and a teamwork timed task competition. Outside of that we had a lot of chapel, ice cream, and pick up soccer. On the last night, I chaperoned a high school dance - that was one of the biggest cultural learning experiences I've had since arriving here. Not only was it music that was bumpin (http://youtu.be/9dOsAoziDfM), but there were school owned strobe and club lights. The DJ was a student, there was a brief "talent show", and some of their behaviors were a little different than what I expected. Alright, so there was almost NO crossover in the dancing category - dudes danced with dudes and girls danced with girls. I would have been less surprised by that if it had been a middle school dance, but the most surprising thing to me was the difference in where they drew the line between sexual and affectionate (towards friends) behavior. There was some serious dancing going down, but none of it was intended to be sexual. It was surprising also because I've heard quite a few times that homosexuality is not accepted here in Korea. It didn't make sense at first but after some time it made sense - the actions that screamed "Gay!" At me were taken as something friends would do because homosexuality is SO taboo that it doesn't occur to them that this action could fall under that category. All serious cultural evaluations aside, it was a really great time. Some of the student council boys performed this dance which is currently the biggest thing since sliced bread (http://youtu.be/yMqL1iWfku4).

We got back on Friday around 3. I went home and ate two separate dinners. It was awesome. :)

I spent Saturday with Ryan, the director of the choir I joined. He took me to see Weston Noble in the hospital. Weston came to Korea for many reasons, one of them was to direct the national Korean choir in concert and give a lecture on the Lutheran choral tradition. Unfortunately, he fell in his hotel and fractured his pelvis, causing the lecture to be cancelled. I thought another conductor (Helmuth Rilling) was going to fill in and give a lecture on Bach, but that actually didn't end up happening. I went to the Seoul Arts Center for the lecture, grabbed a soy iced chai (my current jam), and then found out it wasn't happening. Ryan said "get in a cab and give the driver the phone. You can come with me to the hospital". So that's what I did. I met up with Ryan at a kinkos somewhere inbetween the arts center and hospital. The cab driver tried to tell me something.... And then complimented my Korean, which was ironic because I hadn't understood what he tried to tell me. 

I think about once a week, my coworker Melinda and I look at each other and say "what a weird life we live!". Lately it's been in relation to having no control over things we are used to having control over - like knowing where we are going in a taxi. 

This is a more than fairly disjointed blog, but it's what I've got right now.

We have a school break from September 16-20 for Chuseok (Korean harvest festival), during which four other ladies and I will be traveling to Busan and an island between Korea and Japan (Tsushima?). Sorry if I already told you that - I'm pretty excited!

Non Stop

Some things:

I now have an alien registration card, two bank accounts, AND a working cell phone. 

It's really starting to set in that this is a new home; that this is not a vacation.

It was really hard to say goodbye to all the people I love because I knew I would miss them. What I didn't really know is how much I would miss being around people who completely know me. It's been a struggle, but I'm learning. I have really great coworkers, and plenty to keep me busy, but I still find myself thinking "And Why did I choose to leave all my favorite people?". 

So, I'm looking at cats. Cause cats make everything better? Now you all know that I have a great potential within me to become a crazy cat lady. But seriously, I'm looking at cats and kittens. Hopefully soon I'll be able to add to "the herd" (the name we gave our pets back home) internationally.

On friday we had back to school night - a time when parents came to school to meet teachers and learn more about syllabi, expectations, common practices, etc. We had some delicious pizza hut before the parents came - a real treat. no corn on the pizza! It was nice to see parents faces and associate them with their child/my student. There was a big presentation/worship service as well that helped me to learn more about my schools identity and christianity within our community. 

That night a bunch of ladies and I ended up playing Cards Against Humanity with a couple drinks in one of our apartments. Loved it. The next morning, Jen and I went off to Itaewon (the foreigner part of town) to collect some things she'd purchased on Craigslist. We started the day off right with McDonald's breakfast and public transportation (missing our transfer... wooops), and had a great time. We found pedicures, starbucks, delicious sandwiches, indian food, furniture, an irish bar, and so much more. 

On friday, Renee mentioned that there is a Subway sandwich store in our area. Saturday when Jen and I got back from Itaewon, I asked her to go with me up to Nowon to find indian food for dinner. We walked along a route we thought would take us past Subway, but couldn't find it. We DID find the indian food - super delicious. I wandered my way home, and jen went to find some other craigslist things. Its about a mile from Nowon to my apartment, and it took me quite a while to get home because I was stopping at whatever store I wanted. I found a stationary store, bought some produce from a street vendor, visited some bakeries (scoping out the wheat bread scene in Seoul), and found a fancy department store. Once I made it home, I unloaded my purchases and went grocery shopping. Unloaded all of that, and then decided I had too much energy to go to bed. I went on a journey to try and find that stupid subway. Even though I wasn't hungry and it was closed once I found it, I loved this search. It was night time, nice and calm. I'm generally not accustomed to being lost - I'm good with directions... so I had to let go and use some instinct and strangers' input (in broken english) to find my way. 

Sunday was excellent - went to school to sort out some details for the coming week and then headed to church with Sophie and her husband Jeff. They took me to the International Lutheran Church (near Itaewon) in their car. The church is one of 4 in the world to be both Missouri Synod AND ELCA, so that was interesting. The pastor is from Mankato, MN! After church we went to Vatos, a relatively new mexican place. Best choice everrrrrrrrrr (I'm salivating thinking about it). We had chips and guac, salsa, kimchi fries, and 18 tacos. Sophie and I drank a pitcher of water.... which the waiter brought after we'd consumed a couple of their tiny carafes. They were meeting up with one of Jeff's former coworkers, and were kind enough to let me come along. It was a really fun afternoon filled with my favorite things - funny people and delicious food. We got done eating around 2, and I had choir rehearsal at 3 near by, so they dropped me off and I got some practice time in before rehearsal.

Yesterday I went to Nowon with Janice to get my cell phone up and running. We taxi'd there from school and sat down. It was kind of strange... I handed him my phone and pointed to the plan (in english) that I'd selected and then about 40 minutes later he handed me my phone all good to go. Oh! I did give him my bank book (kind of like a checkbook?), but that was pretty much all of our interaction. So yeah. That was easy.

Tomorrow I'm going on retreat with the 6-12th graders. We'll be going to the same camp as our staff retreat, but one of their other... camps? I don't know. Should be fun. I've really enjoyed getting to know all my students and I think this will be great.

When I return, we'll be celebrating a birthday friday night, and then I get to see Weston Noble give a lecture on the lutheran choral tradition on saturday morning.