they're creepy and they're kooky

devilish brent

deery-lou.
friday was our halloween party at ils. just like last year we had lots of witches and screams running around our hallways. creativity is definitely lacking. i was both delighted and surprised when one student came dressed up as a pirate. he actually looked like an employee from long john silvers. for fast food they had the best chicken/fish sticks. their breading was to die for. the children all seemed to be having a good time. who wouldn't when there was fun to be had. it didn't matter to them what people were wearing. instead of hearing the traditional "trick or treat" they liked to say "give me candy". their technique definitely needs some work. however, by the end of the day i got some of them to say "trick or treat". hopefully it'll stick. we played games, took pictures, and ate snacks. i ate so much pumpkin pie. i couldn't stop. its been a year since i had any. sally's mom bought us a pizza from pizza hut which was sooo good. it had sweet potatoes and other yummy stuff on it. at one point jk busted out a water gun and started shooting the kids. needless to say mayhem persued. children ran around screaming and were drenched just like our floors. after school we went to manhatten western bar. they were having a halloween party and offering a free cocktail for anyone dressed up. the things you do for a free cocktail. we were the only ones dressed up besides the staff. and they were all dressed as vampires, of course. one was wearing a cross with his costume. i made anna ask him why. he told her he was a 2,000 year old vampire. crosses don't affect the ancients. at least he had an answer. bravo to him. it was fun hanging out and drinking. after 8 vodka tonics i decided it was time to go. once i got home i immediately crashed. here's to yet one more halloween.

be well…

click here for halloween party pics

sa rang bang teahouse shout out

playing dressup at sa rang bang teahouse

deery-lou.
if you are looking for an "at home" atmosphere to enjoy some great tea, conversation, and the chance to dress up in tradition korean and japanese clothing then you must visit sa rang bang teahouse in korea. i actually got an email from kaori the other day telling me about their updated english web site and wanted to give them a special shout out. sa rang bang teahouse is located in insadong. check out their web site for detailed directions. last february i went there with misty, kate, derek, and horace. misty, kate, and derek were visiting from san francisco. we got to drink tea out of very old bowls, eat delicious snacks, and play dress up. what more could you ask for. the teahouse is owned by a korean and japanese couple [byun kyu chang and kaori]. although the day we visited kaori wasn't there her husband was and he was a great host. he made us feel very welcomed and made the visit very memorable. the inside of the teahouse has a very homey and cozy feel. it was great way to spend a chilly day inside. for those of you living or visiting korea i highly recommend checking it out. you won't be disappointed.

be well…

pretzels

deery-lou.
this morning i went to costco with jk, christine, and horace. i ended up buying 2 lbs of cheese, kidney beans, jalapeno peppers, and a 4 lb bag of pretzels. ok, who in their right mind needs 4 lbs of pretzel. i guess that would be me!! let's just hope i don't eat them all in one sitting. oink oink. i actually had some when i got home last night. i forgot how good they are. pretzels—yummy! as i was stuffing preztel after preztel into my mouth all i could think of was that seinfeld episode where kramer kept saying, "these pretzels are making me thirsty." i believe it was for a part in a movie that he never got because of his overacting. in honesty though, they do make you thirsty. my neighbor is having sex right now. i can hear her moaning through the walls. oh, she just had her big finish. i think i need earplugs. when we first got to costco there was a woman with free samples. i literally had to fight my way through the ajumas to get me some cheesecake. they're vicious. some of them were getting three pieces at a time. it was like watching sharks circling their prey. the best part about costco was seeing all foreign housewives shopping there. i was listening to one woman go on and on about the damn tortelli. i felt like telling to grab it and shut up. no one needs to hear 20 mins. of gabbing about freakin pasta. especailly pasta from costco. i think i like it better when i can't understand the conversations. as i was watching some of these women i wondered what they were doing here in korea. a lot of them looked like moms. its a mystery. after our big shopping spree we got a bulgogi pizza from the dinning area of costco. so whitetrash eating at costco. it was great though. all the koreans were doing it. they have this thing called a chicken bake which i must try next time.

my school day was pretty typical. all the students are excited about the halloween party tomorrow. they kept asking me, "halloween party tomorrow?" finally i told them if they ask again there won't be a party. i'm so mean. i still don't have a costume. oops. actually anna teacher is suppose to be bringing me a high uniform. i'm not sure if its going to fit or not. if it doesn't i'll have to think of something fast. we got some games and food for the munchkins. it'll be fun. i'm sure they'll all be dressed as either witches or scream. those seem to be the two biggies. after school we are going out to dinner. i told my kwanjanim tonight that i wouldn't be in class on friday. he didn't seem too happy. apparently i was suppose to have a test on friday. i now have to take my solo poomsae test on monday. i know what i'll be doing this weekend. i still have yet to master poomsae 8. for some reason i'm having a complete mental block. trying to remember new things as one gets older is hard. there's a part of me that would love to say bye-bye taekwondo, but i feel that i have too much invested in it. plus i don't want to let my masters down. on the bright side i got my taekwondo picture today. hee hee. of course it was in a frame. he told me i didn't have to buy the frame but i'm going to anyway. the whole thing is only $28. i must say i look T.U.F.F. it actually came out pretty good. there's a cool blue dragon off to the side. love that! i'll try to take a photo of the photo and post it on here. they also gave me two key chains. hee hee. i didn't get to see the other photo or ask him about it. i'm going to do that on monday. i'm dying to see how the group shot of me with the masters turned out. hopefully i can get a copy.

well, that about wraps up my exciting thursday. wish me luck for monday. i'm going to need it.

be well…

what is your goth name?

deery-lou.


Girl Name: Mistress Acaia

Guy Name: Sir Sebastain

I see sadness in your heart.
You carry too many secrets in your heart.
You should really try
and vent about things more often.


What Is Your Goth Name?
brought to you by Quizilla

what's curkin!!

deery-lou.
here's the new poster for my ad campaign. i believe my cooking show is going to launch some time in april on arirang tv. i'm really excited about it. we've put a lot of thought into the concept of the show and i think the audience is going to eat it up. every week i'll be curkin up what i like to call ameriorean [american/korean] cuisine. bringing the flavors of east and west together. there will also be the occassion guest joining me in the kitchen. for those of you in korea please tune in. you won't be disappointed. see ya soon!

be well...

matthew barney: drawing restraint

deery-lou.
on saturday i went to see the matthew barney: drawing restraint exhibition at the leeum. the exhibition was amazing. it was like nothing i've seen before. i wasn't sure what to expect seeing that i'm not familiar with his work. but after listening to horace tell me about the artist i knew it was something that i needed to see for myself. i'm glad i had the opportunity to see it. there was definitely a lot too take in. i'm not going to even try to explain it. not really sure i could or even give it justice if i did. its one of those things that will probably take me a few days to let it all sink it. there were some petroleum jelly sculptures that were way cool. if any of you have a change to view this exhibition you must. one really cool thing that the exhibit had was a children sections helping them to understand barney's work. my favorite by far was drawing restraint 7. the installation consisted of three-channel video, photographs, drawings, and sculpture. the narrative of the video takes place in a limousine entering manhattan. there's a hairless young satyr in the front seat chasing his tail, while two developed satyrs [a ewe and a ram] wrestle in the back seat. it was wild.

wrestling satyrs, drawing restraint 7

with our admission we were suppose to see his film drawing restraint 9, which bjork composed the soundtrack, but they don't have viewings on the weekends for the month of october. not sure why. just another example of kl. although we can come back in november with our stub to see the film. i'm looking forward to that. they are also going to show his cremaster cycle film which i might go check out as well.

afterwards horace and i went to hannam, an international market. here's a list of the few items i bought:

bologna - 4,150 won
flour tortillas - 2,300 won
tomato soup - 1,500 won
mexican chili beans - 1,500
montery and cheddar cheese - 7,000 won

yes i actually paid $7 for some cheese. desperate times call for desperate measures. i had a couple of pieces today and boy was it good. cheese rules!!! we then had dinner at the same indian restuarant i went to for vickies goodbye party. it is so yummy, as my students would say. while on the subway back to ansan this man who i think was pakistani started talking to me. he asked me if i was russian. when i told him no he then asked if i was pakistani. i was like "umm no." then he asked if i was korean. finally i told him i was a miguk [american]. the whole time he was talking to me i couldn't really understand what he was saying. it sounded like he was speaking to me in korean or with other accent. now i can understand someone asking me if i was russian but korean or pakistani…come on! after dropping off my goodies i went over to horace's were we spent the wee hours of the evening drinking coctails and talking. we hadn't done that in some time. it was actually quite nice to hang out and chill.

today i did nothing but watch tv and do some mild cleaning. love these lazy sundays. oh, it also seems that winter is coming and coming soon. since friday its been super cold. its almost time for the white jacket. YEAH!!!

be well…

p.s. i almost forget. i bought a label gun. hee hee

four brothers, two koreans, and an american

deery-lou.
yesterday i had my monthly meeting with my ansan sisterhood group. only two of them showed up: baeguyver and the girl whose name i can never remember. baeguyver was holding dunkin dounuts bags. i was hoping were we going out to dinner. i was uber-hungry. after noticing the bags though i feared otherwise. my fears were confirmed. we ended up at the movies. i had two choices for english films: four brothers or some love story. i kind of wanted to see charlie and the chocolate factory but they didn't seem too keen on it. everytime i mentioned it they didn't respond. we finally settled on four brothers. i think baeguyver was in the mood for an action flick. we had an hour to kill before the movie. we sat at a table that looked out onto the city of ansan. you could see the light festival. i asked baeguyver if he took his family there. he replied, "oh, not beautiful. no." we ate dounuts and drank coffee. yummy! baeguyver and i then went down to the arcade to play some games. i found this fighting game that i kicked ass on. video games rock!!! now i know where i'll be spending all my extra time. hopefully i can find some near my apartment. while we were waiting for the movie to start i had to talk on the phone to one of the sisterhood members who couldn't make it. he kept saying sorry. they're very polite. anyway...the movie was all right. nothing too great. the girl kept thinking that mark wahlberg was from the new kids on the block. i tried to explain that it was his brother but it was useless. there's a scene toward the end of the movie out in the snow where marky-mark looked really good. i'm not sure the girl liked the filmt. she said something about too much senseless violence. afterwards baeguyver dropped me off at home. he wants to take me to another island with his son in november. hee hee. that should be fun. i ate crackers and peanut butter. then went to bed.

on tuesday while on my break some monk came into our school and started to chant and beat on this wooden instrument. i really wasn't sure what to do. we looked at each other and bowed. then i returned to what i was doing. he continued to play. finally anna came in and i told her to go talk to him but she was too chicken. eventually jk came out and said something to him and the monk left. never really found out what it was all about. i saw another monk, or even perhaps the same one i didn't see his face, on my way to school this morning. he was going from shop to shop playing his instrument. interesting.

be well...

greek god quiz

deery-lou.


Morpheus


?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
brought to you by Quizilla

be well…

national cemetery photos

deery-lou.
photos of the national cemetery are here! enjoy!

be well...

a time to be so small

deery-lou.
i actuallly had a weekend, a quasi-weekend, but at least it was something. my health seems to be a lot better. whew! that was the longest time i've ever been feeling under the weather. it was so great to spend a majority of my quasi-weekend outside. fall is in the air. i can smell it. the leaves are starting to change, too. its times like this that i miss the new england area. this would be a great time to head out to a mountain or even one of the palaces i've yet to go to. got to work on that. anyway…i'm sure you all are sitting on the edge of your seats dieing to know what i did. so here's what jethan did:

friday
meet up with christine and anna at the manhatten bar. had two beers [didn't want to push it since i've been sick], ate nachoes [couldn't get enough of the cheeze whiz, soooo good], then left around 11:30 or something. very early evening.

saturday
meet up with my friend chen who organized a picnic outing for the day. there were about 7 of us that went. the destination was the national cemetery located in seoul. the national cemetery is where over 160,000 soldiers and patriots are buried. at the main entrance is the hyeon chung tower. under the tower are memorial tablets for soldiers missing in action from the korean war. the memorial monument [hyeon chung tap] is where they have memorial tablets to honor the soldiers whose bodies weren't found as well a jars containing the ashes of unknown people who gave their lives in the war. there's also the monument of unknown student volunteer soldiers most of these young students bodies were never found. it was kind of like visiting the vietnam memorial in d.c. nothing like enjoying the company of friends and good food with the dead. it was amazing how peaceful it was especially since it's in the city. we ventured up to the top of a hill where a monument for unknown warriors stood. the view was simply breathtaking. you looked out and saw seoul plus all the gravestones from the cemetery. we ate falafel, pears, and sweet potatoes. chen and jen challenged me to roll down the hill. of course i did. i took a little stroll and watch some people gather some kind of orange nut thing. while others were filling up their water jugs with spring water. these people literally were bringing in all their 2 liter bottles and filling them up. a little farther i found this road that went up hill. i debated about following it and finally decided to see where it lead. the sunlight was coming in through the trees further illuminating the red leaves of some of the trees. at the end of the road was a buddhist temple. they seem to pop up just about everywhere. it was small but nice. there was an old man sitting on the stairs to one of the temples singing. i felt so alive as i walked around. the engery was unbelieve. it felt somewhat magical and mythical. its strange because i've been to numerous temples in the past and never had a feeling like this. perhaps the dead were speaking to me. the was a giant buddha in the center and behind in were hundreds of little buddhas. i stayed for a bit then made my way back to the others. i didn't want to think that i disappeared or anything. eventually some of the others left and it was just chen, jen, and i. before leaving we went into the memorial monument and looked around. as we were leaving the main gates there were two soldiers standing guard. hyun-sik met up with us there and we proceeded to make our way out. but before we took a look at the old planes they had there. they were pretty cool. the entrance we came in from earlier was closed. we decided to climb the fence to get out. the four of us went to hongdae for some dinner. we had curry which was actually quite good. i ordered the chicken curry which of course being korea it ended up being fried chicken strips with mustard and then i had to pour the curry over it. we spent some time in a piercing store [no i didn't get anything done] then wandered into the park where all the punks hang out. after the park we went to mary janes where we drank pitchers of long island ice-tea. the best thing about mj is that they have free jello shooters and pool. they also play alot of 80s. toward the end of the evening the owner came over to our table and gave us a shot of something that tasted like licorice. not a huge fan of licorice but it was actually good. he told us that they plan of expanding the bar a little and adding tvs to play music videos. not sure how many pitchers were actually consumed but i finally left mjs at 6:30am. yes, i said 6:30am. which now takes us into sunday…

sunday
sunday morning came and i was still in mjs doing shots. i'm so not in my twenties anymore. i finally got home around 8am. i tried to sleep but i was so exhausted that i only managed to get two hours of shut eye. i spent my entire day watching tv on my computer. nothing like a complete waste of a day. no more staying out to stupid o'clock in the morning.

i'll post pictures from the national cemetery as soon as i get them uploaded.

be well…

picture day

deery-lou.
remember back in high school how we had picture day. everyone would get all dressed up for their yearbook photo. it never failed that a zit would pop up or you'd have an all around bad hair day. it was like fate. to make matters worse when you got the actual pictures back you looked at what you were wearing and thought "why did i wear paisleys". well yesterday was picture day at taekwondo. i don't normally go on wednesdays but my master asked me to come to have a picture taken. a group picture as he said. i figured what the hell. it would be cool to have a picture of me with my fellow taekwondo students. hee hee. when i got there a make-shift photo studio was set up. you know the kind with the big stobe lights on either side and a black backdrop. it kind of reminded me of when i use to take portraits of people in the underwear department at k-marts across the new england area. the sahbumnim told me i was going to take two photos: a single and a group. i tried to get out of taking a solo one but it was useless. then he told me to take off my red belt and put on a black belt. thinking ahead, i like that. i wasn't sure how to tie it so he did it for me. the sahbumnim tied it really tight. he kept telling me to suck in my stomach. then i sat down and waited with the others. as i sat there next to the giant mirrors i couldn't help but notice how badly i needed a haircut. while i was sick i've been wearing hats. plus the fact that i'm trying to grow it out doesn't help. especially since its in that inbetween bad stage. anyway so i sat there like a good faux-korean and started to play with my hair. i needed to have it look somewhat decent. then i realized that the taekwondo uniform makes me look fat. well maybe not fat but it doesn't look right on me. perhaps its the whole white on white thing. i don't know. the uniform always looks cooler on others. most of the students who were there weren't from my class. only about three of them were. i wasn't apart of that group photo. while they were having their group photo i sat next to some mom. yes, some of the kids came with their mom and dad and had family portraits taken. it was all so surreal. for my solo photo i was posed in a taekwondo poomsae position. i had to squat down for five minutes. my legs started to shake as i waited for the guy to take the picture. needless to say he didn't speak english so it was a whole lot of me trying to figure out what he wanted me to do. its a good thing i was once trained in this field. i soon realized that no more students were going to show up. which meant no group shot with my fellow students. then it hit me. my group shot was never going to be with the students. it was going to be with my kwanjangnim and the two sahbumnims. so there we stood. two on each side angled and holding onto our belts. i'm sure its going to make for a very interesting photo. the guy made me smile and we all know how i hate to do that. at first i was bummed about not having a group shot with the kids but then i realized that most of the kids there weren't from my class. i was a group shot of my fellow classmates. so one of these days i'll ask someone to take a photo of me with my classmates. hee hee. i'll post the resuluts from picture day as soon as i get them back. the suspense is killing me.

be well...

SMURFS BOMBED!!!!

deery-lou.
a new UNICEF ad campaign [check out the video] for beligan televison has the smurfs being blown away...literally. never in all my life did i imagine that i would see poor smurfette dead on the ground. but that day has come. who would ever want to hurt the smurfs besides that evil gargamel and his nasty cat azrael. well actually i'm sure there are a few naysayers out there who don't like the happy-go-lucky smurfs. what can i say except that i love the smurfs. always have, always will. i use to watch the cartoon every saturday morning and collected the figures. of course my favorite was smurfette. go figure. today, i have a collection of smurf figures, a couple of t-shirts [cheerleader smurfette], and my latest find a smurfette wallet [gotta love korea!]. the ad campaign is brilliant. we have become so conditioned with the real imagines that UNICEF has used in the past that i think they have somewhat lost their impact. seeing these wholesome characters being bombed definitely opens one's eyes and makes you think. its strange how we react so differently to ficitious characters being killed. kudos to UNICEF and IMPS, the family company that controls all rights to the Smurfs, for making it happen. hopefully they'll get the results they're looking for.

"Don't let war affect the lives of children."

be well...

quiz of the week:which endless are you?

deery-lou.
i've decided to add a new feature to my blog: quiz of the week. every wednesday i'll post a different quiz. that is until i get bored of it. not really sure why i'm doing this but i am. take them if you want, if not no worries. but if you do let me know your results. let the quizing begin:


Dream, the third of The Endless, you are in charge
of the Dreaming, all imagination and
creativity, everyone knows your beautiful
realm, but none truly understand it. You are
dark and brooding, creative, and spend a lot of
time by yourself, just thinking. You are almost
as serious as Destiny, but not quite. Everyone
is enchanted by you, but you keep them all at a
distance, even when you shouldn't.


Which Endless are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

when it rains it pours...

deery-lou.
and i'm not talking about the weather. more like my life. saturday morning i awoke feeling really good. i went to see the doctor who did more of the same treatments on me. they gave me another shot. this time it was a clear liquid. afterwards i felt really weird. my leg tingled, my hip hurt, and i felt a sense of overall tiredness. i went home ate some lunch and watched survivor. then i watched survivor live on cbs.com. yes, i'm a nerd at times. later hyun came over and we got dinner and hung out. all was well. that is until my computer decided that it was thirsty and needed of some water. which i was obligied to help by knocking over my water glass over. i didn't even knowi did it until i found my computer in a pool of water. i immediately picked it up, shook it out, and dried it off. i turned it off and opened things up to get it to dry out. i even busted out the hair dryer and blew the computer dry. when i went to turn it on the only sound i heard was the fan. she just wouldn't come on. needless to say i freaked. big time. i spent the next hour or so doing everything i possible could to get it to work. no use. finally i tried to get some sleep. that was nearly impossible too, seeing that i felt sick and was completely pissed at myself. when i did manage to get some sleep my lovely neighbor woke me up at 3:30am. no sex, just laughing and talking to friends. apparently they must get home at this time because this the third time i've herd them at this hour this week. in the morning i tried turning her on again. no use. hyun called the apple store at the coex and they said i could drop it off and a tech would look at it on monday. off to the coex i went. once we got there they told us that 1pm was the cut off time to receive repairs. it was 2pm. um, hello! why didn't anyone tell us this. kl i tell you kl. i left the store even more pissed. i had traveled an hour and 40 mins for nothing. it wasn't a total loss. hyun and i went to eat at marcels. its kind of like a world market. you go in, they hand you a card, and then you walk around and look at all the different food. when you see something you want you tell the person and hand them your card. i went for mexican mainly so that i could have guacamole and sour cream. i can't tell you the last time i had these two delicious items. i was very excited. the food itself was actually pretty good. it really didn't matter though cuz i had so much guac and cream on it. it was like heaven.

outside of the coex was a roboraptor exhibit. roboraptors are basically like the mechanical dogs but dinosaurs instead. they were really cool. there were so many of them. everywhere you looked there was a roboraptor. suddenly i heard this hissing noise and when i looked up i saw a mini-helicopter flying in the air. attached to it was a roboraptor. how cool is that…way! then some performers took the stage playing drums. we watched for a little while then decided to cruise. i wanted to get home and rest.

here raptor, raptor

chopper and raptor

going for the ice cream

the kids love them

roboraptors performers

beat boy

smoke and drums

at home i tried turning on my computer again. she actually came on! i was so excited. i went over to horace's apartment. when i returned home my computer had gone back to sleep. what a tease. i tried turning her on again. nothing! so with no television to watch or a computer to watch dvds, i did what any boy would do. i read confessions of an heiress, a tongue-in-chic peek behind the pose by paris hilton. now that's a good read. i pretty much finished the book. i think i have 50 pages left. there are so many pictures of paris that i don't think i ever want to see her again. i must say though that she does look alot sassier with short hair.

this morning i thought i'd try to turn on the computer on more time. yes, i'm a glutton for punishment. she actually came on again. by the time i was ready to leave for school the computer was still looking at me. it had been two hours. i left the computer on to see if it would still be working when i returned. i wasn't going to get too excited just yet. i saw the doctor again today. no shot this time but more meds. next visit is on wednesday. jeff's mom gave me a present today to thank me for the present i gave her. it was a box of vitamin c. she's worried i'm not eating enough. so now i wonder do i get her a present to thank her for the present that she gave me to thank me for the present i gave her. think about that for a while. i returned to taekwondo after a week off. there were only 3 other students there. i had to practice my poomsaes the whole time. just when i feel like i'm getting better i'm not. i need to work on keeping my arms, hands, and wrists straight when blocking, punching, etc. as well as higher kicks. at least i have most of the poomsaes down. upon returning hope i was excited to find my computer still up and running. we'll see how long this lasts. don't want to jinx myself. but hopefully i won't have to take it in to get fix afterall.

be well…

so cute…

deery-lou.
everywhere i turn there's a new quiz. it's so f.u.n.! here's the latest that i got from dac.

You Are A: Duckling!

The cutest of the cute, these baby ducks are often spotted in the spring following closely behind their mother. As a duckling you will grow up quickly, becoming one of the adult ducks seen commonly in ponds and streams. Playful and timid, charming and vulnerable, ducklings are nature's very definition of innocence.

You were almost a: Bunny or a Duck
You are least like a: Monkey or a ParakeetWhat Cute Animal Are You?

be well…

ENT part 2

deery-lou.
today i found myself once again sitting in a doctor's waiting room. no one told me that year two would be the year of uncurable ailments. it was basically a deja vu of the other day.
doctor: how is hearing?
me: much better.
doctor: left ear?
me: better.
doctor: right ear?
me: it's fine.
doctor: still stuffy?
me: yes
now it was time to check my throat, look in my ears, and flush out my nose. i'm not a big fan of the nose flushing. there's something about the whole spraying something in my nose then sucking it out that i just don't like. he also had me do the swallow water and squeeze air up my nose thing again. this time for each ear. he prescribed more meds and told me to come back on saturday. i think they just want my money. i did more of the breathing in fumes. actually i think its steamed menthol eucalyptus or something like that. got another shot. this time in my left hip. however, i did remember to get the phone number. i had christine call there when i got to ils. it turns out that i have nasal catrrh. whatever the hell that is. i tried to goggle it but didn't get much info. basically it comes to this:
CATARRH : Inflammation of mucus membranes with a resulting free discharge of mucus.
not very exciting huh. translation: i'm a boy with lots of mucus. i could have told you that. i still believe its somewhat related to really bad allergies. oh, my doctor did warn me of dust, cold, and dryness. can't wait to see what happens on saturday.

be well...

ENT

deery-lou.
today i went to see dr. kim for my follow up. i had to go by myself since jeff's mom wasn't available. luckily i semi-remembered where the doctor's office was. at least i thought i did. i entered the building that i thought it was and hopped on the elevator to floor 5. nothing looked familar. the one dr. kim sign i saw was for skin care. i checked floor 6. nope. then down to floor 4. nope. i went outside and walked into some other buildings. my mind was a blank. i tried to call jeff's mom but no answered. i walked over to her pharmacy. she wasn't there but the other lady told me in broken english one building over, floor 5. i was right the first time. if only i had actually looked while i was up there i would have notice the doctors office across from the skin care doctor. the check up went fine. i understood about half of what she was saying to me. i told her that on sunday my ear felt plugged and that i couldn't hear very well out of it. she said something about an allergy then said i must go to floor 4 to see ears, nose, throat [ent] doctor. ok. and she also prescribed two weeks worth of the meds i was taking before. she wrote out a note for the ent doctor and said something about vitamins. whatever. i paid the receptionist [7,000 won] then headed down to floor 4. i looked around and all i could see was a giant pharmacy called vitamins something, and dr.kim's plastic surgery. why are all the drs. here named kim. i went into the pharmacy thinking that perhaps i misunderstood my dr. kim. i handed the woman the note and my prescription. they just gave me the meds. i asked her about the note and she said "anyo" waving her hands. i paid my 30,000 won and left. in the hallway i stood trying to figure out where the ent doctor was at. i walked toward the plastic surgery sign. to the right was a doctors office. i figured what the hell and went inside and handed the receptionist my note. bingo. after ten minutes i was called into to see the doctor. like my other doctor his english was very minimal. he asked me several questions and then i told him my symptoms. he looked into my ears, throat, and then stuck some metal things and a light up my nose. going to the doctors is always an experience but when theres a complete language barrier it makes it quite interesting. anyway, he said something about me having a stuffed nose and i answered yes. the next thing i know he shoots something up my nose and then place another metal thing that starts sucking things out. he told me i had some kind of ear allergy. the exact name i'm really not sure of. he told me to sip some water and hold it. then i had to place this tube in my ear. on the three he told me to swallow. i did and at the same time he squeezed this tube that forced air up my nose. we did it again, however, this time he counted in korean. after that i had to take a hearing test. now imagine you're getting ready to take this test and the nurse starts explaining what to do all in korean. yes, thats exactly what happened. i managed to figure out that every time i heard a beep i needed to press this button. during the test i could barely hear anything. the beeps were so faint and noise from outside kept drifting in. i was imagining that they were going to tell me i was going deaf. would that be the icing on the cake. after i finished the test i went back to see the doctor. he told me everything was normal. thank god. he then prescribed some meds for me to take 3 times a day for two days. in two days i need to see him again. the nurse then took me to a breathing station where i had to breathe in some fumes for ten minutes or so. after that she gave me a shot in my hip. i don't even know what she gave me. the visit to the ent cost me another 30,000 won. i decided to take this prescription to jeff's mom since the other people couldn't really speak english. luckily for me she was there. she apologized for not being able to go with me. she asked how i was and i told her that i had to see an ent doctor too. i handed her the prescription and she filled it for me. she told me that i need to eat 3 meals a day and take this stuff 30 mins later. then she said how jeff always tells her i'm hungry. which is true. its hard to eat 3 meals when you only have 5 mins. between classes. it only cost 8,000 won plus she gave me a free drink. score. so now i'm taking a pretty blue pill, a long white pill, a round white pill, half of a yellow pill, and a square pink pill. plus sucking on the space pod. i have 46 inhalations left. i also decided to take a break from taekwondo this week. its all about rest, rest, rest.

be well…

oh what a feeling…

deery-lou.
no, i'm not singing or talking about that rockin' 80s song from irene cara. i'm referring to the snuffy nose, plugged ear, and overall tiredness that i'm still feeling. once again i spent a 3 day weekend trying to rid myself of this pesty bug. fall has shown herself, however, i can't quite enjoy it yet. i did manage to venture into seoul on sunday. i needed to go to the bookstore. it pretty much sucked out all of my energy. afterwards i had some yummy tofu soup with hyun-sik. then we walked over to see the newly opened canal. apparently it use to be a street that they turned into a canal. go figure. anyway there was some kind of celebration. people were walking along the path on either side as well as walking in the canal itself. here's are some pics:

the masses

helmets: the new fashion

there were also lots of monks around too. not really sure why. nor did i bother to find out. wasn't feeling up it to. some were given out posters for 1000 won. some were writing on paper. not really sure what that was about either. i did manage to get a poster though. have no clue what it says but it looks cool. then i saw a scary albino mime who was like eight feet tall. nightmares anyone.

monk writing

hi, scary!

be well…