the Hangeul spelling for carbohydrate

Sniffing markers in class (as an educational activity)

I have to keep reminding myself at times here that no matter what insanity is happening in my classroom, learning is always taking place. This is especially true with my older students in the afternoons. I will let them get away with a lot of things as long as they are learning something somewhat relevant to the course material. We were doing a unit on the five senses: seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling, and seeing. One of the sentences was "My sister's shampoo _____ like strawberries." They had to fill in the blank with, feels like, sounds like, or smells like. I gave them a hint by making a smelling gesture towards the random object I was holding. That object just happened to be a dry-erase marker. I turned my head quickly and said "yuck!" That was all it took to get their curiosities going. Before I knew what was going on..they were passing around a marker and sniffing it one by one right in front of me. I don't think they understand the concept of getting high off markers yet. They couldn't figure out the shocked and worried look on my face. I just told them that some people in America have problems with smelling markers too much. They still didn't get it; they just think Americans are that much stranger.

So..when I get back home I've decided I'm going to Chick-fil-A and getting a #1 with a diet Dr. Pepper. God I miss carbs! Tomorrow will mark two weeks in Korea.

a white woman, a blue plunger, and cafe bene

So..here I am in Seoul, many miles away from Atlanta. Almost nobody here speaks English and I speak no Korean. You would think that's awkward enough by itself but somehow the quirkiness of everyday living follows you over here and occasionally you will have one of "those days." I went out drinking last night for the first time since I've been here. It was me and the four other American teachers at the academy. We had such a good time at dinner that we continued the party back at our apartment. Alcohol over here is the same as alcohol over there, or anywhere for that matter. The raspberry wine (bokbunjajoo) raised my blood sugar a bit but that wasn't the main problem. I got pretty drunk.

Needless to say, I had an award-winning hangover when I woke up this morning. I started feeling sick to my stomach after I got in the shower. I leaned over the toilet (Korean bathrooms are just one room with no separate toilet/shower) and puked up what was left of the galbi (Korean pork dinner) I ate last night. I went to flush the toilet but something went wrong..I had somehow managed to clog our toilet with my pork vomit! What makes this story even better is the fact that we had no plunger. Here I am hungover, running late, and desperately trying to remedy the clogged toilet situation. I ended up leaving a note for my roommates and going to work.

The school day was uneventful except for having a low BG and realizing that I left my glucose tablets at home this morning. There's a bakery next to the school so everything turned out ok. I asked one of the Korean teachers where the store was so that I could stop and buy a plunger on my way home from work. Luckily, there is a store not far from the school so I went in there. They only had one plunger left and it was bright blue. I paid for my plunger and walked back outside. I got a little lost trying to walk home from the store because it wasn't directly on the path between school and my apartment. I stood near an intersection looking around with a puzzled expression on my face. All I know is that Cafe Bene (coffee shop kinda like Starbucks) is probably the best known landmark near my apartment so when some teenagers came up to the intersection I said to them "Cafe Bene?" while shrugging my shoulders. They pointed down the street and I was on my way.

Overall it was a somewhat good ending to a somewhat bad day. I just keep thinking about what those kids must have been wondering..

Who is this white woman and why is she taking a plunger to Cafe Bene?

at the Korean doctor's

I woke up this morning with a slightly sore throat. I didn't think much of it at the time but by the afternoon it had snowballed into a semi-violn'ent illness complete with naseua, vomiting, fever, diziness, hot flashes, cold chills, and a severe sore throat. Throwing up Korean food is an experience beyond description. I can't explain it but I don't recommend it. Doctor's office visits are walk-in, not by appointment. I walked through the door and,before I even sat down, a chime went off signaling it was my turn to go in. I went straight into the office and sat down. The doctor said something to my translator and she told me to point to where it hurt. He took my temperature(38 celsius, 100.4 farenheit), looked in my eyes, nose, and down my throat then sent me on my way. I was out of there in less than 10 minutes! They gave me 5 pill packs and pouches of syrup with a picture of a frog on them.
I'm not exactly sure what everything is but it's basically a combination of vitamins, tylenol, and cough syrup. Overall my first Korean doctor's visit was alright. What would have taken about two hours and cost $50 in the US only took about 10 minutes and cost 7,000 KRW (roughly $6.30 USD)! We'll see how I'm feeling in a few days..then I'll make my official jugement of the experience.

So far so good

I've come home from work the past two days extremely exhausted. I can't tell if it's the kids or the time change. For some strange reason I'm also quite hungry..all I can think of is eating! Korean food is actually quite good. The only things that I've tried so far that I didn't like were the kimchi and the crab. They eat the crab here with the shell still on. It's a very unnatural feeling trying to chew up and swallow the shell..not to mention that the crab sauce is pretty spicy!










Kimbap is pretty good. It's kinda like what we think of sushi in the states but it just has other stuff rolled up in it. Here's the nutrition info: http://www.thedailyplate.com/nutrition-calories/food/generic/kimbap





My blood sugar has been doing well with the Korean food. If you stick with what you learned in carb counting 101 you should do alright. My A1C had gone up to 8.2 before I left home. Most likely it was because of my bad eating habits that just kept getting increasingly worse as my departure neared. I'm going to use my time over here as an opportunity to improve how I control my diabetes.

Here!

I'm here..I'm exhausted. That's all I've got for now!

Disparity

I got my visa confirmation code and flight information the other day. Initially I was supposed to go out on the 22nd but that has now changed to the 19th. It seems like a trivial amount of time but when someone is trying to do as much as I am it makes a difference. I was hoping to get a non-stop from Atlanta to Seoul but I'll settle for the one stop in San Francisco.

Wow..13 days left!

I went out to Singapore Airline's website to do a little research about the Boeing 777 I'll be on. I looked at the features, amenities, and dining for the economy section and it looked awesome at first. I have never seen anything that nice! Then curiosity got the best of me and I scrolled to the top. The nicest of the nice seats look more like a hotel room than an airplane seat!

Economy seat

Looks pretty good huh?

ok..now compare to

Private suite

That's nicer than my apartment!

Economy dining

That looks awesome..they even give us ice cream!

Private dining

I've never eaten that well on a date!

It amazes me the difference a few grand can make. I'm going to have to try hard not to look down at my magazine holding a plastic spoon for my little cup of ice cream and not think of those people up front lying in their beds, watching their plasma televisions, and drinking their wine from crystal goblets. I'm sure I can find something to keep my mind occupied..just not for 12 hours and 55 minutes.

Just got text from my BFF. Trivia is on for tonight and possibly a tour of the Sweetwater brewery tomorrow. He's putting together a good bye party for me next Saturday. I guess that means I'll be moving my stuff back to my parent's house with a hangover. I'm falling behind on the to-do list.

get a haircut

get H1N1 vaccine

send visa info to the Korean consulate

appoint my mom as power of attorney

look into travel guard insurance

clean out my desk at work

I know there's much more but I keep forgetting about things that aren't written down on the list. Sleep deprivation is making my brain hurt. Thank God it's Friday.