I'm coming to the end of my first year in Korea. For all but five weeks of the entire year I have been in Korea living life just like everyone else. I think back to one year ago and how at this time I was resolved to my decision and not looking back. I had lost all nervousness and anxiety by this point (about a week out from leaving) and had simply embraced my potential future and felt the fall.
I was writing and email to Kara earlier and for some reason I got off on a tangent of my analogy on how similar I feel riding a roller coaster is to living life. Really, think about it!
There you are, sitting at the bottom of the hill. You can see nothing ahead but a steep incline and something happens-- CLICK! You're moving in an upward direction. It takes several clicks, but by the time you get to the top you can see what's just ahead and that's it. You fall and trust that all the clicks that got you there will take you to back to the end- back to the next series of "clicks".
When I was home Scott told me about Korea - Click. David and I broke up - Click. My job wasn't working out- Click. I found a job and was hired in Korea- CLICK! By that point I was at the top of what could only be described as an amazing and challenging year in Korea.
Today I feel like the "clicks" are almost audible. As I sat across from my boss at my current job and he told me that I couldn't renew my contract, I heard the click. I was looking for jobs and when I found one- Click. Stormy found one too- Click. And we're off on another adventure.
At the end of this month I'm moving to Ansan, South Korea. It's North of Iksan and on the outskirts of Seoul. After living out in the country for some time I think it will be nice to move toward the big city and to have a new town and new school. I can't wait to see how exciting and fun this roller coaster will be!
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
January Happenings
Back in Korea and settling back into classes and my Korean lifestyle. This month has been mostly good with a side of drama, but whatever.
Scott has been talking about skiing since this summer and has been trying to organize a trip for ages. So when he finally got a group together I was more than happy to take a break from my usual weekends and go on a little adventure. We went to Muju Ski resort about an hour and a half from Iksan. There are apparently only two ski resorts in all of Korea and it seemed to me that everyone else had decided it was a good day to go skiing also!
We left Iksan at 7am by bus to Muju, due to traffic we arrived at Muju around 9:30am. The bus began to get hot and suddenly everyone in the bus found the bus to be unbearable. All of us began to complain while peeling layers of clothes off in an attempt to keep our sanity. Upon arrival, we jumped off the bus and immediately began to complain about the cold :) Perfection.
9:30-12:30pm was spent waiting in lines. We waited in line for our boots, skis, pants and finally the lift. Scott, Robert and I ended up waiting in the line that connected to the lift that takes you to the top of the mountain. We got off the first lift and remembering my first experience with skiing way back in 2002 when Aspen and I took on a small mountain in Colorado and me failing epically I was not looking forward to the top of the mountain. This was Roberts first time skiing and Scott is a seasoned snow boarder so he was urging us to go to the top. I was hesitant but Robert was all for it. So we took the next life to the very top.
At the top the snow/blizzard combo was almost too extreme to handle. Robert was struggling and I was a little nervous but Scott told me to keep my mental state confident and so I did and it made all the difference. Robert was falling everywhere and I was gliding along like I knew what I was doing or something...After about 30 minutes of us starting and stopping waiting for Robert - he urged us for the millionth time to leave him, so we did. Scott had gotten far ahead of me so I was able to just cruise at a nice slow speed one the blue "Silk Road". It was intense at times but over all relaxing. I was surprised that I was able to maintain my composure and make it down the mountain.
Robert and I waiting in line for the ski lift
Here is the view from the ski lift
Another ski lift shot
\
Looking down from the bunny slope. You can see all the people! It was insane
Another adventure I had this month was the dentist... Way back around - well a year ago, I broke one of my teeth and part of my tooth fell out shortly after I came to Korea. It didn't hurt so I was being lazy and putting off dealing with it. My friends had suggested a dentist way, WAY back when and I still had the card so I made an appointment. The place is called Dr. Tae's Dental Clinic and I assumed that meant he was a practicing dentist, after all my entire life I had been told that dentists worked in Dental Clinics, but this was not the case. I walked in, sat in the chair and he looked at my tooth. He asked if I had pain, I said no. He asked again, I said no. He asked if there was anything I wanted him to do and I said, Can we fix it? He said, Yeah - it'll take about 45 minutes. After this he walked away and I was told to go to the reception desk. After about 5 minutes I was met by one of the staff and given a card. I asked her when I could come back to get it fixed and she said, OH this is a DENTAL clinic - you need to go to the hospital!
Ummmm......WHAT?!
As with most things I don't care to understand in Korea, I walked away without complaining or arguing that Dental Clinic and having dental work done are synonymous in America...but what do I know.
I felt good about making an attempt at getting my tooth fixed so I put it off for another week. I eventually went to the hospital, which is a teaching hospital and saw a dentist that could help me. They looked at my tooth and made me make and appointment with one of the professors. The next available appointment? March 3 NOOOO! I made an excuse that I had to have it before then and they magically had an opening two days later.
My tooth is now fixed and it seems to be holding up pretty well. The only awkward thing that was different from my past dental visits was that there were 6 people in the room watching the entire time. They had to gut out my tooth and it was almost in need of a crown. Luckily for me I was able to get a white filling rather than the standard issues gold crowns!!! EW! And it cost about $250...which hurt, but at least it's fixed.
That's pretty much all that's new around these parts...my birthday is coming up this month and my one year anniversary with Korea :) Should be an incredible month
Scott has been talking about skiing since this summer and has been trying to organize a trip for ages. So when he finally got a group together I was more than happy to take a break from my usual weekends and go on a little adventure. We went to Muju Ski resort about an hour and a half from Iksan. There are apparently only two ski resorts in all of Korea and it seemed to me that everyone else had decided it was a good day to go skiing also!
We left Iksan at 7am by bus to Muju, due to traffic we arrived at Muju around 9:30am. The bus began to get hot and suddenly everyone in the bus found the bus to be unbearable. All of us began to complain while peeling layers of clothes off in an attempt to keep our sanity. Upon arrival, we jumped off the bus and immediately began to complain about the cold :) Perfection.
9:30-12:30pm was spent waiting in lines. We waited in line for our boots, skis, pants and finally the lift. Scott, Robert and I ended up waiting in the line that connected to the lift that takes you to the top of the mountain. We got off the first lift and remembering my first experience with skiing way back in 2002 when Aspen and I took on a small mountain in Colorado and me failing epically I was not looking forward to the top of the mountain. This was Roberts first time skiing and Scott is a seasoned snow boarder so he was urging us to go to the top. I was hesitant but Robert was all for it. So we took the next life to the very top.
At the top the snow/blizzard combo was almost too extreme to handle. Robert was struggling and I was a little nervous but Scott told me to keep my mental state confident and so I did and it made all the difference. Robert was falling everywhere and I was gliding along like I knew what I was doing or something...After about 30 minutes of us starting and stopping waiting for Robert - he urged us for the millionth time to leave him, so we did. Scott had gotten far ahead of me so I was able to just cruise at a nice slow speed one the blue "Silk Road". It was intense at times but over all relaxing. I was surprised that I was able to maintain my composure and make it down the mountain.
Robert and I waiting in line for the ski lift
Here is the view from the ski lift
Another ski lift shot
\Looking down from the bunny slope. You can see all the people! It was insane
Another adventure I had this month was the dentist... Way back around - well a year ago, I broke one of my teeth and part of my tooth fell out shortly after I came to Korea. It didn't hurt so I was being lazy and putting off dealing with it. My friends had suggested a dentist way, WAY back when and I still had the card so I made an appointment. The place is called Dr. Tae's Dental Clinic and I assumed that meant he was a practicing dentist, after all my entire life I had been told that dentists worked in Dental Clinics, but this was not the case. I walked in, sat in the chair and he looked at my tooth. He asked if I had pain, I said no. He asked again, I said no. He asked if there was anything I wanted him to do and I said, Can we fix it? He said, Yeah - it'll take about 45 minutes. After this he walked away and I was told to go to the reception desk. After about 5 minutes I was met by one of the staff and given a card. I asked her when I could come back to get it fixed and she said, OH this is a DENTAL clinic - you need to go to the hospital!
Ummmm......WHAT?!
As with most things I don't care to understand in Korea, I walked away without complaining or arguing that Dental Clinic and having dental work done are synonymous in America...but what do I know.
I felt good about making an attempt at getting my tooth fixed so I put it off for another week. I eventually went to the hospital, which is a teaching hospital and saw a dentist that could help me. They looked at my tooth and made me make and appointment with one of the professors. The next available appointment? March 3 NOOOO! I made an excuse that I had to have it before then and they magically had an opening two days later.
My tooth is now fixed and it seems to be holding up pretty well. The only awkward thing that was different from my past dental visits was that there were 6 people in the room watching the entire time. They had to gut out my tooth and it was almost in need of a crown. Luckily for me I was able to get a white filling rather than the standard issues gold crowns!!! EW! And it cost about $250...which hurt, but at least it's fixed.
That's pretty much all that's new around these parts...my birthday is coming up this month and my one year anniversary with Korea :) Should be an incredible month
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