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Sunday Seoul: Blackout

I finally caught one of my own while out in Jongno last night!

Sleepy Time!

Stay Classy, Kids

It turns out my students have an unhealthy obsession with 'dung.' People, 'dung' means shit. Oooh yeah, I said it. My kids are obsessed with shit. I have one class in particular that can write about nothing else. It's Dung houses, and Dung cookies, and Dung Emily T. It goes on and on. Here is some classic 'dung' writing from my dung-obsessed class. The assignment was to make up a story and write a mock book report about it.

I read: Scary Toilet
By: Dung Story

In the beginning, AS1-1 class went outside. A young man went by. A young man went toilet and a ghost came out and kill him.
Then ghost see the toilet and ghost is die because toilet smell too much and toilet say "---what happen?" (Silly toilet. . .)
In the end, this made people scared. But people didn't given up! Toilet and people fight! *write closing.
Closing: It is funny because it is funny.


I read: Read many book VS!
By: -------

In the beginning, Book is many (Rain team vs. Team sun), ready, start! Rain had 1000 books! Sun had more books! Same! Rain is very many. Rain team won!
Then Sun team was mad so sun team hit and gave dung. Rain team thought it was ice-cream. Rain team ate it but Rain team throw up!
In the end, so Rain team is go to the sky and Rain team love Rain all way.
Closing: This story is Rain team die.


I really have so many examples of their 'dung' writing it was hard to pick one. This was just the most recent. I also have a folder full of pictures of dung. Dung on ice cream cones. Dung on heads. There is no limit to their imagination where dung is involved.

For an interesting post on the kids here being obsessed with dung check out this guy's blog. He pretty much sums up everything I was going to say anyway. And better. :)

I Get Paid to Procrastinate

Day 4 of no Kinder classes.
16 Days until the fam is here!!!
Day 8 of Vegan-ing.
Day 55 (ish) of 2010.
Day MYWHOLELIFE! of being in Korea.

I think I was born here. Right here. Right here in this RT library. At this computer. Yeesh.

In other news.

There is no other news. I just needed a short break from doing report card comments. :)

http://www.blackoutkorea.com/

Enjoy!

Ooo That Smell. . .

No, this won't be a post about how bad Korea smells. Sometimes the smell is a bit pungent (especially in the summer), but I'll get to that some other time if I haven't already.

No, this is about a different smell. You know that smell before Christmas? Maybe it's fireplaces? Snow? I don't know, but there is a smell. There is a different smell the week before school lets out for Summer vacation.

Today I smelled something I thought I would never smell again. The My-First-Day-of-Work-In-Korea smell. Again, not the Sweaty-Kimchi smell, although seeing as my first day was in August that was definitely there, too. It's more an excited, What-Have-I-Gotten-Myself-Into smell. It's not unpleasent. In fact, I kind of like it.

Maybe it's because we just got two new teachers and a new secretary. Maybe it's just that season again and something about the mix of spring and rain is similar to when I first arrived. The scents of winter are finally giving away to the scents of spring.

I'm really sensitive about smells. I like to smell things. Yesterday when I was outside walking to the gym I smelled the very distinctive scent of my grandmother. She smelled like peaches and makeup. I miss her. It was nice.

Not my usual post.

Totally random. Just something I've been thinking about.

Whew

No Kinder this week. They're graduating. How cute.

I've resigned myself to sitting in the library reading as many YA books as I can. I'm counting them towards my 100 books a year goal. Don't judge. Some of them are actually quite good.

I can't believe it's only Wednesday. It feels like next Saturday for God's sake. The sun is actually bright and warm and I'm ready for the weekend so I can go outside and play!

My family will be here in like two weeks. I'm going to need these two weeks to go by just a liiiiittle bit quicker.

Thanks.

Our Korean tutor got Cait and I a book in Korean to study. It's called, 제 텃 이 안 에 요 (or something like that). It mean's 'It's Not My Fault." It's about a black cat that is sad, because everybody hates him even though he is cute and pretty. Aww. The book is way too hard for us. We need, See Spot Run not A Tale of Two Cities.

Ok, it's not THAT hard. But still.

K, back to terrible black coffee (all vegan-y) and The Sign of the Beaver. 100 books! 100 books!

Post-Blog Post

Alright, so I was a little angry and tired when I wrote about the cafes. Let me explain. You pretty much go to a cafe, rent a board game, order some coffee and then have extreme board game playing pleasure for however long you like. They had every game ever! Jenga! Monopoly! Life! Clue! The game we ended up playing was fun, too, although I'd never heard of it before.

Here's why I was angry.

On Saturday I definitely lost my journal filled with all my Korea writings on the bus. I just totally forgot to grab it in my tired stupor when I got off. I went to the bus station the next morning in the hopes that somebody had found it and turned it in. No luck. Alright, it was still early. I left my phone number with them thinking if somebody found it they would give me a call then I headed into Seoul to meet up with some friends.

On my way back home I thought it wouldn't hurt to stop by the bus station and ask again. I figured the staff would have turned over by then and I could ask different people. I was right, they were all different people, but when I tried to talk to them they either walked away like I was invisible or outright laughed in my face. I've never been treated so rudely in my entire life. I had a phrase written down in Korean for them to read (or for me to badly butcher outloud) and I think they all understood 'help me' in Korean. For all they knew I was about to be murdered by some crazed American-hating extreamist group!!

I walked home, still without my journal, wanting to just burn that bus station to the ground. I think this episode is sticking in my mind, because it's really the first time I've disliked Korea. I know the people at the bus station are not all Korean people, but I've seen enough rudeness here that it just seemed to fit the norm. Why does rudeness have to be 'normal' here? I feel like I always just accept the staring and the pointing and the shoving, but I don't know why. I don't understand how being flat-out rude could be 'cultural', which is the excuse I hear all the time. I know up to a point it might be, but refusing to help somebody who needs help? Laughing at them when they are obviously distressed?

Of course there are people like this back home. Of course. I think the fact that I felt so hopeless, knowing that I was never going to find my journal, knowing that it could have easily been in their lost & found if they had just looked, only exacerbated my feelings. There are nice people here, sure.

Once I found a key while doing trash party with Cait and I went to the guard to give it to him. I figured he would want it in case somebody came looking for it. Wrong. He looked at me like I was crazy and walked away. I showed him that I found it on the ground and tried to give it to him again. He again, looked at me like I was crazy and walked away. Finally pissed off I just threw it back on the ground in front of him and walked home.

I just hope when the situation is turned the other way they get the same kindness they gave me.

Like the cool lady at the coffee shop in Hopeyeoung who ran after Caitlin to give her back her book when she saw her walk by the window TWO DAYS after she had left it in the cafe. So sweet!

Sunday Seoul: Board Game Coffee Shops!

These are the best idea ever! If they don't have them back home then they should!

Choosing the game!

Fun! Fun!

Also, look! The snow is finally melting!

Epic Catch-Up: Part 2

For Lent Caitlin and I have given up dairy. We're not Catholic, but I always find it kind of refreshing to test yourself. Make sure you can still do without those things you spoil yourself with. (Last year I gave up Facebook, the year before, Diet Coke.)Since we're already vegetarians, this makes us full out vegans (except for the honey. I love me some honey.) for 40 days. Yikes! If any of you out in the blogisphere know any good vegan recipes we'd love to have them as we do love to eat dearly.

And back to the Japan diary:

2/14 Sun.

Woke up early. Ate breakfast at the smelly egg place with fantastic coffee.

Kyoto National Museum exhibit closed. Decided to head straight to the Kiyomizudera Temple. The womb.

(Um, needs so explaining. At the temple there was this area you could go into for 50 cents that they called 'the womb.' It was really amazing. You go down some steps until you are in a completely dark corridor. Then you walk around in the dark/silence feeling along a thick rope of round rocks until you get to a giant rock in the middle lit only by a single spotlight above it. It's so dark you can't see your hands. If you have a problem with the dark or are claustrophobic, maybe stay away. But when you leave the womb you are supposed to feel reborn. It gave me goosebumps, and amazing feeling.)

The Love Stone. (Again, needs some explaining. The love stone is actually two rocks. The story is if you can cross from one to the other with your eyes closed then you'll find your true love. If you get assistance from your friends then you will need their help to find your love. If you open your eyes then your fucked and will be lonely forever. Guess who's finding love soon!)

(Lurve Stonesss)

(I'm a tourist!)

(But definitely not the only tourist.)

(Twisty trees!)

I lost Caitlin and freaked out because neither one of our cellphones work over here. Eventually found her. Yikes. Buddhist veg. food for lunch. Was really excited, but it was gross. Rice cake in red bean soup. Yucks.

At our second lunch there may or may not have been a ton of yakuza sitting behind us. Yay!

Taxi to the Kyoto History Museum. We did not ask for that volunteer English guide. She was annoying. Kyoto is supposedly the Hollywood of Japan. Maybe I can run into Tadanobu Asano here! It's hard to understand museums in other countries that don't have english plaques.

Antique Shop- found some cool old pins to add to the collection!

Walked to Gion. Stopped at a cafe for Apple Pie and a hot coffee to wake us up after that museum. Bought some of those green tea KitKats.

Gion was confusing. Didn't really know where to go. Wanted to see a geisha, but we saw one earlier so it's all good. At Kenninji Temple we saw some monks doing yard work and one driving a car. This amuses me.

There were some really expensive restaurants and we couldn't find anywhere we could afford. Many of them were cool and mysterious looking. Felt like I was trespassing.

(Bathroom for the geishas!)

Found a restaurant eventually. Little expensive but fun and different. They had freshwater sashimi with fried tofu soup. Cait got the veggie tempura. My fish was still alive! Then they gave me the head deep fried with the fins! Sake! Yum! The waitress was really nice and gave us 'service' (they say it here, too!) green tea/ black tea sherbet (more like ice shavings though).

(The outside of our restaurant.)

(Our fish-slayers!)

(We had a little too much sake.)

(The fish that kept GASPING FOR AIR! The waitress graciously took away the fish's head so we could enjoy it's previously-flopping body.)

(The fried head. I ate the fins, but the head was a little too much.)

(Sake. Sake. Sake.)

Walked along the river with the Kyoto Tower as our guide back to the ryokan. Still early for curfew so we checked out Kyoto Station across the street. So big! Went to the top and had a great view of the city. There were tons of couples hiding out up there. How romantic. Don't want to go back to korea. I may cry.

Ready for my bath!

Epic Catch-Up: Part 1

This week has been a little stressful and relaxing at the same time. I have a lot on my plate at work, but for some reason it's barely phasing me. I have a feeling I'm going to get really behind soon, but I've stopped caring. :) Nice, right?

Maybe it's because I'm still kind of in vacation mode. I can't believe it's almost been a week since we left for Japan. How sad. If I could I would be on permanent vacation in Japan. I don't really want to live there and have to commit to the language, but I'd be an awesome tourist for the rest of my life. Yes I would.

We left last Friday after work and stayed at a hostel in Seoul (near Hongdae actually) so that we could sleep in a bit before catching our early-ass plane. It left at 8:40, so we needed to be there by 6:30. The airport is a good two hours from Namyangju, and there was no way I was getting up at 4, so hostel in Seoul it was! The hostel was actually really nice. I don't know what I was expecting (I've never stayed in one before) but I was really happy with it. Kind of like camping. Only inside. With boys walking around in their sexy little boxers and reading novels too big for their hands! Le Sigh.

Weekend: Good start.

We were only at the hostel for about 5 hours though. The heater was cranked all the way up, probably because it randomly decided to start snowing again, so the sleep wasn't too fantastic, but waking up knowing that in a few hours we'd be in Japan really got us moving!

Enter a plane ride that I was terriffied for (the snow didn't help) and we were in Japan! We landed at Osaka airport (you know the FLOATING ONE) and hopped on a train for about an hour to Kyoto. We checked into our ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn) and then headed out. We saw Nijojo Castle (with it's singing nightingale floors used to warn of trespassers--super cool) and Nishiki Market (a huge market where you can buy just about anything fun and asian) in the time left for the day. There was also some sushi happening in there (totally delish) and of course some beeeeeer (the real reason I like Japan).

You know what? Maybe I should just write the notes I took in my journal:

Last night stayed in a cool hostel near Hongdae - Hong Guesthouse. First time at a hostel. Very friendly though the heater was too hot. Guy mentioned his girlfriend a billion times but there were hotties in boxers! Woke up EARLY! (5:15!) Snowed all day and night. Needless to say I don't want to fly.

Got to the airport in good time. Cait is having trouble with her visa. It's single entry? She can't come back with it! Would be very bad for RT. I hope she doesn't have to live at the airport like Tom Hanks. When we asked how long it would take they said 'depends.' Poor Cait. :(

Snow-flying worrying is definitely trumping rain-flying worrying and flights-ending-in-13 worrying. Damn. Not looking forward to this flight.

Cait got through in time!

The flight went well -- we didn't land in the ocean. Checked into the hotel--11 pm curfew, not cool. Went for lunch. Beer and great tofu soup! Decided to go to Nijo Castle. It's beautiful! Damn! This is the Japan that people see in the movies. (Taxis are really expensive)

(The real reason I wanted to go back to Japan.)

(Fried shrimp and tofu soup. Notice the complete lack of kimchi on this set.)

(Had tea here at the castle. We had to sit on our knees. . . ouch.)

Went to Nishiki Market. Saw some very interesting Japanese foods. . . Saw a temple near a KFC. . . saw some higher end stuff while looking for a sushi place.

(If you've never had fish on a stick, you should try it sometime.)

(Green tea Kit Kats. They're delicious!)

Finally found the 'geriatric' sushi place. Delish, even though the guy next to Cait kept bugging us, and there was nobody else there under 40.

People are so relaxed here.

Walked back to the ryokan.

(Kyoto Tower)

Took the most amazing bath in the WORLD in the guesthouse's public bath. I WILL DO IT AGAIN TOMORROW! I'm so relaxed I'm tingling.

(Our room had 6 tatami mats so we got to use the extra blanket to make the most incredibly comfortable pallet ever. I miss this bed.)

I'm not kidding about the bath thing. I know I've sworn to never go to a Jimjilbang (public bath) here in Korea but after how relaxing that was I might have to rethink that.

That first day in Kyoto, even though only a half day, was really great. It's funny how hard it was to remember Japanese phrases. We kept wanting to say 'kamsamnida'! Had to translate from English to Korean to Japanese. Haha. At the first restaurant we ate at, we had the foresight to take advantage of our waitresses exceptional English skills (we actually noticed that the Japanese speak English much better than here) and ask how to say we didn't eat meat in Japanese. It's 'oniku taberalemasen' if you're interested. :) I got to use my one cool-sounding Japanese phrase. ''No Meat' wa nihango denandeska' (or, 'How do you say 'No meat' in Japanese.) Hehe.

Everything was also a little more expensive then I'd remembered. I wasn't kidding about the taxis being expensive. After day one we definitely started walking around everywhere (thank God Kyoto is pretty small).

To be continued. . .

Sunday Seoul: A Little Late

I spent the weekend in Japan, Kyoto to be exact. It was a wonderful trip! When I'm not completely exhausted I'll post more all about it!

He Started It!

Today the founder of RT came to give a presentation at our school. Our boss told us about it yesterday night, about 5 minutes before we left, and told us if we wanted to hear him speak he would start at 10:30.

Yeah, because I want to go to work 2 hours early to hear a guy drone on in Korean about RT. . .

Anyway we got here about 12:10 (a little early so we could at least meet the guy, and more importantly help put away all the chairs), but he was STILL TALKING! The man gave his presentation for over 2 hours!

Mostly I was kind of surprised at how little everyone cared that he was coming. I thought for some reason that the guy who started this regime would get a little bit of respect around here. Maybe they're all waxing poetic in Korean and I just don't know, but nobody seems to care that he's here.

The Kindercuties are having Market day so we don't have any classes! Sweet! Plus they're celebrating Lunar New Year so they're all running around in mini-hanboks! (however you spell it) And I have nothing to do, or at least nothing I want to do, so I'm blogging. . .

I got my penpal letters in the mail (save one kid's who simply refuses to do any work in class, he's your penpal, Trav, for good reason!)! Fondue cooking class was an imense success and next week we're having a talent show! I wonder how talented these little kiddos are. . . I've felt pretty good about work lately for some reason. I guess it helps to be putting forth some stuff that I'm a little proud of. Hmm, now that I've said that things will probably go down hill pretty quickly.

Oops.

Sunday Seoul: Even Though I Don't Like Hookah

I went to this awesome hookah bar in Gangnam this weekend. I've never felt like such a hippie in my whole life.

If you're interested go to Gangnam. The place is called Rainbow, directly across the street from Woodstock.

Fun times. :)

Double Assa!

Yesterday I recieved not one, but TWO packages from home! I was expecting something from one of my grandmothers, but I had either totally forgotten, or was never told, about a package from my other grandmother!

I essentially got a box from each of my grandparental sets! How awesome is that!!

I got some mac&cheese, cheetos that don't taste like funky candy, some Texas goodies (playing cards and a shot glass!) some pictures and tons of warm socks. Grandparents always know best! I even got a package of Club crackers! My Korean co-teachers devoured them! They'd never had them before and thought they were awesome (just a little salty, which is funny since so much of their foods are sickenly sweet).

Thanks so much you guys! You definitely made my week! I miss ya'll and can't wait to see you in. . . well, only about 6 months now!


In other news I'm finding penpals for my upper-level classes. I have some friends from back home who have graciously aggreed to write to them so yesterday my XL3 class wrote penpal letters! I'm really excited for them to get letters back. I don't think they believed me when I said I was going to mail their letters to real people in the U.S. :) I'm even more excited because two of their penpals are actually going to come to Korea in the next few months so they can really meet! How often does that happen?

I'm still trying to find people for my other class though. I e-mailed a guy who teaches Korean at a high school in California and I really hope he gets in contact with me. If he doesn't, then I'll be looking for anybody. . .

A Long Post (but it has pictures!)

(A warning: No you're not going crazy, I'm repeating some stuff here. . .)


The weekend started out really well. Friday was nice and quiet and relaxing. I don't remember what I did, save going to the gym, so I'll take that as a plus. I probably watched Dollhouse, ate a bagel, and went to sleep early-ish. Sometimes a lazy night is needed.

The weekend started out really well. Cait and I woke up a little early on Saturday to head out and visit the Foreign Vegetarian Club in Seoul. They were in Dongmyo at Himalaya (an Indian and, well, Himalayan? restaurant). I got to try Naan for the first time and had some delicious vegetarian curry! It was totally yummy. The people were a little cold feeling at first, but I think maybe that was because we were late and interrupted their group. It's just impossible to get somewhere on time in Seoul for us! Relying on public transportation is difficult sometimes.

After lunch I wanted to check out the Seoul Museum of Art. They are hosting the Andy Warhol exhibit right now, and though I have very little interest in Warhol, it seemed like an interesting thing to check out. (It's going on until April, FYI.) I knew the museum would probably be a little crowded because it was the weekend, but I wasn't expecting it to be THAT crowded. Dang! I've heard from some people here that Koreans tend to view museums as a totally cultural experience. They stand in line, see the art, and then move on. They don't think too much about the art, just the fact that they saw it.

I didn't see too much of that though, or at least it didn't seem like it. There was a line outside of the museum (in the cold) that took about 30 minutes to get through, and that was just for the tickets! The line to see the exhibit was probably another 15 or 20 minutes.

Then it was Warhol time! I was a little sad they didn't have an audio guide in English, but I wouldn't really expect them to. His work is pretty interesting and I'm glad I got to see a different side of it. The exhibit had almost 400 pieces in it so I definitely got to see a wide range of his work. Turns out it's not all Campbell's Soup and Marilyn Monroe.

He even had a few piece I would have loved to steal and take home.

I thought that the ticket I purchased was for the entire museum, not just the Warhol exhibit, but except for a small gallery of sculptures and media art there was nothing in the museum to see! I was a little confused. I'll have to go back another time and try to find the rest of the pieces!

The sculptures were pretty damn cool though. There was one that was a room with a strobe light and white walls that you walked into, sans shoes of course. There was a taped recording of somebody breathing heavily and the lights made the floors vibrate. It was super creepy.

I left the museum and had nothing to do so I walked to the nearest palace and wasted some time. This is one of the great things about Korea. If you're bored you can usually find a palace or temple or something to wander around at and kill time. The palace was great, even though it was a little late and so a little deserted --or maybe that's why I liked it. Almost as soon as the lights started to come on outside though there was this terrible noise. It sounded like we were under attack! I thought for sure the North had finally invaded. I kind of freaked myself out, not a hard thing to do, really, and left. As soon as I left the palace I saw what was making all the noise.

A K-pop band.

Damn.

I always love the city backdrop (beige as it is) against the ancient palaces.

These statues were so weird! There was nothing wrong with my camera, they were just made this way. It looks like they're being squished!

I headed out to Itaewon to try and find this restaurant that supposedly has a pretty good veggie burger, but I never found it. This could have been because of my directions.

In Itaewon across from Hamilton Hotel down ally on right.

That is like the least helpful thing I've ever read. I walked around and around for about 20 minutes before giving up and going home. I still don't really love Itaewon. I don't care what kind of foreigner friendly shit there is there (Foreign Food Market. . . What the Book. . . etc.) I feel uncomfortable when I'm there. I headed home and proceeded to have another eventless night. Again, it was nice. Not so nice was worry about my friend who was in an accident back home. He's ok, but damn! I hate when stuff happens back home that I can't help out with in any way. I feel so helpless!

Sunday we woke up early again and went to meet our head-teacher for lunch at Loving Hut in Achasan. She is a 'sometimes' vegetarian so we were happy to show here that there are totally vegan places to eat at in Seoul. Loving Hut really is quite a find. It's nice not having to worry about what's on your plate as everything is totally vegan!

After lunch I hightailed it across Seoul to Hongdae for my book club meeting. We read this book. It was actually pretty good, much better than last month's pick, so I was looking forward to talking about it. Unfortunately, even though somehow my magical inner Hongdae-compass got me to the coffee shop on time, I couldn't find the group! I looked around the coffee shop for like 5 minutes before deciding that somehow I had arrived early. (The coffee shop is actually really big.) I waited for about 15 minutes and then started to look again. I found them in a corner waaaay hidden from sight. Fuck. Another girl and I went to sit with them and they told us they had already talked about the book.

Fuck.

I don't know if I'll be going back. I don't know if it was my utter annoyance with them for not waiting the obligatory 15 minutes to start the meeting, or the fact that I called trying to find out where they were, but no one answered (she didn't check her phone until we were all getting ready to leave--profuse apologies ensued--even though she assured us we could call her for directions (thanks), but I don't know if I'll go again. Maybe I'll read the next book and then see. If it's really good. . . maybe I'll go.

After the meeting, which honestly wasn't bad at all once everyone was settled, I went to Kyobo hoping to buy the new book. They were sold out, but I did find Chuck Klosterman's new book! Win! Even though I didn't really like his last one. . . I always give him a chance. This time I'm giving him a 33,000 won chance. . .

Um, that was about it. I came home and met with a Korean friend. And by Korean friend I mean a girl I met that wants to hang out for the sole purpose of furthering her English skills (I'm pretty sure). She's super sweet, but sometimes I would like a Korean friend who doesn't just want to practice their English!

Haha I'm kind of sorry for the play-by-play of my weekend. I'm kind of proud of myself for finally getting the fuck out of Hoppyeong! I also didn't drink a single drink. I think this is some kind of crazy, and it will be remedied next weekend, because I'm hosting a Lost party.

Fuck yes. A Lost party.

Dentistuh Cuhleaninguh

Yesterday morning I braved the language barrier and went to the dentist. It's been a while since I've had a routine cleaning so I figured I should go. I mean, why not? My health insurance is the best I've ever had, and may ever have again.

One of my Korean co-teachers at work was kind enough to call and set up the appointment for me last week so I didn't have to deal with it. She told me to go to the 4th floor in the building across from KEB bank in Pyeongnae at 10:30 Monday morning. No problem. Right?


Of course nothing is ever that easy. Not in the great Beige City. As it turns out there is not just one dentist in a building across from KEB, there are 3! I didn't know which direction she meant when she said across (as the KEB is on the corner) so I went to 3 different buildings before I found the right one. Needless to say I was a little late for my appointment.

It was also way awkward going to the wrong dentist and trying to explain in broken English that I may or may not have an appointment with them and if I didn't would they kindly point me in the direction of the nearest dentist. That's what I get for being so proud of my Hongdae-compassing on Sunday. I thought I had somehow acsended to Korean location finding novice. Right.


What a pain in the ass!

Once I finally found the right place though it was smooth sailing. They were really nice and the nurse (dental assistant?) actually spoke English fairly well. They put this weird sheet over my face with a hole cut out of it over my mouth, so it felt a little bit like they were doing surgery on my face, but other than that it was just like back home. (When they took that sheet off my face it was the funniest thing I've ever seen though. My eyeliner had smeared all under my eyes and my hair was sticking striaight up out of my ponytail. Geesh!)


The nurse (dental assistant?) couldn't explain to me what exactly the diagnosis was for the state of my teeth so she had my co-worker call her when I got back to work. Again, thanks so much, Korean co-worker! I thought that was a little funny. What if I had some embarrassing tooth decay something. Eh.

Anywho, it cost 50,000 won and now my teeth are silky smooth. AND I have no cavities, even though there was some vauge something or other about possibly having one in my wisdom tooth! Ouch! Let's all hope that goes away. . . I have a feeling I would get zero days off for that. Teeth ripped out of my face-nerves and all. :/

Fun times.