vacation hooray!

So after much debate and persuasion i have managed to capture 3 weeks vacation which starts...... NOW! My co-teacher Hlee has decided to stay an extra three weeks now that her contract is done which will allow me to go to (drum roll) Cambodia. I was thinking of Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, or somewhere close to those in Southeast Asia. I settled on Cambodia because I have heard great things about the beaches. All I want to do is go somewhere warm and relaxing. The backpacking travel bug I had gotten from Europe has faded (though not gone and I assure you it will come back) and I just want to rest and eat good food and meet some cool people. I booked a one way ticket to Siem Reap and plan to see Angkor Wat and other ruins in the area, then head south to the beaches after a quick stop in Phnom Pehn. This plan is all very tentative and subject to change depending on the cool people I meet. I might go by land over the border and head somewhere else but I dont really know and dont really care at this point. I am just excited to be somewhere new.

I am already sad that I will not get to see my students. Remember I have not had a single break other than a couple long weekends, and the 3 weeks of pain in the hospital and recovering at home. All the while i would go into school just to say hi to my students.

Another fun thing i did this last week just on a random Monday night was to try 보신탕 (boshingtang) also known as dog stew. ^^

I might not post on this blog until after i get back from cambodia but i will keep people up to date about my journey via facebook.

Taxicab confessions: Ansan

So two months ago I decided to hold one of my impromptu BBQ parties at my apartment. I went with Muney to Homeplus to buy hotdogs, beer, and a BBQ to cook them on. It was nice, I bought a little bucket BBQ for $10 that worked out quite nice. There ended up being about 15 people over which meant my apartment was packed but we were all having a great time.

Later we went out on the town and had more fun playing pool.

That was just a fun story that I needed to share. The real big story came two days later on Sunday when I rode my bike out to the University to have dinner with my two friends Peter and Rory at a Chinese place. It was a good meal and we had a great time. At about 9:30 PM I hopped on my bike to head back the 10 minute ride to my apt. The next thing I remember was being in a CT scanner and feeling intense pain. Muney was there as was my friend and coworker Will. Apparently I called Muney to translate for me and take care of hospital stuff. The hospital was busy and there wasn't a bed for the night, they did x-rays of my entire body to see what else was wrong but could see I wasn't in any immediate danger. I was in a lot of pain and there was discussion of me going home since there were no beds. Muney came back and said we had to wait for the doctor's ok, I couldn't wait so I pulled out my IV and said let's go. I don't remember how I got home but I know I did at about 8 or 9 AM. I called home and and let my parents know what happened, then went to sleep.
I didn't sleep well and was still in a lot of pain, I was bleeding from my right ear, my face and legs were scratched up, ribs were hurting and just generally felt awful. I don't know who I called first when i woke up at 2 but I think it was my friends Rachel and Ben that got me set up in a new hospital since I was still in so much pain. I brought my ipod and cell phone with me to keep me occupied while I was there. I get checked in and they go through all the x-rays and CT scanning again. At about 6 my korean coworker came to help with translation, they told me i would have to spend the night in the ICU.... scary right? yeah, i wasn't too scared at first, i just kinda laughed. CH left and i was all checked in at about 7PM which is when visiting time is over in the ICU. The first thing i did was pull out my ipod and cellphone to update everyone. Then the on-call nurse came over and told me in very poor English "no cell phones or electronics"..... fantastic...
I handed them over and he locked them away. Now im sitting here bored looking at the other 12 ICU patients, 5 of them on the opposite wall from all hooked up to respirators, one of whom had it in his trachea. The patient to my left was in bad shape and kept defecating himself, the one to the right had said mental issues and was rubber band tied to her bed and she never blinked. after a couple hours I had to go to the bathroom so I lowered the cage door of my bed and the attending nurse rushed over and said 'no no no' and put the panel back up, retreated for a moment and came back with a jug.....
Not a great night to say the least.

In the morning i found out that i could leave the ICU but was to stay in the hospital for 3 weeks for observation.... fantastic. after a week of hell, where no one could speak english, i finally convinced them to let let me go home so i could be more comfortable. Another thing i hated about this was that i didnt exactly know what was even wrong with me, nor did I even know what happened at this point for certain, i heard a car hit me, but that was it. Also, i was completely deaf in my right ear.

On the way back from the hospital we had to since some paperwork at the police station. On the way i learned it was a taxi who hit me. The cabs here in Korea are equipped with black box cctv's that record in and outside. I was riding my bike down a hill going fairly fast and my light across the walk was green but turned red just moments before i came to it, so the cabs light turned green (immediately in Korea not like the couple second delay in the states).  And he just hit my back tire and sent me flying. I was in extreme pain still and signed the paper whatever it said.

I went home and felt only slightly better to be in my own place. My friend Ellen came over and took care of me during the first two nights i was here as i was still in a lot of pain. On Sunday i talked with my mom and thats when the wheels really started to move. She had gotten a hold of my cousin Bill, who married a Korean girl whose father works in Seoul and knows several high people in some high places. she told me to expect a call, which came just moments later. Mr Kim came down and made a couple phones calls to several people and got some information from me. He decided to take me to Seoul to Samsung Hospital, we went to dinner first, then got to the ER by 9PM. during check-in i got morphine (btw i found out later that the only painkillers i was getting at the first two hospitals was Tylonel) so i started feeling better, then i got a CT scan and MRI again and my own bed in the 'foreigner section' of the ER. It was a room with just two beds, a japanese girl was asleep in the other. We went to the Ear Nose and Throat section and talked with a doctor who took pictures of my ear drums and i could definitely see the burst.

This was the first time that could actually know and see what was going on. My ear still leaked cerebrospinal fluid for a couple weeks but finally stopped last month. I still have problems hearing from the right ear but i hope it will continue to improve. It was good to finally get some answers. In the morning i met with the dr who told me that i had two skull fractures along my temporal and parietal bones, along with some contusions on my brain which i got to see in detail via the MRI.  

Mr Kim has helped me so much in getting things arranged with money from the cab company. They are going to cover me for 100% of medical costs and 80% of the lost wages from the 3 weeks i was not working. Yay!

Anyway, im doing much better now. sorry this blog came so late after it happened. Been busy is all i will post another much sooner than you would expect.

Ch-ch-ch-Changes.....

So as it has been a while since my last one and there have been a significant number of changes in my life I will post again.

The biggest change for me is that my two best friends John and Anne left for a three month tour of South East Asia, came back for 10 days, then left again and are now back him in the good ol' US of A. This has been the biggest change for me since John and I spent more than half of our free time together and always went biking/adventuring on the weekends. We have many traditions that we do together including Sunday bike and hike and Wednesday game nights. You can see some of the amazing pictures in my albums.

After John and Anne left I moved into their apartment which is nicer than my old one. It is just up the street but more friendly and homey so I have been able to have people over more.

The best part of the recent changes is what I did last weekend; my first real vacation since I came to Korea! Working at my academy we do not get many vacations. In fact only two per year where we get Monday and Tuesday off for the Lunar New Year and Korean Thanksgiving (Chuseok 추석). Last Lunar New Year I did go snowboarding which was surprisingly empty and awesome, and last Chuseok I went to Busan to see my friend Amber. Both were very lazy restful weekends.

This Chuseok I decided to go to the Hawaii of Korean; Jeju-do (A Korean island to the south of the mainland). It was incredible! We friend Peter and I left after work on Friday and took the subway to Seoul to meet up with 75 other foreigners and a couple of Koreans and took three all night charter buses down to the southern tip of Korea (Mokpo) then we took a ferry to the Jeju. We arrived Saturday evening and Peter and I went for a swim in the Sea. We swam out to an island, felt how awesome we were then swam back to find the tide had come in and washed away our shirts and sandals.

Day 2 It was a loud night as we had a Tropical Storm Kulap and well as a lot of thunder in the 6 person room with 2 people (Peter including) snoring quite loudly. We woke up early to board the bus to hike through a lava tube. It was cold and wet and the power went out briefly leaving us in the dark in a cave full of girlish screams (also Peter). Then back to the bus to head to a trick art musuem (meh) and then off to another ferry to see Udo Island; a very tiny island off of Jeju. Luckily the weather cleared by this point because one of the main purposes of this island is to take ATV's all over the island, riding along the beach and then hiking into some massive caves (which it is now be goal for Korea to go back and spend the weekend camping in the caves). Then we got back on the ferry and hiked up Crater Mountain on Jeju which gives get another glorious view of the islands and the sea. After that we headed back to our hotel/beach area (oh btw, the hotel was right on the beach) and

Day 3. It was a lazy day were Peter and I got up and walked barefoot to the minimart down the street to buy new sandals. Then we rented some kayaks for the day (for about $15) and spent the afternoon with an American couple just soaking up the sun and yes having some seaside beers. Once we were finished for the evening we bought some Roman Candle fireworks and had a good ol fashioned Roman Candle fight. Much fun had by all.

Day 4 Woke up at 6 got and the bus and headed home. We got back to Seoul around 9 PM and Peter and I took a cab back to Ansan, then went to the jimjilbang (Korean sauna) for a good soak to wash out all the sand from our places.

And that was my awesome vacation! I look forward to doing more very soon. And one thing I didn't mention was the absolutely enormous amount of wonderful people from all over the world that I met. Peter called me a jabber-jaw because I was talking with everyone. He has only been here a couple months. I'm not accustomed to speaking to new English-speakers.

Well if you are still reading now I applaud to your-stick-to-it-iveness. The next thing in live for me is to keep on working. my contract is up in June still but after this sweet taste of vacation awesomeness I feel like I might need to take a quarter sabbatical and visit some beautiful beaches somewhere. A month would be awesome. It has been difficult to meet so many great people only to have them leave and go back home or even just leave and go on amazing vacations to Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Japan etc..

Oh, man?!?! I just checked my last post and I haven't posted since some of the most spectacular news:
I PAID OFF ALL OF MY STUDENT LOANS!!!!

Part of the reason why I haven't taken any trips till now is because I have been so crazy about saving money to pay off all of my student loans as being in debt is a terrible feeling for me. I paid them off a good 9 years in advance. I RULE! So now all the money I am saving here will go to savings as well as an awesome several month vacation around the world.

Sorry if there are grammar/spelling mistakes. This was written during classes as a stream of consciousness and i want to go home now.