Good Bye Korea, hello Philippines.

Sun, sand, crystal clear water, temperatures above freezing, clean air....somebody pinch me!

I only have 4 days, 5 nights but I'm sooooooooooo excited! No job, no kids, no doctor putting a needle through my middle ear, Just, a little piece of....Heaven. 

February 3rd is the Korean Lunar new year, Seolnal. It's Korea's biggest holiday next to Chuseok (the harvest moon festival) which means, 3 days off! Koreans spend this time going back to their ancestral roots. I pulled this little information of a local website: 

This is a time when Korea's roads, railways, and skies are full of homeward bound travelers. People line up for hours when the bus and train tickets go on sale, about 3 months prior to the holidays. For those masochistic enough to try driving, taking over 24 hours to drive from Seoul to Busan is not unheard of! (Normally, it takes 5-6 hours).

Ha. Ya, right, 24 hours in a car! Last weekend, I sat in a bus for 6 hours from traffic when the drive is normally 2 and I wanted shoot myself. I will, however, brave the crowds at the airport to take a red-eye flight to the Philippines. I'm going with a couple friends from school. We are flying into Cebu, arriving at 1:30am, probably sleeping at the airport a few hours until we can catch a ferry to Bohol, a neighboring island. Bohol isn't as popular as some islands in the Philippines but since our time is short, I wanted minimal time lost from travel. 

Philippines to do list:

Number one: Tan my white ass.

Scuba dive (depending on my decision to risk rupturing my ear drum from my sinus infection but will definitely snorkel)

Rent scooters to scoot the island

Hike the island's famous Chocolate hills

Sit on the beach with my feet in the sand and have cocktails in both hands.

This weekend I stayed in Seoul hoping to conquer my sinus infection instead of heading to hill to snowboard like I usually do. So, what do I and Christy (a friend) decide to do? Shoot some guns! Where do you ask is a shooting range in Korea? Just at Lotte World, a huge kids indoor and outdoor amusement park. Where else would it be? 

The ice skating rink area at Lotte world. Look closely, there's a trolley that goes around up top along with hot air balloons you can ride. Pretty amazing...I really need to figure out how to use the settings on my camera. 

The hot air balloon ride.

Not so much good with the aiming. Don't mind the one that's not even on the target. In my offense, I'm way better shooting a riffle. :)

An apple a day, keeps the doctor away? Bullshit.

It's been a month since I went to the doctor for my wide range of health problems as you read in the blog before this. Well, here's an update. Still sick. My sinus infection was under control a week ago, as my doctor puts it, but after I went to the doctor today, now it's not. SUPER.

Since I went to the doctor I have manage to...
    ~Have follow up checks every 3 days. That's at least 10 doctor visits (costing ~300,000w total, so far..)
    ~Have had 5 pills prescribed to me to take 3 times a day ( Which means I have consumed 340 drugs, not       including all the IBprofen for my body aches). Which also cost around 12,000w for each prescription.
    ~Have had my ears drained (twice in one ear, and once in the other).
    ~A shot in the butt.
    ~The goods from my nose and throat sucked out every dr. visit.
    ~Have had 5 different strained muscles in my rib cage from coughing.
    ~A few SUPER awesome side effects from all the above.
    ~And received a present from the doctor, a very fashionable surgical mask to wear.

All lot of people complain about the healthcare in the States, but at least you can visit once and get all the drugs you need to become healthy again AND maybe use a sick day or two.

On the bright side, if you know me, I usually don't let feeling awful stand in my way (except for the last two months) and I'm headed to a Winter festival this weekend. Don't quite know what to expect except there will be ice sculptures and ice fishing, where you catch the fish with your bare hands!!! Once I heard that, I was sold! If you catch a fish, which I will, there's a place that'll cook it for you. Stoked!

Don't worry, I'll post the pictures of my enormous fish! :)


  

Bah-humbug to 2011.

I was in the Largest City in the world, Tokyo, Japan for New years and I sat on a friends couch, all by myself, in a puddle of my own ear puss. I couldn't even bring myself to stay up until 12am.

I don't think I have ever been so sick in my life. I started December with bronchitis and most likely pneumonia (though I didn't go to the doctor for the actual diagnosis), only to feel better by Christmas. Then, the day after Christmas when I leave for Japan I come down with something else to make my trip very close to unenjoyable. I've never been the person to let a sickness get in my way of playtime but holy hell did it kick my ass this time. I left Japan with a Lower respiratory infection, a sinus infection, and an ear infection. Only to come back to Seoul to get an ear infection in the other ear too. But, good thing I have zero sicks days at work because who needs those.

I feel like death. I'm blowing and coughing up a rainbow of colors. My head is pounding and I can not hear anything. Co-workers looks at me and give me the "Hi! Uh...you look tired." (Gee, thanks, I feel awful too). My Korean Co-teacher who actually has a heart, let me go home early (only because I didn't have a class- but who cares) to go to a nose, throat, and ear doctor. Now, street names and numbers do not exist in Korea. So, to find someplace you go by subways stations and Landmarks. You'd think this would be easy but all the landmarks are the same. Landmarks are like Starbucks, the same one are EVERYWHERE. So, I find this doctor who my teacher told me to go to. He speaks little english but checks me out and then sends me home with tea. TEA?!!! Really. Tea, are you kidding me? This better be some magical damn tea. I go into work the next day, and ask about this TEA. They have no idea why he gave me tea. My co-teacher reads the tea and finds that I went to a Chinese herbalist. Ugh...KOREA. She lets me leave work a little early again to find the doctor that I'm suppose to go to. I find it, it's 2 doors down from the one I went to. This doctor gives me drugs and sucks the snot out of my nose...well, the current snot because the next load fills my sinuses back up 5 seconds later! Thank god. He tells me I have to come back in two days, because he has to fix my sinus problem before he can do anything about my ears.  Drugs start to work, I go back to him giving me more drugs and poking holes into my middle ear and using a syringe to suck the fluid out. Oh my god, did that hurt. I cried.  The nurse just kept handing me tissue.

I have been sick, I have been in pain, and I have been so incredibly tired it hurts but I can honestly say I have never been so mentally, physically, or emotionally drained then what this last month and still now has done to me.  Call me a baby, but all I wanted was my mom.

After all that, I'm finally starting to feel better, I made it through the work week, and I look forward to doing absolutely nothing over the weekend. The only positive thing I can say from illness was that even though my head was pounding with my ear infections, not being able to hear my kids was kinda nice! (don't tell my work though ;).

Even though I felt awful I really enjoyed Japan. I would love to go back and actually explore more when I'm healthy. I went with 3 other people, one of my co- workers and a couple of her friends from home. I didn't do any of the planning, I was strictly a follower which turned out well, since I felt the way I did. We flew into Tokyo and then traveled north to Nagano to the village of Nawaza Onsen where we planned to snowboard.  This resort was where the 1998(?) Winter Olympics were. We stayed there for 2 nights and then headed back to Tokyo to stay with Hide (pronounced Hee-day) a guy the people who I traveled with knew. We were all strapped for cash, so it was super nice of Hide to let us stay at his house, even though we all slept on the floor...but it was a free floor! Hide was awesome because he was our personal tour guide for the time we got to Tokyo till the time we left.

Here are some pictures from Japan. I'll try to explain what most are but half the time I couldn't focus on what was going on because I felt so awful.

Hello Japan!

All the toilet seat in Japan were heated. It was like siting down on a seat after someone had already been sitting there for a while. Kinda nice on those cold days but more weird. Some toilets had bidets but I was/am too nervous to try them I've heard some funny stories and let's face it, with my luck I'd be the funny story....and sometimes I know better!

Nazawa Onsen in the gondola to snowboard!

Huh, trees on the moutain? That's strange.

I heart Japan. Just the little pieces from home that make my day! 

Old style Japanese house made by hand. The details put into making this was nuts.

Bun Bun lodge, where we stayed while in Nawaza Onsen

They drive on the opposite side of the road.

Tokyo

Some local ad. Check out hair dos!

A park

Rice wine barrels

Saki Barrels :) Yum!

Really?! All that just to say no smoking?

Japanese graffiti

A famous street...the name cracks me up but I'm pretty sure it's not really  how you say, it but still, funny.

There's a story behind this statue. Ask me later!

Busiest intersection in the world. This happened to be a slow night.

When to a famous bar called The Lock up. The entrance is a haunted house. Pretty sweet! 

The worlds tallest (highest?) ferris wheel...of course we rode it!

Creepy mickey mouse dolls you can win.

If there's Mickey, there has got to be Minnie!

More crap you can win...but look closely...

hahahaha, you know you want him!

Can't remember why this is special....

Went to a temple on New Years Eve

Walking to the Temple, lots of  little shops

Good thing I don't believe in these things...2011 might not be such a good year for me :(

Good luck smoke. 

Octopus?


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