Sick-mas.

It's Christmas Eve in America and Christmas Day in Korea, but really the day is just another day. It's doesn't exactly feel like Christmas in this part of the world. Although I don't celebrate it, the last 6 Christmases have been nice spending it with my observing friends' and boyfriends' families, and I miss it a bit this year. However, our school is throwing us a Christmas party in the evening: food, drinks, alcohol, talent show (which I am partaking in...). More to come on that one later.

I have seen some small Christmas trees around town, and some stores have been playing American Christmas songs, which is always fun, but that's about as far as it goes. At school, our manager ordered us a big feast for lunch: sushi, some Korean fried pork things, some sort of soup, green tea pizza and some breaded chicken breasts. One of the foreign teachers dressed up as Santa and gave all the students in the school some candy - well, except for the middle schoolers, we don't like them. Other than that, just another day at school with fascinating writing (see example photo), and at least one student per class demanding, "Teacher! Give me candy!"

On a less-than-thrilling note, the winter season has brought sickness with it in full force! The students act as disease-carrying parasites that attack when least expected. They may look cute in these pictures, but don't be fooled. School is essentially a place to unavoidably contract illnesses. I thought I had trained the little rats to cover their mouths just in time for the cold and sick season, but wow, was I mistaken. Three weeks ago, I came down with tonsillitis and paid a visit to the doctor. It was pretty miserable being sick, but after a shot of who-knows-what in my behind, I was feeling a lot better. The doc also gave me a bunch of unmarked pills to take 5 pills, 3 times a day for 3 days. Perhaps needless to say, I was feeling almost 100% by the end of all that. I thought I was done with sickness for a while, but again was mistaken.

Perhaps there are a few different strings of viruses going around, and my immunity to the others has not yet built itself up. After feeling healthy for a solid two weeks, the ever-so-lovely children continued with their coughing down my throat. Last Friday night, I contracted some sort of cough which would soon become bronchitis. I spent the entire weekend in bed, had to take a sick day on Monday, and finally made it back to the doc for Wednesday after our work meeting. Bronchitis - another shot in the bum, a bunch of unmarked pills for 3 days and some "frog" syrup that's supposed to help with coughing and sore throat. Now, it's been a solid week of this illness and it's still not exactly close to gone. The rounds of medication didn't seem to work the magic this time.

Earlier today, I had my last piano practice session before the talent show tomorrow. The piano teacher made me some sort of hot beverage full of honey - it wasn't too bad. She then tried to explain a home remedy, something about pears, ginger and honey. She wrote me a note in Korean of what to do - my Korean coworker told me to that it said to mix those ingredients in a bowl of water and put that bowl inside another bowl of boiling water and do something. I don't know. But it sounded complicated.

I'll be going back to the doc in the morning for a follow-up, and I'm crossing my fingers that she can do something magical. I really hope my immune system is as tough as Stone Cold Steve Austin after all this. I will continue to take vitamins and eat an apple a day to keep the doctor away, and all that other healthy stuff. Please do your job, immune system. At below zero-degree Fahrenheit temperatures and sick, coughing kids that won't stay home from school, I will need all the strength I can get!

Merry Christmas, world!

                                     Bibio - Lover's Carvings (vocals kick in around 2:00)

On the Border at the DMZ

The last several weeks have been insanely busy and have flown by. December is already well on its way, not sure how that even happened.

Towards the end of November, I was able to make a trip to the Demilitarized Zone between North Korea and South Korea. Good thing we went when we did, because a few days later, the tension shot up between NK and SK and things are still not exactly stable.

I probably should have posted about the DMZ closer to when it happened because I can't remember many of the facts anymore. It was a very interesting trip, worth one trek, but not a second. After teaching on Friday night, we took the KTX fast train to Seoul and finally settled into a seedy love motel around 2:30am - wake up call 7:00am. After Dunkin' Donuts coffee and a bagel, we headed for our tour bus with a bunch of other foreigners.

The DMZ goes 2km into North Korea and 2km into South Korea and is supposedly the most heavily militarized border in the world. Our first stop was Imjingak and the Bridge of Freedom at the edge of the DMZ, 2km from the actual North Korean border. Close to 13,000 prisoners crossed the bridge to "freedom" in 1953. They also had part of an old train with more than 1,000 bullets that was derailed in the war. There were some good touristy photo opps there and a small amusement park that I thought was abandoned until I saw the "Super Viking" swinging across the sky.

Next, we went to the Third Tunnel - North Korea had dug many tunnels with the plan of secretly attacking Seoul at some point. We weren't allowed to take photos in the tunnel area, but we did have some great hard-hats that we were required to wear. We looked unfathomably awesome. Some parts of the tunnel got pretty low, and the foreigners tend to be taller than 5 feet tall. I could hardly contain my laughter when every 3 seconds, on beat like a metronome, hard-hats would clink on the tunnel ceiling followed by a slight groan. I enjoyed it.

This full day tour was a long one! Next, we went to an observation point of North Korea that we weren't allowed to take photos at once you stepped foot over this line. It made no sense whatsoever, but I did, however, break the rules.  I accidentally took a picture on the wrong side of the line of someone getting busted for taking a picture on the wrong side of the line. We also stopped at Dorasan station, which is the last train stop in South Korea. They built it hoping that it would open up some railways into North Korea, but that didn't work out.

Finally, we made it to the actual border of North and South Korea - Panmunjom, or sometimes known as JSA (Joint Security Area). At that point, the tour was led by the US Army. We were able to cross the actual border within a building that was being guarded by ROK (Republic of Korea) soldiers. They just stood there with Ray-Ban-like aviator sunglasses on and did not move an inch, much like the guards outside Buckingham Palace.

It was a good trip, a long day and glad I did it once, but wouldn't sign up for it again. To keep things in the theme of "borders," we went to On The Border for dinner in Sincheon, near Hongdae - a good place to go out for a night in Seoul. Some of my other friends from Daegu had been in the area for The Flaming Lips show and we met up later on. The band turned up at the bar we were at, and I had a few words and a hand shake with the lead singer, Wayne Coyne. The rest of the night turned out to be one to remember forever. Thank you, Seoul. See you soon.

And for your ears: Lemon Jelly - "Spacewalk"


LEMON JELLY Spacewalk from Mario Cavalli on Vimeo.