Happy Chusoek!

09.17-24.2010
So, I'm trying to fast-forward as much as possible, without forgetting any of the big festivities...
Chusoek is the Harvest Festival/Thanksgiving/Memorial of ancestors, so it's just sort of a big deal in S. Korea. In my pre-Chusoek festivities, I got pizza from the NEW neighborhood pizza joint, a whole Hawaiian pizza for 7,000won.


I did have to work for about half of the week for Chusoek, I know some schools allowed their English teachers for the whole week off, but I really didn't mind it too much, I just had to be there, since no classes were in session, it was my prep time.
During my holiday I went to a burger joint with Micheal in Suwon station, to prove to that my recruiter was incorrect, she sent me an email, recommending to me to go grocery shopping before Chusoek, since no restaurants would be open...
I had a chicken sandwich and Mountain Dew, a real treat for me.
Also, my school did generously give me a Chusoek gift, a year supply (for me) of laver.
Yay! I think its something I'll be sending home...

During the holiday, I did visit the Korean War Museum. It had a lot of interesting things to see. Here's a few photos:





After the war museum, we stopped off at Itaewon, a very popular area for foreigners in Seoul. In Yongsan-gu, off line 6, its a great place to find stuff you miss from back home, designers, food, clothes, English bookstores, etc... We had a nice dinner in an Irish pub. And we checked out the foreigners' market for those hard to find food items.
I had a nice time, made some new friends, and had a few drinks...

Typhoon

09.02.2010

I was released from the hospital on 8/31/10. Yay. Clean bill of health! On Wednesday I returned to work, as per usual, but everyone was anticipating the approaching typhoon. Needless to say, I was excited. My first typhoon! I’m actually going to experience what my BS Senior Research Paper was all about! Seriously, I can still be a weather nerd.


I was told that Typhoon Kompasu would make landfall early on Thursday morning. It was actually one of the few typhoons to reach the Seoul city limits. In open water, it reached a category 3 rating, but as we all know as soon as it made landfall the intensity and strength decreased. It was rated as a category 1 typhoon when it went through the Gyeonggi Province. I actually woke up in the middle of the night/early morning from the sounds of the strong winds and moderate rainfall. It was a fast moving typhoon, by morning, my daily walk to school was just rain with strong gusts of wind. To my surprise Typhoon Kompasu actually followed much of the DMZ as it went on land. Even a typhoon knows where the country borders are, lol. Unfortunately, there was extensive damage in both countries. My experienced entailed a lot of rain, high winds, and a ‘short’ power outage at work. Luckily, I still had everything working at my apartment. At school, the power didn’t come on until 11 am. So, I spent most of my morning drawing a ‘Thank you’ card for Aunt Yang Young-Rae.


It was a terrible example of my ability to blend colors with crayons. :/ Oils are much more forgiving! Anyways, there was extensive damage in Gyeonggi province. I have attached some links showing how much it affected not only Seoul, but the nation as well. http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2925479
These photos are a small example of the damage around my school and home.




Currently, there is a Korean cabbage shortage, because of the poor weather this summer and the typhoons. This is a major news story in Korea. The president has allowed an 'emergency cabbage' situation, in which Chinese cabbage will be imported without any extra customs fees. http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=040000&biid=2010092871018

Getting Better-ish

8.30.2010

Woke up with a visit from the doctor, he said that I am improving enough, so I can finally eat. I ate real food at lunch! So happy! I ate while watching ‘Drop Dead Diva’ for two episodes and then the Aunt came to visit with her husband. She helped me eat, as my energy was still very low. They told me if I could keep the food down okay, I had a good chance to leave the hospital tomorrow evening. So, I tried my best to keep eating and taking my medicine regularly. I fell asleep and woke up for my dinner. I wasn’t as hungry as before, but I tried to eat enough to make a difference in my strength. Also, I got a roommate, an elderly woman; she is very frail. I got a visit from the work friends; they looked very worried when they saw me. Jen brought me some beautiful flowers, too kind. Later in the evening I got a visit from Michael as well. Thankfully, I was feeling better.