Earthquake!

I was sitting here at my computer in my 11th floor apartment about an hour ago when everything shook for a couple seconds. The news says it was a magnitude 4.8 earthquake in the northeastern part of the country. (Those of you in California might not be so impressed, but this was pretty big for me.) I called my friends, and they felt it, too. People are chatting about it on the internet. The emergency alert system has had announcements on TV saying that it's nothing to worry about, not that I understand these announcements. I only know this because my friends told me. For all I know, they could be saying that North Korea is attacking and we should all find a nuclear fallout shelter immediately.

Here's what's on the Korean websites:

It made me realize that I have absolutely no idea what you're supposed to do in the event of a serious earthquake. I remember fire drills, tornado drills, and bomb drills in school, but I don't remember earthquake drills. Maybe I just have the drills confused. Was that what we were doing when we sat under our desks and covered our heads? What should someone who lives on the 11th floor do if there is a serious earthquake? Stay put? Run down the stairs? Sit under my table and cover my head? Stop, drop, and roll? Maybe those of you in California (or anywhere!) can help me out here.

Toothpaste for People Who Don't Like Math

Finally somebody understands how I feel about the subject.

Hope for Sore Teeth

I think I fired my dentist today. I sat in the teacher's room during my break this afternoon and popped some more Advil. This has been going on for far too long. I got on the internet, did a quick search for English-speaking endodontists in Korea, and had my friend Catherine make an appointment for me for this evening.

The office is in a very upscale area of Seoul, about an hour by subway from where I live. I'm totally impressed. The dentist studied in London and speaks excellent English. He had the most high tech dental equipment I've ever seen. He took two xrays, one of all my teeth and a close up of my problem tooth. The he examined my teeth and took a couple close-up photographs of them. He found two significant problems that the other dentist missed. He took over an hour to explain everything to me, answer all my questions, and lay out a course of treatment. The good news is that he says it can be treated. The bad news is that I need two crowns, not just one.

I don't think I'm going back to my other dentist. I feel reassured that this new dentist thinks he can actually do something to relieve the pain rather than just waiting while I spend everyday in agony (no exaggeration). I was the last patient of the evening at the new dentist's office. After my appointment, he even walked me down the street to the pharmacy to make sure I'd find it since I was in an unfamiliar part of the city. My friend Catherine went along with me this evening. Even though the dentist's English is excellent, it was helpful to have her along. Afterwards, I treated her to dinner.

Total cost of my hour-long appointment with the endodontist (includes 2 xrays): $6.81
Total cost of prescription antibiotics and painkillers to get me through the next week: $3.80
Total cost of all 15 appointments in Korea: $64.81

More Super Cute Kids and Seoul at Night

My princess class on Friday afternoon. I love these little girls. Don't let the angelic faces fool you. They can be a real handful!

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After my dental appointment on Friday, I headed into Seoul to look at the Christmas lights. Unfortunately, they're starting to take them down, so most of the places I went weren't lit up. It was cold, but I walked for about 2 hours and then stopped at a restaurant before heading home. It was a pleasant evening. See below for some snapshots.

My weekend has been nice. On Saturday I went to the National Museum of Korea with my friend Ute. Today I had coffee with another teacher from my school, went grocery shopping, and did some serious housecleaning. I think I have the cleanest floors and bathroom in Kyonggi Province! I also washed my bedding by hand since I don't have a washing machine. I now have the fan blowing on it in hopes that it'll be dry enough to use tonight. Then this evening I met up with Ute for tea.

I've taken January off from my responsibilities at the church because I was hoping to take some weekend trips this month. Instead, I've been sticking close to home because of my tooth. Especially at the end of the day, I just want to be in my own apartment and close to my large supply of Tylenol and Advil. I have another dental appointment on Monday, but I might also go see a doctor this week since it's still extremely painful with no improvement. Friday was my 13th appointment. So far I've paid a total of $53.50 for my dental care in Korea. I can't even imagine how much I would have paid for 13 appointments without dental insurance in the U.S.

Enough rambling. Here are some snapshots of Seoul from Friday evening.

First, Seoul City Hall. The sign says "Saehae bok manhee badeushipshio" which means "Happy New Year!" I was very proud of myself for being able to read and understand it!

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The Christmas tree in front of Seoul City Hall. All the public Christmas trees here have neon red crosses on them. So do all the church steeples. It's a little surreal at night to see all the neon red crosses glowing across the city. (In Korea, red crosses are churches, green crosses are hospitals. Just so you know.)

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They've erected an ice rink in front of the city hall. I thought about renting skates since I love to go ice skating, but it was really crowded and didn't look like it had been "Zambonied" in a while . . . maybe ever . . . so I just watched. You can see what's left of the Christmas decorations in the background. They've started to take them down, but around Christmas time, that whole structure was lit up and quite a sight!

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I really like this giant seashell sculpture in downtown Seoul.

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This is a department store all decked out in Christmas lights!

Very Cute Kids and the Continuing Dental Drama

Is this an extremely cute group of kids or what? This is my youngest class, all about 4 years old. I can't look at them without smiling. A couple of them haven't figured out that I don't speak Korean and tell me whole stories sometimes. They're picking up English unbelievably quickly. They're such a joy. I love this class.

I now go to the dentist everyday until it stops hurting. I'm starting to feel like I live there. Both my friends Catherine and Joy went with me on Wednesday. Catherine came along in case I needed an interpreter and Joy in case I needed a mom. (Joy is not old enough to be my mom, but she does have a daughter and tends to mother all of us at the school, a quality that I tease her about but also appreciate.) We went out for soup afterwards. I have really good friends. I'm often humbled by the way they go out of their way to make sure I'm okay. I hope I can return their generosity and hospitality or pass it on.

In the meantime, I'm really glad that I brought Costco-sized bottles of Tylenol and Advil to Korea with me.

11 appointments: $50.

Open Your Mouse

So it was back to the dentist for me today. The dentist speaks a fair amount of English, but he does a lot of smiling and nodding when I talk to him, which makes me wonder if he really does understand what I say. I'm very familiar with the smile and nod routine. Sometimes it's just less of a headache than asking someone to explain. However, when the topic of conversation is my tooth and the no-kidding-horrendous pain it's causing, smile and nod just won't do. So I asked my friend Catherine to come along with me.

First, Catherine explained to the dentist that I can't eat, can't sleep, can't brush my teeth, and am starting to have a hard time talking because my entire jaw hurts because of this tooth. Then I said the same thing to the dentist, while he smiled and nodded. I think he understood what I said without the interpretation, but it gave me a little peace of mind to know that he heard the whole story twice, once in a language I know he understands.

He tilted me back in the chair and told me to open my "mouse." (Koreans have a very hard time pronouncing the "th" sound.) Fortunately he numbed my tooth this time, because I don't think he could have touched it without me jumping out of the chair and shrieking. I tried my hardest to block the rest out of my memory. After and hour of poking, prodding, squirting, filing, and goodness knows what else to my tooth, he told me to keep taking Tylenol and sent me on my way. I go back on Wednesday.

So I've been sitting here in my apartment for the past two hours waiting for the numbness to wear off so that my mouth functions properly so I can eat. Now, just as I'm regaining sensation, I'm realizing that I'm not going to be a happy camper when I can feel my face again, so it might be better to eat NOW, despite the drooling and lack of coordination on the right side of my face, in an effort to be sound asleep before the numbness wears off. That's my new goal, so I'm signing off and hoping it'll happen.

9 appointments: $45.

A Snowy Morning

It kept snowing on an off until about 2 PM yesterday. I went to the grocery store and then over to the school to get some work done while it was quiet. My friend Joy was there, too, so we ordered lunch and got a lot done. I still haven't done my lesson plans, but I made great progress getting the massive pile of stuff on my desk organized. Today I'm getting together with a friend for tea, finishing my lesson plans, lamenting my very sore tooth, going back to the grocery store for things I forgot yesterday, and maybe going for a walk.

Here are a couple photos from yesterday, as seen from my apartment window. Almost all the snow is gone now.

10:17 AM

10:55 AM

Snow Falling on Concrete

It's been snowing on and off all morning. The mountain is probably pretty today, but the view from my apartment is just very gray--gray buildings, gray roads, gray sky. Not so inspiring.

I made one of my favorite students cry yesterday. It just about broke my heart. The kids were supposed to write the letter "A" on lined paper. As she wrote her A's, they kept getting smaller and smaller and smaller, to the point that you couldn't read it anymore. When I pointed it out, she put her head down on the desk and cried. My friend Joy said she thinks the other kids probably teased her in Korean about it since there have been other incidents of kids picking on her. It's frustrating because when the kids say something in Korean in the classroom, I almost never understand them, so I don't know when they're saying something mean. Joy is going to sit in on the class on Monday. Hopefully that will help.

My tooth hurts like crazy, but at least the temporary filling is still in its place. I go back on Monday.

I have no plans for today or tomorrow, other than getting together with a friend for tea sometime. I'm hoping to get some lesson plans done. I also haven't been grocery shopping since I got back to Korea, so I need to do that at some point, too. My cupboards are down to noodles, one can of soup, a really big bag of rice, some dried seaweed, 5 different kinds of tea, cookies, and peanut butter. The refrigerator has water, ketchup, and lime juice. Yep, I better go shopping. That means braving the snow flurries long enough to go next door to the grocery store.

Back to the Dentist

The dentist replaced my missing temporary filling yesterday. The tooth still hurts like heck and is still disgusting and oozing, but at least it doesn't have a gaping hole in it.

8 appointments: $41 (no charge for yesterday's appointment to replace the filling)

Classes went well yesterday. I feel well-rested after two weeks of being back home. I'm having a lot more fun with my students this week than I was in the weeks before Christmas, and that seems to be good for all of us. I'm on a Bingo kick with my preschool and kindergarten classes--picture Bingo for the very little preschoolers, alphabet Bingo for the pre-kindergartners, and easy reading Bingo for my kindergartners. So far, they love it and don't realize that they're learning and not just playing. Shhhhh . . . don't let the secret out.

Making Myself Understood

Here I am, back in the land of difficult communication. I had to go back to the dentist yesterday. It seems that my root canal is reinfected. That big, ol', ugly, oozing abscess is back. Yay. Since the receptionist doesn't speak much English, I wrote a note to the dentist and left it at the office for him. He was able to work me in after my classes yesterday. He removed the filling from the previous root canal, cleaned it, and put a temporary filling in. After dinner last night, I noticed that I have a gaping hole in my tooth. I must have eaten my temporary filling with dinner. Today I have to be at school before the dentist office opens, so I'm trying to decide if I'll slip a note under the door or have one of my friends at school call and explain what the problem is. Of course, sliding a note under the door is slightly unorthodox, but if I have a friend call, first I have to explain the problem to her and hope that she understands and relays it correctly. My friends here do speak English, but even with them, communication can be a challenge sometimes.

Running total of my Korean dental care (7 appointments): $41
Cost of one of my two dental appointments when I was in the U.S.: $49

Back in Korea

I arrived safely back in my apartment in Korea at 9 PM Monday night after 24 hours of thankfully uneventful travel. My flight from Chicago was delayed, but I still got into San Francisco with enough time to make my connection to Seoul. The turbulence wasn't too bad, unlike my flight from Seoul to Tokyo a few weeks ago. On that flight, people were literally screaming and coffee pots were rolling on the floor.

I taught from 10 AM until 8 PM yesterday, with a few breaks in between. I started to feel the jetlag in the late afternoon, which made that evening class a challenge. It was fun to see my students again. It's funny how those little ones grow on you after a while!

So it's just life as usual around here. I'm happy to be back but miss my family, of course. More later.

Christmas Photos

I'm still here in Illinois and enjoying my time with my family, but I thought I'd share these photos that were taken in Korea a couple weeks ago. I'm using my dad's computer, so I don't have the software to reduce the size of them, so my apologies to anyone who might have a slow connection.

First, some Christmas decorations around my town and Seoul:

At a restaurant with my friends:

Around the Christmas tree with my students:

Christmas cards

I'm just starting to think about sending Christmas cards, and I noticed that my addresss book is a little out of date. If you didn't get a Christmas card from me last year or if you've moved since last Christmas, please send me an email!

That's all the news for today. I'm just relaxing here in the Chicago suburbs these days. My current favorite pasttime is curling up in the beanbag chair with the cat and getting my fill of foods that can't be found in Korea.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Pizza Anyone?

Wednesday, December 20th
Happy Joe's in Galena
7 PM
Call me at Grandma Shirley's if you have any questions.

Very Happy

Hello from Chicago. More later. :)

Ya!

Once again, there's really nothing to report this week. I've been really busy teaching and getting ready to head home for Christmas. The root canal is finished, and I am pain free. (Total cost: $37.) I finished all my Christmas shopping this evening (total cost significantly more than $37) and now I just have to figure out how to pack everything. I can't believe I'm leaving in just 4 days!

After church on Sunday, I stopped by a street that has a really great collection of shops. In the middle of this block of shops is a big plaza that has some funky stores and contemporary art displays. The photo above is of the wallpaper at that plaza. It says "ya!" which means "hey!" in Korean. And that about sums it up for today!

No news, just a sore tooth

Yep, that about sums it up.

The root canal still isn't finished because of the infection. I went back this morning, and the dentist poked at it and drilled some more. Since he had already removed the nerve, he said I didn't need an anesthetic. It made sense to me at the time, until I felt this horrible, sharp pain. Apparently there was still some nerve tissue left. OUCH is an understatement. I have another appointment Thursday afternoon. I cringe thinking about it.

Five appointments to date: $30.

On the bright side, I'll be home for Christmas in 11 days, but who's counting anyway?

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Usually, on Mondays I only teach one class, but one of the teachers was sick yesterday, so I ended up teaching all of his classes as well. Four classes back-to-back with only 10 minutes notice. Yikes! I didn't even know which textbooks to use! It all worked out well and was fun since I got to meet a new group of kids and see what it's like teaching older students.

After classes were over, Joy, Catherine, and I put the Christmas tree up in the school lobby. We wanted it where everyone could see and enjoy it, but the lobby is very small, so we opted for right in front of Joy's desk. We were very impressed with ourselves, so we took out the tripod and set the camera on the timer.

Here's one with the lights on:

And with the lights off:

Then we stopped by a department store to look at all the Christmas decorations. They had a whole display of mardi-gras-esque masks. I'm not really sure why they were in with the Christmas decorations (Joy and Catherine didn't know either), but we had fun trying them on . . . until we were told my a salesperson that we're not allowed to take pictures in the store. Oops.

My tooth seems to be healing pretty well. The erupting bulge in my gums has slowed down to an ooze and isn't anywhere near as painful anymore. As you can see, it's not slowing me down any.

Definitely root canal

A couple weeks ago I went to the dentist and was told "maybe root canal." I didn't like that assessment, so I've been taking the mystery pill packets and hoping that the problem resolves itself. Well . . . no luck, and on Friday, in addition to a very sore tooth and white stuff oozing from my gums, I had a nice large bulge around the tooth that periodically erupted. Gross! I stopped by the dentist's office after school yesterday, but they were already closed. However, their sign said they're open most of the day on Saturdays ("Saturday" is now a new word in my Korean vocabulary), so I was there when they opened the doors this morning. I told the dentist just to go ahead and do whatever it takes to fix this darn thing.

(Here's something I think is really funny. During my first visit to this dentist about two weeks ago, hardly anyone spoke in English to me. Even the dentist only spoke a few sentences to me. On my second visit a week later, people who said NOTHING to me in English on my first visit spoke to me in complete sentences, and I had a whole conversation with the dentist, whose English turns out to be excellent. Were they just shy the first time, or did they brush up on their English in the course of a week?)

The dentist gave me a couple shots of anesthetic, let me sit for a while, and then came back and asked if it was numb. My tongue was numb, and so was the inside of my cheek, so I said "yes." He started to drill, and all of a sudden, there was this TERRIBLE pain. Ummm . . . not numb. I seem to have a really high pain tolerance, but I'm a nervous patient and a bit jumpy. This only partially numb tooth didn't help! So another couple shots and more waiting. It took a total of 8 shots of anesthetic before they found the right place to numb the tooth. As a result, the entire right side of my face was numb, and I was drooling and having trouble speaking for most of the rest of the day. It ended up taking two hours, but the first part of the root canal is done. As much as I hated to spend a beautiful Saturday cooped up indoors, I'm very glad to have taken care of this on a weekend and NOT on a day when I'd have to go teach later in the afternoon!

It's a little sore now, and the periodically erupting bulge is still there (and still gross), but all in all, I'm not THAT uncomfortable. I go back on Thursday for Root Canal Part 2.

(Total cost of three visits to the dentist, xrays, two weeks worth of prescription antibiotics and painkillers, and Root Canal Part 1: $21.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I talked a few of my friends into going out for dinner to celebrate Thanksgiving with me last night. No turkey or dressing, but we had some really good Korean food. Here's the photographic evidence of our nice night out:

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After my adult class this morning, we all went out for lunch to celebrate Thanksgiving again! Once again, no turkey or stuffing, but some really good Korean food:

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Last Sunday was a choir contest at church. Every group in the church had to perform a song in front of everyone else. They had some mechanism for judging choirs. First prize was . . . get ready for this . . . a tube of toothpaste for every member of the winning choir! Alas, my choir didn't win first prize (guess I better pick up some toothpaste at the store after all), but we each walked away with a nice consolation prize of . . . brace yourself for the excitement now . . . a box of tissues!!! (And the crowd goes wild . . .) Here we are in the main sanctuary performing our song. Can you pick me out? (Hint: I'm wearing the same turquoise turtleneck as in the previous pictures. I guess I need to vary my wardrobe a bit . . . or do laundry.) The photographer was sitting behind the men's bible study choir, hence all the men in suits in the foreground.

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Finally, here's a shot of the underside of a beautiful Japanese maple tree that I walk past on my way to school each day. I didn't adjust the color at all. It's really this brilliant!

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Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I certainly miss all of you and am thinking about you today. I have much to be thankful for, but top on my list are my family and friends.