Week Nine (April 21 - 27)

April 21th

Told myself to I was going to get up and work on art projects. Today would be the day I would buy the necessary to start my final self portrait due next Thursday. Didn't happen. I was glued to Mad, Mad House on Hulu.

 

Somehow I managed to chip the corner of my right big toe to the nail bed in bed. The beds here are killing my back. The mattress has zero give. I was twisted in my blanket and I jerked my foot and it just tore. Ouch. Luckily, it wasn't bleeding. All I had were scissors, masking tape, and a sanitary pad. Do what you gotta do~

 

I also came to the conclusion that I want to give up perms and go natural. How did I come to this conclusion?

1.) Money: They're too darn expensive and frequent! Like $90 every 3 months!

2.) Fear: There are too many horror stories on the net, with evidence, showing that African women in Itaewon (the foreigner district near the US military base) are NOT certified to be perming hair!

3.) Uniqueness: Asian guys are around women with silky straight hair all their lives! I just found out that a huuuge chunk of them dig curly hair! That's my ticket in!!!

4.) Hairstyles: They're sooo cool!!

 

 

 

 

April 22th

Raenna asked me if I wanted to go see the Banpo Bridge. YES! It's a normal bridge, except it spouts several dozen waterspouts that have lights behind them and it's sooo pretty in the night! Plus, it was featured in the Korean drama "Boys Before Flowers" and I love me a piece of Lee Min Ho! So I HAD to go!! It's just that we didn't realize how far we had to walk to GET to the bridge. The subway dropped us off like a five miles (totally exaggerating, but it was 8:30 at night) away from the right bridge, but we got there just in time for the show! (See the gallery for videos)

 

Since my injured toe couldn't stand the rubbing of a sock in a shoe, I wore my favorite brown sandals. The weather decided to hit the 40s. Krista and I were doing a lot of skipping around and such. All seemed to be factors in stressing my foot. When I got back to the dorm, my foot felt...big. I shrugged it off, knowing I had done too much walking in inapproriate shoes and called it a night.

 

 

 

 

April 23th

My foot is NOT okay! MOOOOOOOOOOOMMY!!

 

 

 

 

April 24th

I continue to keep my foot propped up, cool rag over it for 30 minutes, let it warm up, and basically watched anime all day. Bad thing is that I had to keep getting up out of bed to do stuff like walk down the hall to wet the rag or heat up lunch, pee, etc etc.

 

By 5PM I was really worried. I couldn't move my toes very much and it was very swollen overall. I resolved to see the Ewha clinic first thing tomorrow morning.

 

 

 

 

April 25th

I skipped Korean class for my health. One, because I don't think I could have walked to class without rupturing my foot and Two, I wasn't ready to see my score on the midterm. Hehehehe.

 

The clinic didn't open until 9AM (RANDDOM!!) so I laid in bed an extra hour and hobbled my way through it all. It was raining, so I loosened my tennis shoes as far as they'd go and eased my injured foot inside. Thankfully the swelling had gone down, since I'd managed to stay relatively still last night and my foot remained propped up on various articles of clothing. They spoke English in the clinic, super surprised, because they didn't speak a lick of English in the mailroom. I was the first one in.

 

The doctor/nurse asked me to explain what was wrong. I told her. She had me get my foot out of the shoe and proceeded to assualt my foot, like doctors do, to find the source of the pain. It will haunt me:

"Pain?" PRESS.
"Pain here?" TWIST.
"Pain here?" JAB.
"Pain?" BEND.
"No pain?" SQUEEZE!!!

 

Come to find out that I had damaged the nerve/area running up the back of my ankle! Nothing she could do but spray cooling stuff on it, wrap it up, give me heating pads, and vitamins and wait for it to heal. My friend Elliot, who had been on crutches until five days ago, gave me his pair (bless him!) so I'm practicing with them. I have class on the sixth floor of an elevator-less building tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

April 26th

Yejung is the best Buddy ever!! Since I had class on the sixth floor of Art building A and her class was canceled, she walked me from the International dorm all the way up to class! Mind you, I was using (attempting to use) two crutches after several Youtube videos, and about ten minutes in, I was tired! My arms and foot aren't strong enough to carry the right's weight! Yejung stuck by me the whole time, worried, was asking for carts, etc. In the art building, she literally tried to pull me up the inclines on a small cargo cart. It was too heavy. The cart, not me.

 

After class, she'd borrowed a light cart from the science building and pulled across campus all the way back to the dorms! Dozens of people looked at us, but only a few outright laughed at us. Most were polite enough to turn away before giggling. I mean, my wrap was showing and I was carrying crutches still. Yejung rocks!!

 

 

 

 

 

April 27th

I think I need to be more explicit about South Korea and I's feelings about North Korea in the form of a really entertaining video.