Imprisoned In Korea
I'm locked in a wall-coffin and hospitalized within days of each other. Crazy.

Maybe I shouldn't be writing a blog update right now because I'm seriously loopy on meds right now (ask Brighton), but hey, I have time. After taking Monday and Tuesday off of work, I went in to school this morning. Maybe it was the combination of waking up early and taking my meds without food, but I was seriously out of it. First thing in the morning I had to go down to the office with my co-teacher to fill out this form because I had been gone. The vice principal who speaks no English got up when I walked in the room and looked seriously happy, then started exclaiming things to me. It was cute. He's old. Old-ish. Then my co-teach explained to them what was wrong with me. Which sounds really stupid and pathetic when you tell people. "Yeah, I was gone for 2 days because I have a strained muscle." People then think of a sore muscle, then next think you're a friggin' pansy. But honestly, it feels like a friggin' knife is being jabbed into my rib cage. My medication always wears off in the middle of the night and it's horrendous. I was laying there for 15 minutes last night breathing all funky and moaning because no matter how I layed the knife was still twisting in my side. I actually felt physically ill. This morning Brighton said she heard me last night and I sounded horrible...she thought I was going to vomit. But anyway...

So I signed the thing in the office and then the vice principal told me to go home that afternoon to rest. I then said, "But I have the special class this afternoon." [The special English class for the smarty-pants kids]. They then say to me, "No, go home. No special class. Rest!" Ok, whatever you say. :) So we go back up to our room. The first class starts. At this point I'm totally out of it. I basically sat there staring the whole time, randomly inserting remarks to the class. The class gets over and my co-teach calls someone on the phone. She hangs up the says to me, "Go to your home." Yeah, I must have looked really pathetic. So I went home. And now I'm home. And watching tv. We downloaded the entire first season of "My Name is Earl" and we've been watching that. It's funny. We're on episode 10. I think.

Anyway, aside from the hospital, here's what Brighton and I have been doing:

On Saturday we went back to Seoul. Our first stop was Soedaemun Prison. This was a prison built by the Japanese when they occupied Korea. They imprisoned and tortured (and killed) Koreans who fought for independence. It's now a sort of museum, ala Alcatraz. Here's one sentence in the brochure: "Our people still bare the suffering of forcible occupaiton by the Japanese. During that period, our self-esteem was dealt a blow, the self-development of our country was suspended, thus marking a painful chapter in our history...We do hope that all people, especially, teenagers who will take charge of Korean future, can learn and cherish the spirit of Korean ancestors who shown blazing patriotism in independence movements." All grammar mistakes not mine. Another reason we went was that I have this guide called "Seoul's Best 100" that has all the places in Seoul you should see. Of this, it says, "...visitors can experience what it was like to be imprisoned and tortured..." Wow! What fun!

It was all right. Nothing amazing. A little over-the-top in the mannequin reenactments and sound effects. And I really didn't get to experience what it was like to be tortured. But maybe that's a good thing. I included some pics. One torture device was a "standing wall coffin" where you had to stand in a coffin-like thing for days. Due to its shape you couldn't rest at all. Apparently, after 3 days you were sure to be paralyzed. I did get to experience this. For a couple of minutes. Also, there's a picture of Brighton getting tried and hung by the Japanese. Damn Japanese. In one area there was a cell with a mannequin of a Japanese guard beating a Korean prisoner. You could see that numerous Korean visitors had hocked a loogie on the Japanese guard's back. Gross.

We then had lunch. We wanted to eat at this Indian restaurant that was in a guidebook, but we couldn't find it. Very annoying. So we ended up eating at Dunkin Donuts. Yummy. Also, Brighton got harrassed and grabbed by a crazy old Korean man. That was weird.

Then we went to Insadong to shop again. I bought a lot of stuff for people. So you may have stuff coming your way. But I will probably wait to deliver it in person because it's a pain and a half to send things. Hey, Joleen. Did you ever send you-know-what to Sarah? Because you should really get on that being as it's been like 4 months now. Arg! :) Here are a few pics of Insadong. One is of a store that sells paintings and fans and stuff. The other is of a bunch of "cool" Korean boys hanging out.


We then went to the Korea House. It's a traditional Korean house (rich person's house). You can have dinner there and then watch a show, but we just went to the show. Beforehand we went to Itaewon for dinner and went to a Mexican restaurant called Pancho's. It was delicious. I had a taco, burrito, and an enchilada. First time I've had Mexican food since coming here (aside from a few home-made tacos that just aren't the same). So that beat the hell out of traditional Korean food. The performance was an hour and we saw about 8 different performances. Musical and dance performances. I got to see people play the gayageum. Well, not crappy like me. And people danced around in hanboks with peonies. And so forth. There were a few shamanistic dances, too. Those were pretty cool. And a fan dance that was neat-o. Here's a picture of us with a few of the performers.

Then we went home.

On Sunday we went to Suwon. We went to Hwaseong Fortress (my 4th time!). But for the first time I visited the palace nearby--Hwaseong Haenggung. It was all right. We got to see a really old tree that is the protector of Suwon. And we saw a martial arts demonstration that was pretty cool. However, Russian tourists were sitting in front of us and made it impossible to get decent pictures. They both constantly had their camera held up and out at arms length in front of them and followed the action. I've never seen anyone take more pictures, not even Mom. It was crazy. And annoying. Did I mention they were Russian? I swear they smelled like vodka. So here is a picture of my favorite martial arts demonstration guy.

I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but Korean couples often dress identically. In public. And it's totally acceptable. I've seen some pretty hilarious examples (including one couple wearing matching jeans and matching black t-shirts with rhinestoned rainbows...seriously). Here's a picture from the Suwon subway station that Brighton was able to snap off. It's their backs, but you get the point. They're wearing the same pants and same North Face t-shirt.

This weekend we're going to Gyeongju. I hope we have nice weather.