wanna see me with needles in my arm?

ok, so everytime i go to the doctor i am told not to move.. this time i snuck my camera in.. i could only get picks of the arm and not the ankle because everytime i tried to contort my body to get pics it sent shocks up my body (hence the not being allowed to move part).. the first pic is of the incense burning they do here.. apparantly they originally used to burn your skin, but people didn't like the scars so now they use incense.. after they do this my arm smells like ash until i shower.. and i'm not allowed to shower until the next day.. the next two are obviously the traditional acupuncture..

tribute to joanne

left to right: tristan, mel, moi, joanne, carey

here's to joanne, my first friend in korea. when i first came to this strange land you were the first person to show me kindness, the first person to show me around, the first person to ask how i was doing. you were and will continue to be a good friend. (even though i hate you a little for being in bc right now) i will miss being your neighbour, and especially how easy it was to retreat to your place to talk out all the highschool drama that is korea. you helped put things into perspective and always made me feel better with your kind words and your tea. korea was a lucky place to have you for 3 years. you've become a staple in this town and it will be strange not to have you here. because you're an ontarian i know i'll see you again someday. please keep in touch until then, and know that we are all here thinking about you!

love ya! xxoo

more the same, but not

so i went to the doctor again yesterday. this time i was injected with something that comes from antlers. i didn't ask what animal. as my friend adam says, i'm one step away from taking those tiger penis pills.

last night was a going away party for joanne and a welcome back party for some other people. my friend greg is back which makes me uber happy. anyways, i got no sleep because there is construction happening outside my window. so i get to teach today while exhausted. the munchkins best be using their inside voices today.

week 2 of needle poking fun

so i went to my appointment today with the doctor. one thing i love about doctors here is that you never have to wait to see one. so the needles went fine, but then he asked me to lay on my stomach. i then felt poking and i assumed he was putting needles in my back. i didn't know why, but it's hard to ask questions. then he asked me to turn over and i saw that he had a syringe in his hand. then he started to poke my stomach. he didn't put anything in me, and didn't take anything out. i was so confused and asked about it and he just kept saying 'special treatment'. in anycase, it was bizarre. he also got me on the scale and i've lost 6 pounds since wednesday. he tells me this, and i respond by saying 'ok'. this wasn't enthusiastic enough for him i guess because he kept giving me the thumbs up, trying to get a bigger reaction out of me. here girls are always trying to become thinner. the thinner the better, even if you're 95 pounds you still want to be less. i suppose he's used to korean girls screaming with glee at results like that. not me.

the weekend was good and uneventful. i laid low for most of it. i went for a long walk to my old area of the city on saturday night, down to the lake. it was nice to see the lights reflecting, and there were people setting off fireworks. i love how in korea you can just do that anywhere. on sunday we had the potluck for carey and joanne. i got to buy the cake i couldn't eat. i also got to buy the buns i couldn't eat. i have mean, mean friends! but i did get to see some people i havn't in a long while.

the month is almost over, which is good. i'm broke and need to get paid!!

round 2

yesterday i went back to see the doctor. it went better than the first time. the dr. i saw this time (the wife of the doctor on monday) was much more gentle. most of it was the same (needles, bloodtaking, hot towels, incense) but this time there was another step. they turned on a machine with a metal, hot handle. they rubbed this on my ankle and wrist. this part was ok, my wrist was a little burnt afterwards. anyways, i also got my medicine/tonics. a HUGE bag of the stuff i'm supposed to take 3 times a day. can i just say this stuff is disgusting!? so i took 2 doses yesterday and then after work went for a walk with my friend mel. we took a long walk and had a long talk after which we decided to go to the amusement park. we went on my favourite ride there, the viking ship, 3 times. i felt a little nauseous after and we headed home. in the cab i got the sweats and almost lost it right there! i finally got home where i did lose it. i'm not sure if i was sick from the meds or the ride. maybe a combo. anyways, i'm taking it easy on the rides while i'm drinking the stuff. it seems to be giving me a lot of energy though!

it's thursday and i'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend!

bloodsucking needles

so, still feeling a little sore from my fall a few weeks ago i decide today to try my hand at some oriental medicine. my adopted korean mom offered and i accepted to invitation to allow her to take me there herself. so here's how it went:

at 11:30am i arrive with kmom. i remove shoes, put on slippers and wait. kmom and receptionist are amazed that a foreigner knows her bloodtype. score 1 for foreigners.

11:45 am i go in to talk to the doctor who is also a professor at a univeristy out of town. he seems nice enough and speaks a little english. i tell him about my ankle and numerous falls and also about my left wrist which has bothered me for a few years now. he holds onto my wrists and tells me that i have a problem with my kidneys and stomach. this is why i hurt my wrist. i was confused about this until he told me that due to the terrible state of these organs my body was in a fragile state and suffered strain easily. i'm not so sure, but am a little amazed because i recently fought off a bladder infection. so either that was a lucky guess, or there's something to this.

no more time because i have to take off my watch.

so after i lay down on the bed, kmom explains that they'll stick needles into me. this i knew. nurses ooh and ahh about how beautiful i am. ha, score 2 for me (later to be cruelly taken away). he not so many words i'm told that my chi basically sucks, or is out of whack. he begins with my ankle. can i just say that acupuncture hurts?! this coming from the girl who loves to get piercings. actually the pain was more of a shock feeling that a sharp pain. when he stuck the first needle in i felt lightning go up my leg. kmom is comforting me the whole time telling me i'm being a good girl. after the ankle they do my wrist, which promptly goes numb. i ask and am told it's normal and to just relax. so i lay there for 15 minutes afriad to move at all. (i accidentally did once and it brought shocks all through my body)

after 15 min...

they remove the needles. kmom is getting treatment beside me so she is able to talk me through the rest. they then put very hot towels on me. i liked this part the best, and this calming feeling would only last a short time.

kmom then tells me that they want to suck blood out of my ankle. i guess i gave a look because all the nurses laughed at me. i made foriegners look weak. minus 1 point. so she takes some more needles and then sucks some blood out. this actually hurt less than the beginning needles. then she rubbed something brown on me that came from a brass tin.

after this i went to another room where they lit incense and placed it on my ankle. i've never heard of this part but it was relaxing and smelt good.

i think this is where the process usually ends, except i mentioned that i get tired a lot. it's true.. i feel as though i'm unusually tired most of the time, especially considering the mass amounts of sleep i get. so this let them to think i need to take herbal medicines. cool, whatever, i'll try anything once. i'm pretty open minded with holistic healing. but, to have the medicine this requires tons of more tests.

first, the blood pressure, then height, then weight. heh, i'm 161.5 tall. my drivers license says 160. plus 1 point.

after this i take the strangest test i've ever taken. first i had to remove all metal (normal) and then had to sterilize the soles of my feet (not so normal). then i had to place my feet on these metal pads and hold on to these metal poles. then the machine started to run tests i guess, but it would mark the responses right infront of me. they were all very proud that it was from germany. the test confirmed the dr.'s notion that i have kidney and stomach problems. i'm told that i get these digestive problems from my parents. THANKS A LOT MOM AND DAD. so what i found most interesting about the test is that it also tested me psychologically. well they said psychological, but it was mostly just general personality traits, similar to what you'd read in your horoscope. according to the test i'm diligent, organized, guilty feeling, thrifty but with no sense of economics and have an explosive personality. how they can tell that from the soles of my feet i don't know.

so, the dr. and kmom chat about me for awhile. he says these herbs will help with the stomach, and that i should come back 6 times to clear up the wrist and ankle. he also told me that for my height i should be 98 pounds. 98! minus 1 point, at least for my self-esteem. kmom seems to be quite excited about the idea that i will lose weight from the herbs and wants some for herself. i don't know if i'll ever get used to how much importance they put on that number here. in anycase, i'm taking the herbs, but certainly not long enough to become 98 pounds. i don't want that. i don't even know if that's possible.

so i am going back on wednesday to get poked again and to get my medicine, which i'm told tastes bitter and that i must take it 3 times a day for 10 days. it's a cleanse, so i will only be eating fruits, veggies and rice as well. that's pretty much all i eat anyways. no drinking aloud either, or chicken, flour, sugar etc etc..

so that, in a not so small nutshell, was my first experience with eastern medicine, in the east. i will keep you updated.

i'm broke

but it was worth it. so china is supposed to be cheap but i still managed to buy so much stuff that it rendered me pennyless.. or wonless i suppose.. so here are a few pics from beijing.. i apologize for some of the haze.. errr pollution in the shots..

Temple of Heaven.. This was our first stop.. I don't know if it was my tiredness or my first encounter with Wally, who I've mentioned to some only spoke in the third person, but I could have done without this part and done something different.
Tienamen Square. There were a few soldiers, not tons. This place was packed. I also noticed that people tended to take more pictures of us more than anything else in the square.


The Forbidden Palace was massive. I think there are 9999 rooms. Something about 10 000 rooms in the afterlife so the emperor has one less.

Gardens in the Palace. I was happy for some shade.

Summer Palace. We took a little boat ride to get here, but unfortunately it was too hazy that day for us to see anything from the water.

Great Wall.


Some guy cutting up our duck. There was a special way to eat it too. It was good but the company was better. We were so lucky and had an amazing group of people with us.
Lama Temple. I actually was culturally insensitive and wanted to go shopping some more instead of coming here. Actually I eneded up thinking it was one of the nicest and coolest places we went to. We got to see some chanting and a beautiful temple.
when incense burning goes awry!


i have no pics of shopping because it was chaos, but so much fun! we also saw the acrobats and a kungfu show. i loved the kungfu show more because there were small children who were doing flips on their heads. that was cool. if i ever have a kid i'm totally training them to do that.

gambay!

so last night we went out for bens birthday again. for some reason he is special and gets three days of celebrations. last night we went to a friend of his bar. we walk up to the door and see the sign, 'business club'. for those of you who don't live in korea and don't know what a business club is, it's a place where businessmen come to, um, enjoy the company of beautiful korean women. there are seperate little rooms, with big tvs too that you can use to sing karaoke. so a big group of us went, and the owner had some free drinks for us there (bottles actually). we sang, rocked out for a few hours when she brings in her best customer. he makes a big speech in broken english about how he wants us to go back to our foreign countries and say that korea is number one. he then offers to pay for everything for us that night. at least hundreds of dollars of stuff. we're a big fan of his.

after that we head downtown to do some dancing. i don't know what it is with koreans and smoke machines but i can't escape them in this country. it's really becomming annoying.

tomorrow is my first day at the other branch. i'm gonna miss the one i was just at, but change is always a good thing. well, not always.. but sometimes. i work monday and tuesday, then have wednesday to sunday off for chuseok. last year for chuseok i went to pusan and had a great time. this year i'm going to beijing, and am sure i'll have an even better time. i mean, it's china!