My Korean Hospital Experience

After feeling nauseous and exhausted all week I finally plucked up the courage to tell my boss and ask him to take me to the hospital.

It's not quite as drastic as it sounds, in Korea any room with a doctor in it is referred to as a hospital.

I was expecting my boss, Ian, to take me and act as my interpreter, but no... I was sent with a 16 year old boy!! Andy, the school director's son was less than thrilled to have to babysit me for the morning.

Seoul Samsung Clinic in Doojeongdong was nice, if not over crowded. During the 30 minutes we had to wait to be seen, my companion sat with his hood pulled up over his head and his earphones in, playing games on his phone, he wasn't too fond of small talk.

When my turn finally came I answered all the questions every 16 year old boy wants to translate: When was your last period? Have you taken any illegal drugs? How much do you drink? And then when they pulled up my top for the physical exam I'm not sure who felt the most uncomfortable!

Awkwardness aside, I was diagnosed with colitis and sent away with some strange mixture of pills to take; 12 a day!!!

Hopefully they'll get me better in time for Thursday, as I've got some very special visitors coming!!!

Swimming in Korea (again)

Six months on, now that we're savy to Korea's love of excessive pubic hair, we decided to give swimming in Korea another bash. After all, it's something we enjoyed doing every week back home in England, and we sure need the exercise.

The first time we went swimming in Korea was on a Saturday and it was heinously busy, so this time round we thought we'd try a Tuesday. We went to Cheonan Sports Complex straight after work. 

We bought swimming caps and goggles, all ready to assimilate, although I hadn't committed to buying a wet suit style bathing suit yet, they're so expensive (and not to mention ridiculous). First time round, I recall feeling disgustingly uncomfortable in my two piece bikini; Korea is still a very conservative country and they general public certainly weren't prepared see my white western skin flouncing around their pool. So today I wore one of Ric's football shirts. Loads of people were wearing t-shirts last time so I thought I was doing a good thing by covering my wobbly bits.

However... Unlike Saturdays, Tuesday nights are not family swimming nights. The damn pool was full of swimmers seemingly training for the next Olympics! I was immediately chastised for wearing my t-shirt and I think the life guard would have kicked me out of the pool had there not have been a substantial language barrier.

The huuuuge pool was once again over crowded beyond belief and I was subject to many stares and disapproving looks. 

I can swim fine, but I'm not very fast, I don't like getting my head under the water and I hate swallowing the water. Essentially, I swim like a granny. In our over crowded lane I made sure to set off swimming when there was no one behind me, but the Koreans are like torpedoes, they'd swim up to my ankles and passively aggressively bully me into stopping to let them over take. I felt like everyone was watching me, judging me.

It was intense. No leisurely after work swim for me. The pool is Olympic sized (50m), pools in England are not that long. It was hard for me to keep pace with the Koreans and I felt so uncomfortable. Everyone there was so serious; one girl even had a snorkel!! A snorkel in the swimming baths, I've never heard of anything so absurd in my life!

I lasted maybe half an hour before running back to the changing area for some comfort. Who'd have thought it, the room full of naked Korean women with ginormous bushes is now where I feel most comfortable. But even that was an ordeal.

The changing room was so crowded that every shower was occupied. People were queuing at each shower waiting for it to become available. When I finally found myself some space to shower in, a woman decided to stand behind me (naked, of course), put her things down in front of me, and stand an inch away from me whilst I showered. Silently bullying me with her nakedness to hurry up. PASSIVE AGGRESSIVENESS GONE MAD!!!! 

Once again, I'm traumatised by swimming in Korea. I'm glad I gave it a second chance, but NEVER, EVER AGAIN!!!!!!

Gwangdeok Mountain Hike

Sunday 24th September

Lately the weather has changed a lot. It's no longer unbearably humid and sticky; it's warm and sunny yet cool in the shade. The sky is clear and cloudless and there's a slight breeze. I love autumn in Korea.

Gwangdeok temple (just before the funeral!)

Sunday was yet another gorgeous day and me and Ric decided to make the most of it and go for a hike. We headed south of Cheonan to Gwangdeok Mountain. It took just over an hour to get there on the bus.

Gwangdeok temple

At the base of the mountain there is a temple (Gwangdeok temple). Cue yet another culturally awkward moment. We were admiring the temple when the courtyard suddenly filled with sombre looking men and women wearing long black robes... carrying a framed picture of a monk. We'd only gate crashed a Buddhist funeral!! Oops! The temple is home to that famous walnut tree I mentioned in a previous blog, only we were too ashamed of ourselves to go and check it out and so we just headed straight for the mountain.

As Ric and I aren't exactly budding fitness fanatics we chose the shortest route up the mountain. Unfortunately, we quickly learned that the shortest route up a mountain is usually also the steepest, and we had to drag ourselves up for 3km, first up man-made steps, then up a dirt path, until finally we were clambering up over jagged rocks. We did get some impressed looks off other hikers who had gone up the long route and were descending the steep route.

Pure stairs: the first part of the hike.

Finally at the top the view was stunning: a 360 degree view of mountains rolling into the distance, Cheonan just a tiny square of concrete rising up in the middle. It was well worth the burning thighs and the back sweat. Whilst catching our breath at the summit we befriended a middle-aged Korean man by sharing our snacks with him, in exchange he offered us his bottle of wine! The wine was surprisingly delicious and I got to practice my Korean skills by attempting to make small talk with him.

Stunning views from the top of Mt. Gwangdeok

Cheonan in the distance

Tired and sweaty at the summit

Going down the mountain was when the adventure really started. We planned to take the alternative, longer, less steep route down the mountain back to the temple where we could take the bus home. However, somewhere we took a wrong path and got ourselves lost. When we realised we were lost Ric suggested we turn around and climb back up to the summit so that we could take the same route down as we'd taken up. Cue me sitting down on a rock and crying that I couldn't make it back to the top. Too much lactic acid burn. Although in hindsight Ric had a sensible idea.

Instead we just carried walking down the mountain, at that point anything was better than up! After about 45 minutes of walking the sun was beginning to set and we realised that if we didn't increase our pace there was a real possibility that we'd have to descend the rest of the mountain in the dark! Half jogging we made it to the village of Gangdang and although we still had no idea where we were, we felt relieved to see a couple of houses.

Gangdang, a quirky village 

Being stubborn, we continued to walk along a deserted road in an unknown direction until finally, a car approached.  Impulsively I stuck my thumb out and the car stopped. We were saved. The couple in the car were lovely, they spoke English and laughed at us when we told them we were trying to get to Cheonan. They seemed shocked that we'd managed to find our way to such a remote mountain village. We gratefully accepted their offer to take us to the nearest train station and were soon resting our aching muscles inside their car.


Finally we made it home having learnt a valuable lesson: if you're lost up a mountain in Korea in the dark, just keep walking and get into cars with strangers... it'll all be OK in the end!

Logistics
You can take the 600 or 601 bus from outside Shinsegae in downtown Cheonan and get off at the last stop. The bus took approx 1hour 10minutes (in Sunday traffic).

The Independence Hall of Korea

The wings that symbolise Korea's freedom and independence

The 24 hours of solid heavy rain on Friday and Saturday marked the beginning of the rainy season here in Korea and even for a Manchester girl it was an impressive amount of rain.

Luckily on Sunday it cleared up enough for us to venture out to the Independence Hall. To get there we took   the 400 bus from Cheonan station, it took half an hour and cost a whole 60p each. I'm loving the cheap public transport here, beats paying £4.50 for a 20 minute bus into town at home!

The Independence Hall is the biggest museum in Korea and is set in acres of gardens with plenty of picnic benches, flowery shaded areas and quiet paths leading into trees and up hills. At the entrance you can hire buggies, tandems and electric scooters - we're definitely going to go back and do that one afternoon! The statue at the entrance is a pair of wings that represents Korea's freedom. 


The museum is spread across 10 different buildings each telling a different part of Korea's fight for independence. It's pretty gruesome, especially the bits about the horrors committed by the Japanese - torture, war crimes, and general awfulness. The main hall boasts the biggest tile roof in Asia (if you're interested).


We didn't see every exhibit as it really is too big and we got tires, but the general impression was that Korea has fought long and hard to get to where it is today. It fought for independence from the Chinese, from the Japanese, and then went to war with North Korea. It seems the country has been fighting for independence since its very beginning. Lucky the English didn't find Korea because we probably would have colonised it too!!

The awkward photo

Coy carp are cool

                                 












     The only really  awkward part of it was when a security guard stopped us and started talking Korean at us and pointing to my camera. I thought he was trying to tell me cameras weren't allowed but when I went to put it in my bag he took it out again. After 5 minutes of puzzled non-conversation he ushered us over to some random rock and took our picture by it. I'm still not quite sure why.


Depressing history and overwhelming size aside, it's a really lovely place to walk around and many of the people there were simply enjoying the scenery and the outdoors. I particularly liked the coy carp that were en masse in a pond by the entrance, and the "flag garden" - 815 Korea flags flying neatly in lines.


The best thing about the Independence Hall is that it's free. Definitely something that can be enjoyed over and over again on our small budget.