Winter Camps and Orthodontics

I've been working for less than two weeks and already I have days off. It's a little weird getting my vacation time at the start of my contract, but that's the ways they want to do it, so why the hell not? I'm getting my vacation days in chunks, interspersed with winter camps.

I've decided I'm going to get orthodontic work done here in Korea, which may or not mean that I will be here for two years. Right now I'm looking into Invisalign, which is a new kind of orthopedic treatment, which uses invisible plastic trays that you can take out to eat, drink and brush your teeth. Even if I am a candidate for that kind of treatment, which I understand is quicker than with conventional braces, the treatment schedule may go on past my contract term.

It turns out that trying to find an English speaking dentist in South Korea that does Invisalign, or it's cheaper Korean equivalent, is quite challenging. I have asked for the help of both my recruiter and my co-teacher. I have been scouring and posting on online forums, and today I even did some personal investigation by going to clinics in Jinju. So far the official report is that there are no orthodontics that do the Invisalign treatment in Gyeongnam Province. I suspect, however, that there is at least one or two people doing it in Changwon, and I'm sure there are orthodontists doing it in Busan (although technically, Busan is it's own region).

My research has turned up the website of a practitioner in Seoul who offers the treatment, but I've read one positive review of the office and one bad. Also, it's in Seoul, and I get the impression that the pricing of this particular office is on the higher side. So, I'm going to look into it a bit more before I make an appointment, but it's still my only lead a week or ten days from now, then I'm going to make the journey to Seoul, and try to get the treatment started before February.        

I've got four more days off after today and I'm not sure how I'm going to spend them. My best Jinju buddy is out of town, so that sort of closes off my portal to the Jinju social scene. I'm going to try and get a hold of my buddy Matt in Hadong and see if he has any thrilling plans for New Year's Eve. I'm going to look into what's going on in Tongyeong as well. I wouldn't mind going to Seoul or Daegu for New Year's Eve, but basically, if I'm not stuck in my apartment, I'll be happy.

I'll yet y'all know how it goes.