A fair bit has happened since my last entry. I brought in the new year in Busan, I taught my first winter camp, I enjoyed the first, and longest leg of my vacation time, I visited Tongyeong, and I have come to a resolution about orthodontic treatment.
I went to Busan with Matt to bring in the new year. We met up with a couple other foreigners and played beer pong. From that point on, I was really, really drunk. We went to a casino, where I didn't gamble, but watched ridiculous Korean girl dance routines, inconveniently placed in front of the only exit. I'm really surprised they let us in in the first place. One guy kept pointing to a sign that said "no drunks". Also, here's a fun fact about Korean casinos: they don't let Koreans in. Supposedly Koreans are known to have gambling problems, and thus are prohibited by the government from gambling.
I got way too drunk, and wondered what the hell I was doing with my life.
The first winter camp, at Jeong-Dong elementary school went swimmingly. I had a lot of fun, and I think the kids did too. I look forward to working at the school in the future. Next winter camp begins for me next Monday, this time at the middle school. I'm looking forward to that as well.
I've spend most of this week sleeping off a bad cold, which I probably contracted partly from acclimatizing, and partly from smoking a half a pack of cigarettes on new year's eve. However, I did find time to make it down to Busan to investigate a dentist who does invisalign. Turns out that the treatment was possible for me, but it would not fix my overbite. I the dentist recommended instead, a a kind of braces that go on the inside of the teeth (liminal braces) called "incognito". Unfortunately, those kind of braces are made in Germany and are made out of gold. So the treatment would have cost about ten million won ($9,000). Although I have 4k stashed away for this purpose, my parents might be willing to contribute, and the dentist offered to knock off 10%, that's still several thousand dollars I would have to come up with. Plus, I would have to go out to Busan every other weekend.
So I decided to opt in for traditional braces and get them in Jinju. I'm not too excited about this. Lately, I haven't been too hot on the idea of staying here for two years, either, especially since I will be 32 coming out of it. I've been thinking critically about Korean culture lately. It's the collectivism--the cultural tendency of Koreans to unthinkingly conform. My first year in Korea was kind of like living in a bubble. I didn't have a TV, I didn't speak the language, and I was too impressed with the newness of everything to be judgmental. Now I have to watch myself.
I've been continuing with my Korean lessons, but I'm beginning to wonder more and more if I really want to learn the language, anyway. Some foreigners teach in Korea for years without picking up much more than "nae" or "anniyo". I would really like to come out of this with a skill, but right now my passion for learning Hangeul is beginning to wane.
But it's looking like I'll be here for 2 years. So as of now, I hope to walk out of here with 3 things: Straight teeth, no student debt, and fluency in Hangeul.
That's it for now. Talk to you again soon.
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