Adventures from around the World

What has been unsurprising to most and incredibly embarassing to me, happened a mere week and a half ago.

On the 1st of December I went to Gwangju with 4 of my friends, not simply for a day to shop, as per usual, but to stay over night and party in the city.  So in the early afternoon we took the bus to Gwangju and then a cab to a motel recommended to us, called the Windmill. 

This motel was incredible.  The 5 of us stayed in a delux room that was twice as big as my apartment.  there were two king sized beds, a ginormous television, couches, a jakoozie tub, and several other amenities….it was actually hard to leave the room.  The most brilliant bit was, of course, that it only cost us 14,000 per person.

We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping in shinae, which was located conveniently about a block from the Windmill.  We hit up Shinsegae, the underground grocer, Migliorae, and a buch of other shops.  In the evening we headed back to the motel to get ready and predrink before meeting up with several other people to go dancing.

So around 10-11 we all pile into a cab and scoot across the city to Andrea’s apartment.  There are already like 25 people there, but we easily mingle with the likes of people we have never seen, and people we have not seen since orientation in August. Soon afterwards Andrea puts on some good ole Cape Breton Reels and she is showing us how to dance.  Essentially she was showing us some Irish/Scottish dancing.  After the group reel ends a jig comes on, and try and stop me from doing a jig after I have had a few (really bad memories of Ireland are flooding back right now).  Anyway I begin dancing and after a few minutes I fall….didn’t feel or look like anything major, so I laughed along with everyone else and then grabbed my coat to head for Shinae, for the bar/club.

Tanya and I get into a cab with these two really annoying girls, who we had never met before, all the time wondering what could have happened to Camille, Liz, and Krista, but too happy to really care. We arrive in Shinae, and guess what everyone is already there, buying street food and waiting to head off for a great night out.

The bar we have gone to in the past was really lame and quiet that night, so instead we went to this club called Vanilla.  It was small, but the music was really good (ie they were playing stuff from back home), and the dancing was a lot of fun.

There was a very odd moment when the DJ had everyone sit down on the dance floor (and they did which was even more odd).  He then proceeded to have people in the club partake in a dance-off.  It was all fun and games until one guy decided that it would be fun to take his shirt off (granted the song was sexy-back).  This lead to a full on strip-off between the three finalists (two guys and one girl).  It really was incredibly shocking.  I have seen much more of these people then I would ever care to.  Though I have to say it was sweet that one of the guys held up a jacket so that the girl could put her clothes back on. 

Anyway it was around 4:30ish and most of us were getting tired (Tanya, Me, Camille, and Liz) so we decided to head back to Widmill, which only took about 3 minutes, amazingly.  Thank goodness Camille though to walk otherwise we would have taken a cab, literally a couple of blocks. 

So we are back it the georgeous room and I remove my shoe to realise that my foot is really killing me.  The sock is removed and there is the swollen mass.  But it is not the ancle that is particularly swollen (though there was some minor swelling) it was the right side of the foot.  So I just figured that I would sleep and see how it was in the morning.

Well in the morning it was worse.  I was left in the room, as the rest of the group finished there shopping, in such pain that I could barely walk.  I did however manage to shower, dress and pack before they returned.  I then hobbled my way to the cab, and then to the bus terminal.

When we got to Mokpo I decided that I should go to the hospital and have the foot looked at.  So I cab it to the hospital that my co-teacher took me to when I was sick and guess what? It was CLOSED!!!  how on earth does a hopital close!  So I went home and decided to ask my co-teacher to take me in the morning.  So after making me feel incredibly guilty for not hobbling to school I was taken to the hospital by my co-teacher and VP. 

Turns out that my little fall caused a break in the 5th Metatarsal bone. Not a complete fracture but about 3/4 of the way through the bone.  So I was put into a partial cast.  I have a plaster splint that goes from my toes, under my foot, to half way up my calf.  This is wrapped with a wide tensor to keep it in place. The good thing about this kind of cast is that I can actually take it off to shower, etc….so no smelly cast for me
I have negotiated with the doctor to be allowed to take the cast off by the 28th, the day before my 6 week vacation to SE Asia.  As a condition to this, I must  go to the hospital every week for x-rays (or pictures as the Korean doctor calls them in broken English) and to have the split refitted.