I am supposed to have a teacher's class on Fridays (where I teach English to teachers, if that wasn't clear...), and I have managed to only teach on half of those scheduled days. Not that I was trying to accomplish this, but things like second hospital visits sometimes get in the way. I'm not entirely sure why I had to go back to the hospital...well, I mean, I know why I had to go. Apparently I don't have medical insurance...I thought that my first hospital visit had taken care of that insignificant detail, but in fact it did not (I have no idea why, and that doesn't make sense to me...). The fact that I don't have medical insurance actually only came up because I was telling my co teacher that I have to fill my prescriptions soon, and when she asked the administration how we go about that, she found out that I don't have insurance. Sweet. So we left school to go get that taken care of. While we were there, we went to see the doctor incase I would be able to get my prescriptions then at a reasonable price without insurance (things are much cheaper in Korea). But in order to see the doctor that I needed to see, we had to wait a 'long time', which ended up being maybe an hour, which is almost standard for seeing a doctor in the States when you have an appointment. Anyway I needed to see her so she could confirm that I needed to be hopped up on pills. Well, it was almost like that. She just needed to get a medical background, what I was taking, why...etc, etc. She was very nice, although I was wondering if she was thinking...why did they let this girl into our country? Whatevs. I'm not worried about it. So anyway, when I asked about the price, it was...a bit more than the budget I had set, so I decided to just wait until my medical insurance kicks in and then make a third visit to the hospital - assuming I don't have to make another visit before then. Crazy medical hooplah.
I was planning on being fun this weekend, but I achieved nearly the antithesis. I believe I went to bed at 8pm on Friday...haha...and did pretty much nothing on Saturday. Coach had to go to Seoul for a coach's conference-type-thing, so we didn't have practice. Actually, I didn't leave the apartment Saturday at all save 10 minutes to run to the store and get yogurt and kim (seaweed-type stuff). Although I did manage to go to bed around 2am on Saturday...I think I was watching the Office..haha. I'm so lame.
Sunday was a very interesting day, with a few firsts. It was the first day that I rode my bike to practice, rather than taking it on the bus and the subway in my bike bag. I was nervous about this, because the roads are so busy, and one one portion of the semi-main road (which I could probably actually avoid if I tried) there is a lot of construction, which in this case means slippery metal spanning the entire width of the road for about...200 meters. Basically as long as I don't hit my brakes on this part I am fine (and probably ok if I had to brake but I wouldn't chance it), but still. It was my first time. And I was hoping that it was as easy to get to Haeundae as it appeared in the back of the cab last weekend. :) So it was about 8km to get there, and it was actually really nice to ride to practice rather than unnaturally lugging my bike in a big bag and taking it on public transportation for which I have to pay. So I am psyched about this new development. Plus, it adds on 20 minutes of riding each way, so thats awesome for me :).
I rode with the youth team Sunday, for the second time (I rode once a few weeks ago too). I think Coach asked me because we weren't able to ride together on Saturday. Of course I accepted - I love the kids, and spending time with the team in general (mostly...I won't elaborate on that comment though :) ). It was raining a bit in the morning, so instead of going out on the roads (which I'm not entirely sure they always do anyways), we rode in a circle around the parking lots at the Yacht Club. It was like a crit, and they practiced as such, by riding in a paceline (one behind another, as close as you can get, so you end up using 30% less energy because the person in front of you is blocking the wind and pulling you). I actually helped coach a bit on Sunday, it was fun! Although I refrained from speaking at first because I don't want the kids to start getting frustrated by me saying foreign sounds to them when they are trying to paceline, which is not the easiest thing in the world. But apparently, there are a bunch of kind on the team who speak English very well. And, three new kids just joined the team that day, all who are doing something English-related in Korea. One of them is from Canada, another from Japan, and the last from New Zealand. So maybe I can be more of a help with the youth team now! After the bike, the kids ran a few laps in the parking lot. I had forgotten my sneakers amidst my excitement of riding my bike to practice, but I wanted to run with them and encourage them, so I ran in my socks. I jumped in with a few girls and one of them spoke English pretty well too! Wow! I also jumped in with a few people who did not speak English and tried to speak a little Korean-encouragement to them. It was great. I'm so glad I joined them!
After that we went and swam in the ocean, as always. I am getting to be a much better swimmer! Too bad swimming is the least time-consuming event of triathlons. Bah. Whatever, I love it, and that's what counts. After swimming we ran for a short time on the beach without sneakers because awesome me forgot her shoes. Bah. This actually hurt. I strained the backs of my ankles, like high achilles area, about 7 minutes in. After some post-run icy-hot it was fine, but it wasn't fun trying to keep up with S and failing, a situation which would not have presented itself if I had brought my running sneakers (by situation I mean failing at quality beach running).
Lunch was 'nak-sam-bul-go-gi', bulgogi being meat type food (kogi/gogi is meat, bulgogi I think is meat in a special sauce) and the naksam part of it...I'm not sure of the direct translation, but it meant that I got to eat spicy octopus. SOOO DELICIOUS. This is my new favorite food. Oh man. So good.
Oof, my tutor just texted me and said he arrived early so I'm going to head out and finish this later.
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