What I Did Today (doesn't sound interesting, but...)

A) Yelled for the first time at the devil 6th graders. 6th graders, 6th graders, 6th graders (I wonder if that isn't a coincidence...). Only a few times but still. I have commenced unleashing the fury when absolutely necessary. I'm sure this is overdue, though. My unfortunate circumstance just helped me reach my potential for dealing with these certain classes.

B) Was a partial cause of a 6th grader to go from running to being sprawled out on the ground. Key word is partial. Ok. First let me say that I probably don't despise these kids as much as I might make it sound. Some of them I definitely do like (key word in that sentence is some). And the worst thing I do is make them do pushups. Having said that...I was on my way (walking) out the door a few minutes before class, and one boy comes running full-speed into the room. His path, if uninterrupted, would have led forcefully into my stub. Luckily (for me), I saw him just in time and put out my left arm to shield the source of my current frustration (which was a bit sore from an earlier incident involving another 6th grader thinking it would be fun to punch my stub...granted I did play along with the boxer stance that he took to me, but honestly - my hand is CASTED - in what way would someone think it would be any shade of a good idea to hit a casted limb? Anyway, back to the main attraction...), and his body made contact with my arm in such a way that resulted in him ...well, in him making contact with the ground instead of my broken fingers (notice there is no verb of intent used..). Yea, that might have looked a little bad. Maybe he will learn that that is what happens when you run around corners without looking. I'm teaching him valuable lessons.

C) Made a conversion chart from miles to kilometers and kilometers to miles to hang on my wall and memorize. That doesn't sound noteable but it is for me. :)

D) Made a calendar for counting down the days until my cast comes off to give me something to actively look forward to. Since I can't attach an excel worksheet, I will just include a few days'notes on my schedule for the next 4 weeks:

Sat 6 Dec: Dinner with Coach to talk about alternate training plans. Replace / supplement crying with endless abs.
Mon 8 Dec: Korean (every Monday for that matter).
Tues/Wed 8/9 Dec: Restoring sanity (aka track practice, the only outside exercise I am alloted in the next 4 weeks).
Thurs 11 Dec: 1 hour abs / abs until vomiting.
Fri 12 Dec: Try to run in am, but can take today off if need to go out for sanity.
Sat 13 Dec: Wake up, brief feeding, trainer within 20 minutes. No checking email first - get in zone...
Sunday 14 Dec: Run. Trainer. Korean.
Thurs 18 Dec: HALFWAY THERE. Suck it up and have a drink.
Fri 19 Dec: DO NOT GO OUT UNTIL 75 MIN ABS. CATIE! NO! Don't even think about it. Be a triathlete, really now.
Thurs 25 Dec: Abs like (edited for content). Til it burns baby. Thrice.
Fri 26 Dec: Appreciate Tolstoy's genius (W&P) tonight for 2+ hours. Frustrated? You know what to do.
Thurs 29 Dec: Take that (edited for content) OFF yo. CELEBRATE. In the pool (if doc/coach... gives ok!)

I wrote all of that with my left hand with the one exception of hitting "Ctrl i" for italics, which is ...rawr, actually possible to do with one hand now that I try it. Whatevs. BOO-YAH.

젠장 (Bad Word in Korean)

Rawrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I think my blog entries for the next few weeks will be extremely short...

My fingers are broken and my hand is in a cast, wrist and all (even though the wrist is fine) and so it actually hurts to type with my right hand. So I'm left-handing it all. I'm already tired from this post.

I really think the wrist immobilization is unnecessary - that may be mysteriously removed in a few days...(ahhh ::lots of bad words::)

I'm crying again. Hah. I cried 3 times yesterday because I was so frustrated that the doctor told me I can't swim for 4 weeks...and if my wrist is still in bondage then I can't bike on the roads either....(more tears)

Ah this hurts more now that it is wrapped up. Is that normal?

If anyone reading this happens to know a doctor who is an athlete, particularly a swimmer or triathlete, could you find out if there is any possible way to swim with broken 4th and 5th fingers without making it worse? For example, tape them really well and tie some device over my hand so my fingers don't touch the water, so I would just be using my forearms? Anything! If anyone gives me any information as to how I could swim with this I promise you I will send you something awesome from Korea...

Otherwise I guess I will have to supplement swimming with Pilates or something...I guess the bright side is I could end up with killer abs. We'll see.

Ok I've reached my tolerance level for typing left-handed.

Korea still rocks my world.

Baek-il (100-day Birthday); Devil 6th Graders

Muppet hand has turned into a slight deformity...no more bandage, and swelling is down, but when I hold my hand in a normal limp position the pinky juts out to the right ever-so-slightly too much. And now its just a sore-type pain, so it is getting better. But I still can't completely bend or straighten my last two fingers so I think I am going to go to the hospital today (actually I thought I would be there by now so maybe I am not going today..? I will insist on going though because, ouch. Ish. But it would be nice to have all of the functions of my fingers in the future. And hey, if not, I will just find some way to use it to my advantage.

This weekend was an interesting one. I didn't go to practice at all on Saturday because Coach thought it would be better if I didn't ride on the roads if I didn't have full use of my right hand, which is used to operate the brake for the back wheel, which is the more important break or the two. I also took the day off swimming because it was sore...so I studied with C for much of the day. After studying and riding my trainer, C came back to pick me up and took me to a party that one of his co workers was having. The party was for his baby's 100-day birthday, called 'Baek-il". There were "Happy Birthday" signs, and balloons that said "It's a Girl!" (in English) so I felt a bit familiar with those - but other than that I was completely lost. Especially since there were over 200 people there and I knew...one? That actually didn't bother me too much - the only thing that makes me feel awkward in situations like that is when people try to talk to me in Korean and I can't understand. I know I say this all the time but I feel rude being in other people's countries and not being able to speak the language - I feel like they all automatically have a bad impression of me. Anyway.

So this party took place at a really nice restaurant, which had a really big buffet. Lots of food - huge King Crab to name one of the noteables. And since it was a Saturday night, there were LOTS of people there...that actually made me really anxious and a bit uncomfortable, I'm sure only because of the initial discomfort. But it was very interesting. I need to start taking more pictures (and I actually just bought a new camera so expect lots of new pictures soon :) ) There were multiple big rooms in this restaurant and C's co worker had rented out one so we were all in there together. The father and the mother were both wearing what looked to be traditional Korean celebratory dress, which was very beautiful. The baby was also wearing traditional dress, which matched that of her parents. She was SO cute! And hour or so into the dinner the baby started to pick numbers out of a bowl (I think it was a bowl) as a raffle-type thing, but I don't really understand what that was about (I should ask C...I was too busy just looking and sucking it all in...the atmosphere was so nice, everyone seemed like one big family, very energetic and vibrant and loving). During and after the party I met a few of C's co workers - they were all really nice, especially a few of the older ones (by older I mean in comparison, probably in their 30s) who knew a bit of English - they were very extremely welcoming and friendly. The man who was having the party at one point even came over and said, "Hello, Catie! Welcome!" (Or something to that extent) I was very surprised to hear my name...haha.

So amongst all of the other people who were there (family and friends, etc), there were many people from the man's work, which is the pool where C works. So, later on in the night, I met a bunch more Korean swimmers (or x-swimmers). A few of them were pretty sick (meaning really fast..:) )...they are very interesting people. I love how I randomly meet C who happens to be a swimmer and then I meet all these other Korean swimmers...I almost know more Korean athletes than American athletes now (not really but if we are talking percent of American athletes and percent of Korean athletes, I probably know a higher percent of the latter). So that was fun.

On Sunday I realized that my heart rate for running 8:30 miles is insanely high - way higher than it should be - although I am not breathing too hard...I'm not sure what that means...my resting heart rate is decently low (like low 50s) but when I am running 8:30-ish miles (maybe towards the end around 8:10s, with somewhat long, low-grade hills) my HR is between 178 and 185...?! But I am breathing with my mouth closed comfortably (like not trying to keep my mouth closed)...is that normal?! And my max HR is only like...well I have only gotten it to 197 since I got my HRM...but I will mave to monitor this because it is a bit unsettling...ha. Anyway.

Also, I bit the bullet on Sunday and told Coach about my special Korean man-friend...I was really nervous about this because Coach's opinion means a lot to me so I told him that I wanted him (Coach) to meet him (C). For the first time I saw his face go serious...haha. I was prepared for that, although not expecting it. And he started asking me many questions, like what his occupation is and where he goes to school, etc. My heart was beating so fast in anticipation of how he would react (he and his wife of course, both of their approvals mean a lot to me). I told him that I love them so much and so I want them to meet him to make sure they think he is a good guy, and Coach said he thought that was a good idea (haha :) ). His wife later makes a comment that 'he (Coach) is so serious!' But she said he is only like that because they really care about me and want to make sure that this guy is good for me. So we will all meet sometime probably in the next week. I am a little scared, but interested to see how it goes, and what Coach thinks. It's not like I would do anything that he said without thinking twice about it, but I feel that I know him well enough now that I can definitely say that I trust him and his wife, which is not a word that I throw around lightly. So yea...that's that...

On a more...UGH...note, 6th graders are wearing me out. I stayed up for about 2.5 to 3 hours last night making a Thanksgiving-day powerpoint (yes I know it is late) for today's class, and actually put a lot of effort into it to make it fun and interesting and educational. One class got to maybe the 4th slide out of 14 because they were so obnoxious. I lost my appetite after teaching 3 classes. If I get an ulcer here it will be from the 6th graders at Allak..ahhyyyeee. Don't get me wrong there are a few that are good, but...bah. Anyways. At least I learned a lot about Thanksgiving that I actually didn't know before making the presentation. It's interesting (and maybe pathetic?) that it took me traveling to South Korea to actually learn all about a holiday that we celebrate in North America...