Disease

I try so hard to ignore that I have lupus. But at this moment it's impossible. I want to scream, yell, and cut my feet and hands off at the hands and ankles to stop the swelling, burning, rolling overly sensitive tingling like sensations. Plus- I'm stumbling all over the place and keyboarding like a well trained chimpanzee.

I forgot to bring what ibuprofen I left home from my office, so stupid- these sensations are always worse when I have my period. In the past couple of months I've developed a delightful new symptom of a rash that appears as a light bumpy rash- itchy of course- all over my body.

I went to sleep at 12:30 but woke up at 2am because to the burning tingling in my feet and hands- it's so uncomfortable. Excruciating. This symptom I've actually experienced since I was a kid but it' so much more extreme now. So, now I'm awake, totally exhausted, rubbed campo phenique and hydro-cortisone over all my extremities, and have slammed 3 glasses of wine in 20 minutes. Starting to feel slightly better- I think mostly due to the booze.

Also, I finally, after a year and half, went and talked to doctors here in Korea. Unfortunately, they are in firm agreement with my American doctor that I do, indeed, have lupus. Silver lining- I joined several online support groups and I'm reading about a bunch of people with the exact symptoms I experience. Comforting in a misery loves company kind of way. Plus some good advice on coping. None of which includes the wine I'm slamming, most of which says to take anti inflammatories. Which I left at work. So wine it is. Along with the hope that it starts to let up by tomorrow because there is no way I'm strapping on skates when I'm this stumbly, fumbly.

Oh ye weary freshmen

Completely not going to win the blogger of the year award.

I'm really tired today. Not sure why- I've had plenty of sleep, food, exercise, and whatnot- but I can't stop yawning. Maybe it's the excitement of the cracking, booming thunderstorm that knocked out the power for a few seconds and then turned into monsoon like rainfall earlier today. Maybe it's having to force myself to pay attention during 170 city reports. On countries. Or Manchester United. I'm even yawning through my 'This is worth 10% of your grade, I am not happy so many of you did not complete it' lecture.

The kids are just worn out. Spring semester, March 1- June 15, is the first semester of the school year as opposed to fall semester. This the first time most of them have had to be on their own and definitely the first time they have been away from the watchful eyes of their parents. The university has a ton of events, all of which involve heavy drinking, to welcome them to campus life, each freshman has a senior- who also encourages heavy drinking, and their new friends- who also want to drink. Unfortunately for them- they also have a full load of college classes and I think the hammer has come down on most of them. Even through my yawns I think I managed to convey how much they were risking from slacking off and started to look nervous.

Gone are the bright eyed, sparkly, excited faces from 3 months ago. They been replaced by dazed zombies. 'What's wrong with you?', I asked a class who responded to 'How are you?' with 'Very very bad'. A moment of silence and then a girl responded with a quiet wail- 'College is HARD'. Yep. Welcome to the almost real world kids. Just wait until finals next week.

What did I do this last week? Hmmm.
Prepared the finals and studied for them with all 7 sections of conversational English, reviewed what they needed to do for their homework presentation (college is hard). Had ladies night with pina coladas, wine, and some of my neighbor ladies and then went to a bar called Kaokao in Okdong, which I keep wanting to call Kakao like the free text app everyone uses here, and got just drunk enough to be hungover for the 10:30am elementary, middle school physical education class we are now taking turns doing on Saturdays. It was fine- lessons plans got tossed and we sang the Hokey Pokey and played Duck Duck Goose and got yelled at by the people running the huge ceremony for, something, in the next room (who's bright idea was it to put 30 9 yr kids next to a ceremony? I do not know). Saturday I stayed home, cooked, organized derby stuff. Sunday I went to derby practice in Daegu and came home and got a couch from my friend Ian, who got it from our friend Scott (expat community of rotating possessions). Monday night I rearranged my apt so the coach would fit and last night I went out for Chinese with my Korean dr and pharmaceutical rep friends . Delicious! Wish I had taken pictures- first really good Chinese I've had in Korea. 'Set' meal with about 10 courses and we drank Chinese whiskey, Baijiu, not for the timid. Really good time. Tonight I need to call derby girls but I'm le tired and might just watch le tv and do le laundry and put the l'art back up on my walls from the le furniture rearrangement.

Fail

I made a goal 2 days ago to write at least a couple of sentences. even if it's just what I had for lunch, everyday. And then I have written nothing since- already! I guess it's like quiting smoking- you just have to keep trying (where did I put my lighter..)

Not a lot to tell from the last couple of days. Wrapping up classes and studying for finals with my freshmen. Who are exhausted, worn out, and brain dead. Usually no one comes to me office- right now I have a stream of students coming to get handouts from 3 or 4 weeks ago. The handouts that I said, 'Make sure and keep this! This WILL be on the final!', several times a class. Next week is presentations and the week after is finals. Then, one more week of grades and paperwork and vacation!

Trying to get the committees organized and up an running for ROKD. Derby is so much work- even when it's a small league, even when I've done it all before and don't have to create it from scratch. Luckily we have a some very enthusiastic peeps and the kind of woman who decides to move to a foreign country tends to be pretty proactive.

Other than that I'm getting ready to visit the good ol' USA for a month. I want to go to Puerto Rico with my sister and nephew- but I think I should go to California instead and visit my BFF and god daughter. I really should touch base with all my loved ones because, after this visit, I'm not planning on going back for a couple of years. It's just so expensive and there are so many other places I want to go.

  

Tattoo conventions, Seoul, Derby

I had a 3 day weekend because Andong National University had it's annual school festival. It's pretty fun. Each major has a tent where they sell soju, makali, beer, and food to raise money for their school trips. Which are called 'major training' (MT), their classes are cancelled, and as far as I can tell the only training that happens is they drink soju, makali, and beer. I went Thursday night and bought many bottles of soju and drank shots with several dozens of my students, which is expected, ate some good food, picked at some terrible food, and took many pictures. You can see pics from this year and 2010 here.

The next morning I woke up at 6am to catch the Seoul train with my neighbor Sue to go to Ink Bomb 2011 tattoo convention. We got to Seoul around 11am, got some food, checked into a guest house in Myeongdong, and then started making our way to the convention. It took awhile though because subway shopping is irresistible. To me at least. I got some light sweaters that will be awesome for covering my tattoos while still remaining somewhat cool (since the university will not turn on the ac until it reaches 110 Fahrenheit). I also got a pair of glittery, sparkly, frilly, flats with skulls and metal studs. Awesome! Expensive and unnecessary. Which makes me love them more.

Inkbomb was at a place called Platoon Kunsthalle, which is a really cool gallery in the very upscale neighborhood of Gangnam in Seoul. I'm looking forward to going back for other events. Inside the space was separated into stalls where artists from around the world were giving tattoos as people watched. Smoked cigarettes and watched. Very rarely do I see Korean girls with tattoos, showing at least, but there were many girls with full sleeves, chests, and backs! Most of the crowd was Korean, especially early in the day, and everyone was very, very, very cool. Kinda reminded me of punk rock back in the day, or rockabilly shows, where everyone is done up to the nines, basking in the glow of their own coolness. People were friendly and approachable when talked to though, I got a possible skatebooard shop connection for derby, and Sue got a lot of great pics. She claims it's the 'mom' affect. My favorite ROKD ref (ok- our ONLY ref- but he is pretty cool) Nik came down around 7:30 and watched the band Kingston Rudieska with us. Korean ska with a horn section and they are fantastic!!! I really want to see them in a club where everyone boogies because they are super boogielicious! After the band we stood around for awhile and then Sue went home and Nik and I went and met my friend Jamie K (Detroooit!) for some drinks. I didn't make it much past the second bottle of vodka and took a taxi back to Myeongdong where I was harassed by some some drunken Korean business men who wanted to 'party' and wouldn't leave me alone until I threatened to beat them up with my umbrella. Got back to the room about 2:30-3am and fell asleep instantly. You can see pics of Ink Bomb in the end of my FB album ROK and beginning of ROK II.

Next day I got up, got breakfast, and bought some really cute baby clothes covered in skulls (not for me! Don't get excited mom) which I promptly left in a taxi. Sigh. And then headed for derby practice. We had a handful of new girls- with experience! We are really lucky to have so many derby girls who have played derby before- I think this makes at least 10. It really helps for partnering up with the freshmeat to teach skills. It was a great practice- the beginners are developing skills, we did a real pace line and no-one dropped out, and we finished with yoga taught by the new ref! This is awesome because derby bulks up muscles- but yoga kengthens them. Perfect combination.

After practice, I ate dinner with Nik and Joan Killinger in Jamsil. Joan is going to be my Seoul derby buddy because, well she's great, and also because she lives 2 subway stops away from Dong Seoul bus terminal which solves my problem of lugging all my gear and a weekends worth of crap around with me all weekend. I didn't stay for Sunday practice because I'm low on funds this month 'cause I transferred it all to the USA (irresistible subway shopping) and I was worn out from another lupus episode, or whatever it is that makes me feel like something the cat drug in, with my joints swelling up, that I should probably get checked out since I do have health insurance here. My insurance in the states wouldn't cover testing. I've had more episodes in the past couple of months- I think it's because of the hwang-sa, yellow dust, that makes everyone sick, stressing out my immune system. 'Course- drinking and smoking probably doesn't help either.

Today I slept a lot, in short naps, exercised, caught up on emails, loaded a months worth of pictures onto FB, made chicken soup, did laundry, blogged!, and now I'm going to watch tv, read, and go to bed early so I have lots of energy to catch up on derby biz tomorrow.

Discipline

I am terrible at keeping my blog up to date. The worst part is I have a list of things I want to write about. But- I have a renewed inspiration brought on by a girl who just joined the derby and I am going to write every day- even if it's just a couple of sentences. This way when I write my best selling autobiography, most likely 2 days before I walk in front of a bus so I'll miss out on all the fame and $, I'll have a reference to guide my spotty mix everything together memory. The years- they do fly by.

Today it's going to be easy because I have other things I'm supposed to be doing and my favorite way to procrastinate is to do something near the middle of my list rather than the top.