Sorry For The Delay

A few days ago I get an email from my mother saying only that I need to update the blog. My apologies, I know I've said that before, but sometimes life gets in the way and there's nothing you can do about it. Recently I've been sick, I'm not sick anymore but was out of commission for about a week and a half and even got two half sick days, which is very uncommon in Korea.

People in Korea do not accept being sick. At the first sign of any sickness, Koreans head straight to the hospital. After spending a weekend in bed unable to do anything, I go into work last monday pretty much unable to function, most likely with a fever. I head into my first class, which consists of 10 very energetic seven year old boys, and immediately walk out in search of the head Korean teacher. There is no way I could effectively teach the way I was feeling. We head to the hospital, which is literally next door to our school. I get a checkup and get prescribed a bunch of random medicine. They had me take five different pills three times a day - a total of 15 pills a day. I had no idea what medicine I was taking, but it did make me feel better and rather high at the same time.

That's just how they do things in Korea. Instead of resting and getting healthy, Koreans go to the hospital, get medicine, and work through their illness. Oh, and they wear medical face masks to keep their illness from spreading to other people.

So that's my excuse for not updating the blog sooner. I was sick for the first time in Korea. It sucked, but its never fun being sick. I'm more or less healthy now so I will try and fill in more about my life recently.

Cheongdo Bull Fighting Festival and Wine Tunnel

A few weeks ago I attended an organized trip to a bullfighting festival about an hour outside of Daegu. now, bullfighting is not something I would typically choose to watch, but I thought, "When am I gonna get another chance to see bullfighting? In Korea, no less?" So I decided to attend the trip.

The first part of the excursion was a trip to the Cheongdo Wine Tunnel. It is exactly what it sounds like, a winery inside a converted train tunnel. The wine that they make there isn't made out of grapes, its made out of persimmon, a fruit that's fairly popular in Daegu. I'm a fan of this fruit, but I don;t think it translated well into wine. Its very sweet and tends to leave you with a dry feeling in your mouth.

After the wine tunnel, we went to the bullfighting stadium. It literally was two bulls fighting against each other. It was certainly an interesting experience.