this is what happens when you fall off a bus:

Yesterday, after a perfectly delightful dinner and coffee outing in Seoul with my pal Sunny, I put a damper on my evening.  As I exited my bus to Gwangju, I narrowly missed stepping onto the curb, and instead, tumbled out of the bus and onto the street between the bus and the sidewalk.  In true Noelle fashion, I twisted the hell out of my left ankle.  (Yep folks - this marks the second time in six or so months that I've sprained the same ankle...  Good stuff.)

So, after our first day of Winter Camp came to a close, Dionne and Scott drove me to the hospital and guided me through the whole process (seriously, I'd be one sick puppy without the Husteds!  They are awesome!).  And, let me just say, the Korean healthcare system is crazy efficient... and awesome!  I was in and out in 40 minutes from arrival to payment.

First, I took a number and waited less than five minutes to check in with the front desk.  The woman who helped me asked me all kinds of general questions and pointed me to the foot doctor down the hall.  I waited between five and ten minutes to see the doctor and when I went into his office, it was all business.  He looked at my foot, felt both sides of my ankle and sent me to have it x-rayed.  The x-ray happened bad fast and in five minutes or so, I was looking at it on a computer in the doctor's office.  It wasn't broken (though you could have fooled me - ankles look crazy!) so after we scheduled a follow-up appointment for Thursday morning, I went across the hall to get my ankle set in a splint.  The kid that set my ankle was real nice and he got extra cool points because he smelled real nice :)  But of course, no experience would be complete without an awkward exchange, ergo the following:

Splint Kid: (looking up at me and making awkward eye contact) Russian?
Noelle: What?
SK: Russian?
Noelle: (still not sure what he said because I was expecting it to have something to do with my foot) uhhh no...
SK: Blue eyes!
Noelle: Yep!  (then I understood...) I'm American...
SK:  Oh. American.

And with that, I was off to the pay station.  The whole situation cost me around $30.  Not bad, not bad...

And so, here I sit, in my apartment, busying myself by preparing for Ruth's arrival tomorrow (!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and icing my ankle with various frozen food from my freezer.  My current choice is dumplings, though pineapple and aloe vera have also made appearances...  I should be up and running in no time :)

Hello, 2012.

In an effort to further put off doing the dishes (a task I absolutely loathe), here I am, posting pictures from a delightfully low-key New Year's Eve with some of my best gal pals.

We started our afternoon by combing Gwangju for fireworks.  The man who runs the costume shop in town is soooo funny, and festive, and certainly came through in the fireworks department.  I've heard he can be cranky, but I've never seen that side of him.  How can you run a holiday / costume / pyrotechnics shop and be a miser?  I think he's delightful.

Next, we made a real sweet three layer funfetti cake with green tea vanilla frosting and fresh strawberries.  YUM.  Somehow, Korea's strawberries are 100% flavorful 100% of the time.  I don't understand, but I'm certainly not complaining - those things are too delicious to worry about why they are as such.

Then, at the stroke of 11:45ish, we ventured down to the shallow creek (that sometimes transforms to a river...) that separates our 'hood from the rest of the Gwangj.  We stood in the middle of the (frozen) creek, lighting off fireworks and dancing around with sparklers.  For a good hour and a half.  (That's how many fireworks and sparklers we bought!)  It was so, so fun and oddly refreshing (and maybe invigorating too) to be outside in the crisp air with sparkly fire in the wee hours of the morning with some of my favorite Korea pals.  I think we should do it again.

Then, we hightailed it back to the warmth of Miss Desiree's apartment to eat our cake and drink some wine.  This is my favorite kind of New Year's Eve celebration, especially if it involves wearing sweatpants.