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 :)