Back in touch with the world...

So, I have officially been here 6 weeks. I can't tell if it seems longer or shorter than that, but either way, time is going quickly.  Only 38 more weeks and I will be headed back to the U.S.A.  This overall was a good week because it was short; we start Chusok holiday tomorrow, which is the Korean Thanksgiving. But the short week wasn't even the highlight of this week. The best part was Wednesday afternoon when I received my cell phone! I know some of you probably don't believe that I went 6 weeks without having one, but I honestly did. It was really weird (and strangely liberating) and now I almost feel cell phone illiterate. I couldn't figure out how to space when texting, I couldn't find my recent calls menu, and I always forget to take it places! I feel much safer traveling now, though. We got them at the perfect time because tomorrow 7 of us are headed out on another mini-vacation to Busan, a coastal city nicknamed Korea's hollywood. I hope we have some time to relax on the beach and not think about school! :)

On a completely different note, today I made my first of hopefully few trips to the doctor's office. I hadn't been hearing well in my right ear and especially in the morning it felt...I don't know...plugged. I went to the school nurse who told me she thought I had an ear infection, so this afternoon I went to an ear, nose, throat doctor. No one there spoke English, but I talked the school nurse into coming with me the first time. I walked in, and before I could even sit in the waiting room chair they called me in.  I sat in what looked like a dentist chair while the doctor used this little camera to take a picture of the inside of my ear. The problem ended up not being an ear infection, but a buildup of earwax that was completely blocking my ear canal! I saw the picture and it was disgusting! Apparently it is a pretty common problem here due to the pollution and dust in the air. Anyway, the doctor took his little scissors and pulled out all the wax and gave my ears a good cleaning. After about a minute sitting in this little machine in which I held two heaters/dryers up to my ears, I was free to go. The entire visit couldn't have been more than 15 min, and now I can hear crystal clear!