Cough Cough Cough

Sorry folks! It's been a while but I (Cindy) have been a bit ill. Being sick in Korea is a strange thing. I have had a sore throat for over two weeks now, and this week it took my voice away. When my voice came back, it brought along a BARK with it. I cough cough bark bark bark cough. It really sounds like I am dying. I did finally give in and go to a doctor who sort of speaks English. He asked me many questions, and after each one he would furrow his brow at my answer and tell me that my answer was simply not good enough. Apparently the answers I have always given in Canada are not sufficient here in Korea. Saying my chest is congested was not good enough, he wanted to know exactly where, how heavy the congestion was, what exactly it felt like, and even what I thought was in there. It took many tries before he would accept my explanation of how my ears hurt. He stuck things in my ears that beeped, things up my nose the shot out steam, and I had to inhale something through my mouth that tasted like vanilla. After all of this, he told me to come back the next day.
"You have allergy.....you understand? You have allergy and I test tomorrow before noon. Closeee tomorrow noon-uh lunchee two hours. Understand?"
"I have to work tomorrow, I cannot come."
"No you come tomorrow. Allergy."
"WORK tomorrow."
"Yes, see you before noon."
"Fine."
I didn't go. I really did have to work. So here I sit, barking and coughing, hoping that it will cure itself somehow.

Anyway, last weekend we set out on an adventure with our good friends Matt and Mel and their friend Rob. We went to Jinhae for their Cherry Blossom Festival. This involved taking a train to Changwan, and then a second train to Jinhae. All went well getting there, and we had a great time. There were so many cherry blossom trees that it was actually raining pink petals when the wind blew.

When it was time to go home, we realized that we perhaps were going to have a problem. The train to Changwon was sold out. The buses were so full that people were hanging out of them. We HAD to get to Changwon to get our train home.......and time was running out.

(***Mom, stop reading here. Trust me. Just imagine that we got on a lovely bus and had a lovely ride, and caught our lovely train...now skip to the end and look at the pictures.**)

So, after some negotiation and a call to a person who could translate for us, we got a taxi driver to agree to take us to Changwon. Almost right away we realized the roads were packed and we were not going to make our train to Daegu at that pace. The taxi driver seemed to sense our need for speed, and after one more call to someone who could translate for us, he stepped on the gas and began what could only be described as a taxi ride straight from a video game. We sped past lines of cars caught in traffic, we were often on the wrong side of the road, the tires squealed as we went around corners, and since there were no seatbelts for us to wear, we were thrown into each other as we laughed nervously. However, we made it there alive and in time to catch our train. Another successful mission.