The Ups and Downs of Living in Korea

You can blame "cultural differences" all you want.

A middle-aged female teacher felt the need today to tell me the following:

"Yesterday, Stephanie, a student asked me if you were pregnant. He asked me, actually, if you were pregnant having twins. So I didn't give him any candy in class. He said 'Oh!' but I said 'No candy! That is very rude!'"

Yes, I've gained weight while living in Korea. I'd like to blame it on the mass consumption of rice and rice products (squishy Korean rice cakes are practically shoveled into my mouth at least three times a week), or maybe even the fluffy white bread that has now taken the place of whole wheat bread, which is next to impossible to find here (and no, I will never give up toast or PB&Js in my life so long as I have the choice).

But unfortunately, this one's on me. I was lazy all winter long. It was cold. Reeeeally cold. To leave the warmth of my apartment again after coming home from school was a huge feat (and one that I rarely conquered). But then spring came, and the weather began to turn and I was motivated to do things. I bought a bike and was going on long bike rides. Some girl friends and I started up a women's running club in Jinju. I was getting back into rock climbing. I was going on some amazing hikes. And one Sunday, I finally made it to the casual, yet competetive, soccer match that's held every Sunday by mostly foreigners (but with some Koreans).

But on that glorious day, all of my regained health shattered to the ground.

Within the first ten minutes of playing soccer I sprained my left ankle, and I sprained it bad. Now, over four weeks later, it's still messed up. In the past four weeks, I haven't run. I haven't biked. I haven't hiked. I've tried to climb, but only fell off the bouldering wall onto my OTHER ankle and rolled it. Yes, that's right. Luckily, the swelling disappeared after a few days and the pain was minimal. Seriously.

But, amidst all these things I haven't brought myself to do, there's one thing I have continued to do, and that is to eat rice. A LOT of rice. And toast. And well, I might as well be honest and say that I have also eaten a lot of chocolate, among other things, as well as drank a lot of beer. And wine. Dang.

And here I am, at this moment, dwelling on the fact that a 13-year old Korean boy asked if I were pregnant with twins...