I'm struggling so hard. Half my mind is filled with vicious, bitter and selfish thoughts. The other half tells me life is not a dream and I should just go back to Singapore. But I'm so unwilling it's painful. I'm so afraid that I'll end up regretting not doing this and feeling super bitter towards Singapore and everything there. I know for sure that once I go back to Singapore, I'll never ever have this luxury of just concentrating on studying.
Anyway, in my diary a few days ago, I wrote about my growing love towards the Korean language:
My teacher responded with this: "I'm thankful too. You're truly a splendid student." Her comment made my day. :)
And oh, I went for a haircut about a week ago. "Haircut" is stretching it a bit far since all I did was to have it trimmed. Haha. And I think I emphasized the "just a bit" part too much, because the hairstylist really snipped off 1 cm!!! Not exactly what I had in mind actually, hahaha. She couldn't speak much English so once again I was blissfully forced into speaking Korean. Being the kiasu Singaporean I am, I actually checked the dictionary for words like "to trim", "fringe" etc. :P
Same thing happened when my wisdom tooth popped out. I wanted to ask my teacher if I should head to the dental hospital directly, and so I searched for the Korean equivalents of "wisdom tooth/teeth" (plurals are not important in Korean grammar), "to extract (teeth)" and "dentist". So when I finally had the chance to ask my teacher, this was my question:
"선생님, 저는 제 사랑니가 나와서 아파요. 건강센터에 가야 되거나 바로 치과 병원에 뽑으러 가야돼요?"
(Teacher, I'm in pain because my wisdom tooth has erupted. Should I go to the students' health centre (heavily subsidised student health care system) or should I go straight to the dental hospital to have it extracted?"
It's wonderful being able to communicate one's desires. Sigh.
Anyway she suggested that I go to the students' health centre because 1. wisdom teeth extraction is not covered by any kind of insurance in Korea, 2. it's going to be way cheaper and 3. she has no idea what to do in a dental hospital. Haha. And oh, on that same day we had a level-wide singing competition. This was the song my class chose:
Naengmyeon is cold noodles which is eaten in ... winter. O.O Anyway, our class came in third, out of 21 classes! Quite an achievement, if you ask me. The crowd obviously enjoyed our performance coz they were all cheering very wildly for us. I feel like a KPop star! :P
That's another beautiful memory to keep. :)
Back to my dental adventures. So with my left jaw hurting like crazy and all swollen, I took to the stage and performed. Right after that I went to the students' health centre and had my tooth examined. The dentist was a kind lady in her 40s who could speak English but chose to speak Korean to me so once again I had the chance to reuse words like 사랑니* (wisdom tooth) and 뽑 (to extract). If I understood her rapid-fire Korean accurately, she said my tooth was still too deeply embedded and extraction would mean having to cut through the gum, which she doesn't think is a good thing to do for now. So she made a phone call to someone, explaining my situation (I understood about 60% of her conversation and thus knew she was talking about me), then sent me home with some meds and told me to go back to see her on Monday.
*the "사랑" in 사랑니 means "love". WHERE IS THE LOVE??!! Hurhurhur... Koreans, you guys have a wicked sense of black humour.
So I've been stuck at home since Friday afternoon just chilling, writing my diary, watching Japanese folktales (super up my alley). My tooth's ok if I take my medication, but once the effect wears off the pain comes back. My jaw's still swollen though, and I'm making this sound worse than it really is. I thought I would be reduced to a whimpering invalid who can only imbibe liquids, but it can't be further from the truth. I'm really living it up here ... :P
I guess there's nothing much for me to do now except to really cherish every moment spent here.
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