I'd like a double cheeseburger with bacon and mayonaise, fries, a side of mayonaise, and a Diet Coke.

We're finally getting a little information about our situation.

Basically, we are going to have at least one of the camps, most likely the elementary one. Afterwards, the touring will proceed as usual and I will be able to visit my host family as scheduled. Of course, this is all subject to change.

This week has passed by so slowly, with only the internet and hiking as things to occupy my time. We're hopefully visiting a city at the beginning of next week, and our quarantine ends tomorrow. I wish they would let us take a cab to a city or something, but one of the Korean staff members here found out about some Wando residents protesting our presence. I doubt anything is in the cards until Tuesday.

I am so sick of the food here. I'm sure Korean food is great, but this cafeteria food is driving me nuts. All I can think about is eating a big cheeseburger, some fajitas, thick slabs of cheese and salami, or some pasta. I think my trip to Nagoya will definitely involve a visit to Mos Burger for two teriyaki chicken sandwhiches, fries with mayonaise, and melon soda. Toward the end of my stay in Japan, a friend and I would eat lunch there once a week and get donuts afterwards. Somehow, despite the globs of mayonaise, I still kept losing weight. Hooray for an active Asian lifestyle, right?

I'm sorry this post is so boring; but I feel as though this week has been boring. I'll be posting a review of the movie 200 Pounds Beauty tomorrow; that's about as near Korean culture as I've come this past week.

In the meantime, how about an adorable Chinese song?

No News is Good News.

So I was pretty lazy today and didn't do much but sleep and go on the Internet. It's raining super hard here, so I didn't get to go hiking or anything fun.

I did learn two things that really made me happy, though.

1. An editor from Matador Abroad, an online travel magazine with really great articles, contacted me to let me know that she wants to publish the article I wrote. I'm officially a paid travel writer, guys! It's a small start, but a good one, and I'm ecstatic. Of course, when it's finished, I'll be sure to link it here.

2. I've lost ten pounds since I've come to Korea about a week ago. I was really surprised, but I guess I shouldn't be. I lost 15 pounds in Japan (most within the first month), and gained about 25 on my return because I didn't really take care of my body. This time, I'm really going to work hard to maintain a healthy weight that I'm comfortable with.

On the downside, something is wrong with my camera. Everything looks fine, but when it takes pictures everything is all white. I'm really worried I'll have to buy another camera (probably a less expensive one that isn't as nice). Ugh. I have horrible luck with technology.

Here by the sea and sand, nothing ever goes as planned.

Here's an update on our status.

• Last night I got my swine flu test results back, and I am negative. Unfortunately, the other two who were tested were positive.
  
• Today a group of workers were dispatched to clean all of our rooms and wipe down any visible mold with bleach, which should help a lot.
  
• Construction on the building has stopped, and all the trash in the back should be gone by tomorrow.
  
• We are all starting Tamiflu tonight. Tamiflu won't prevent swine flu, but for those who have it and haven't shown symptoms, it will help fight the virus quicker. Most of us have decided to take Tamiflu, and we all will be tested for swine flu in five days. Those who pass the test will be able to move on! This is incredibly exciting to us, because we thought we could be quarantined indefinitely until seven days after the last confirmed case of swine flu.
  
• After the quarantine, we will be given the choice to go back home early. Our first camp is cancelled, our second is probably cancelled, and after the quarantine our group will be touring Korea for a period of time. Which sounds great, except if someone starts showing signs of swine flu again, rumor has it we may have to start over.
  
• We will be getting compensated for the first camp, and our two representatives are working to make sure we get compensation for the second as well.
  
• We have contacted the U.S. Embassy and have someone working on our case. She's making sure most of our requests are met and has been sending daily updates.

I Was Cured, All Right

Right now I feel like a mixture of this:



And this:

Swine 09, What a Fine Time

I'm about to go gonzo journalist all up in this.

So you know how I was joking about swine flu?


Guess what? Three of us have tested positive for it. The announcement was given today, after a talent show and pizza dinner amongst all of the teachers. As you can imagine, the atmosphere in the room went from positive to almost completely downcast. About the only thing that has remained the same is my fellow teachers' solidarity. Everyone is concerned about everyone who is sick, saddened that we probably will not be able to teach the first camp, and a little pissed off at the lack of answers we have been getting. I cannot fault the Korean staff or the American head teachers; all have been great advocates for us. But we've been stuck quarantined on an island in a moldy building going through construction with only each other for company. Some of us have mold allergies or sicknesses agitated by the poor state of the facilities here, so another week of quarantine here is an absolutely foul idea, in my mind.

Sick of Being Sick

I should have brought more cold medicine. At least, I think it's a cold. Maybe I'm allergic to the mold in the building, like a couple other girls are, but I've never been allergic to anything. Either way, I feel a bit better today than I did yesterday, although I feel worse now than I did in the morning (maybe it's something in the air at night that's making me have a hard time breathing). It's no fun being sick; I felt extremely homesick and irritable yesterday. Now I'm just trying to take it in stride and have fun. Being miserable isn't going to make it go away quicker.

Either way, people here have been so nice about it. I've been sneezing, coughing, and blowing my nose constantly, but so many people have offered me medicine, vitamins, cough drops, or even just pleasant conversation.

The past two days have been teaching orientations, which are informative for me and boring for you. Well, boring for me, as well.

On Wednesday, a Korean woman came in to teach us how to sing traditional Korean songs and use the janggu, a traditional drum. We learned how to sing Arirang, a song about a woman scorned by her lover. Unfortunately, I grossly misinterpreted the English lyrics the woman put up. "This is not a children's song," she said, and everyone laughed. Somehow I felt this must mean that the lover's feet had hurt because he was exhausted through other forms of exercise. Maybe it's just me; judge for yourself:

Arirang, Arirang, Arariyo...
Crossing over Arirang Pass.
My lover who abandoned me here
Will not walk even four kilometers before his feet hurt

I want my mom, a Disney movie, and a cup of chicken soup.

Swine Flu update, part 3: I don't have it.

However, I do feel crappy today and will save a full update with pictures until later tomorrow. Stuffy/runny nose, congested, headache. I took some sinus pills and will be going to bed early tonight. Hopefully that does the trick, because I need to stay healthy.

Today was by no means a bad day, but I'm getting cabin fever from being shut in a wet, moldy building all day (maybe this is all allergy related?), and...

Scratch that. Karaoke in 30 minutes. Perhaps I'll shower and stay up a little later.

I am going to learn this dance:



Be scared.

Wando Camp: Where Moths Go to Die

Today was the first day of orientation, proceeded (of course) by the second round of swine flu check-ups. We stood in line again to have our temperature taken, and I was slightly bothered that one of the nurses was sitting down at the table, texting with her mask off while the other was working. When she was finished, of course she put the mask back on.

"Temperature is 36.7 degrees."

"Okay."

"Sore throat? Muscle ache?"

"No."

"Runny nose?"

"I feel great."

Afterwards, we sat and learned a bit about how the camps work, received our teaching materials, and got a lesson in Korean culture by Suk Su "Steve" Kim, a charming man who spoke poorly of his English, even though he wildly succeeded in being quite funny (sometimes even when we wasn't trying). After a while, I stopped taking notes from the powerpoint presentation, and started writing down quotes.

On kimchi:
"No one in South Korea has died of swine flu...because of kimchi."

On democracy in South Korea:
"Too much democratic now. That's my opinion."

On Confucius:
"I read his book. Not his book, his disciples' books. Many times. Very useful."

On Buddhism:
"Two kinds of sects. Not sex, sects."

On the benefits of chopsticks:
"So if you want plastic surgery, I can recommend some doctors. Koreans have good hands because of chopsticks."

Quarantined

Compared to the hell I went through getting to Japan (a missed international flight, homesickness, and extreme culture shock), the transition in Korea has been pretty smooth. Although this didn't exactly help keep the nostalgia train from pulling in:



An entire album of the themes from Hayao Miyazaki's movies set to techno beats. No matter how happy and uplifting, Miyazaki's films never fail to make me bawl; something about the quiet, subtle way he portrays characters and relationships really touches me. The version of the Castle in the Sky theme was especially good. Besides that, there were albums by Gackt, X-Japan, Utada Hikaru, and Rain, and I watched Dragonball: Evolution. It was lucky I had a lot of bad entertainment to occupy my time, because I couldn't sleep during the entire 12 hour flight.

Breakfast of Champions

Before dropping off my boyfriend at the airport, we headed to Goody Goody diner in St. Louis to experience one of America's true wonders:


Fried chicken and Belgian waffles.

Needless to say, it was an amazing combination. The chicken was tender and juicy with a slightly spicy breading, and the Belgian Waffle was sweet, airy, and buttery. I'm going to miss soul food in Korea.

I'll make it rain...ism.

Today was the day of shopping before the trip, which is always the worst. Don't get me wrong, I love shopping. But I prefer to do it for things I don't need, unfortunately. Things I need to survive in Korea (or at least to survive with working electronics) are no fun to buy at all, and they're so expensive. Electric power adaptors, voltage converters, lithium batteries, a new pair of plain flats, an SD card reader, and about $100 gone all before I've left the country. Ouch.

Hopefully I'll be ready to leave for Korea by Saturday morning, but there's still so much more to do.

And when I want to go home, I'm going mobile...

It's always so scary for me to begin something, whether it's a new notebook, a new news story, a new blog, or a new adventure abroad. My name is Valerie Insinna, and I'm a 21 year old college student studying print journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia.


Deep down, I'm a homebody -- I love my family, my friends, familiar things, affection, and sometimes complete solitude and comfort. Despite my own nature, my two biggest passions are things that inescapably push me out of my comfort zone: journalism and travel. I love adventures and become bored easily. So I do things like going to Nagoya, Japan for a semester or write news stories at the state capitol. Inevitably, I doubt myself beforehand and dread the possibility of failure. And somehow, I realize how happy I am to travel and write, and I know I could never be as content otherwise.

What is Going Mobile?

Most simply, it is the title my travel blog, in which I'll post photos and write about my experiences abroad.

More accurately, it ties into who I am as a person and who I'd like to be as a traveler.