Swear I'm Not Dead...Promise

I'll be back with at least one update tonight. Until then:



Now imagine a group of 12-year-old girls singing and dancing to that song.

That was my homeroom. I'll introduce you to them soon.

When in Doubt, Dance.

I have great story about Tuesday to tell, but it's going to have to come later. It was just so strange, so epic of a day that I want to recount it for you with all of the details and pictures that a day like that should have. You know, those great days that come out of nowhere because the people you meet are so incredibly interesting? That's why I love traveling, not because of the great scenery. Although I have photos of that, too.

So far I'm really loving it here at Damyang. It's certainly not a big, cosmopolitan city with lots of things to do and places to see, but there's actually buildings, bars, cafes, grocery stores, cars, and people. If I venture out of the college, I pass a bamboo forest, walk down a bridge, and go past little stalls serving street food such as fried fish, barbequed chicken, and fried green tea pancakes that taste like funnel cake and are filled with melted brown sugar, honey and finely chopped nuts.

My camp is amazing, filled with such a great mix of energetic and laid back individuals. And I absolutely love my co-teacher, Ja In, who speaks great English and has been a very good friend and co-worker to me. On the first day we met, she offered to take me to Gwangju to shop, but we weren't allowed to leave until the principal arrived at camp. We missed our chance to go, but she bought me ice cream and chips at lunch that day. Later on, we went with Jessica, another co-teacher, and other native English teachers to a hof, which is what they call bars. We all had a bottle of beer and ate fried shrimp, melon, and fried pork.

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?

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 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.

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.

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.