A Light at the End

April 10 will mark 8-months since my arrival in Korea.  As my previous posts have alluded to, Korea has not been the adventure I had hoped.  I am continuously looking towards the future, not my future in Korea but my future after Korea.  I know I should enjoy the time here and live in the “now” but I cannot help but yearn for my plans that will begin September 2014.

I don’t feel much fulfillment here.  I am at work 40 hours a week but I only teach 22 of those hours.  The rest of those “work” hours are spent sitting at a desk in front of a computer screen.  Of course there is some lesson planning but I only have to create one lesson a week.  I try to occupy my extra time by taking free online courses and reading but sometimes the internet connection sucks (thus, no online courses) and I cannot help feeling unfulfilled as I waste time looking through endless pages of pointless shit on the internet.  I don’t want to spend the majority of my daytime indoors, on a computer, checking my email or facebook for the umpteenth time.    I am 25 years old!  I want to be outside exploring the world!

The good news is that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  After another 17 months here in Korea, I will have plenty of money to last for years of cheap travel!  So patience, Elaine, have patience. 

So what will come next?

I spend lots of time running through all of the possibilities for travel when I am finished in Korea.  The most desired plan is cycling.  The very tentative plans (so tentative that I shouldn’t even write them here) for the coming years look like this:

September 2014-February 2015—Travel somewhere cheaply, like a dollar a day cheap.  Southeast Asia?  The stans (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, etc)?  Road trip the USA with my little brother? 

March-May 2015—Spend quality time with family in South Africa.

June-August 2015—Spend quality time with family in the USA.

September-December 2015—Start cycling from Chicago towards Mexico and make it there before January.

January-December 2016—Take in the beauty that is Central and South America via bicycle.

January-December 2017—Take in the beauty that is Africa via bicycle.

All of this is so far in the future but I cannot help to think this far, it keeps me focused on completing these two years in Korea.  The light at the end of the tunnel.

Getting an IUD in South Korea

This post is quite different from my other ones because the purpose of it is to give information, not opinions or insights.  I recently decided to get a copper intrauterine device (IUD) as a form of birth control but when I was googling about the IUD in Korea, I could hardly find any information in English; so, I am writing about my experience of getting an IUD in South Korea to help other women.

First of all, a PSA to women: if you don’t want a baby right now and you also don’t want to take hormones to prevent a baby, check out the copper IUD.  While I had heard of the hormonal IUD, I had never heard of a copper version until a few months ago.  Apparently, the copper IUD got a bad rap back in the 1970s when there was a defective brand that caused pelvic inflammatory disease (PID).  The current risk of PID is very low, however, and the IUD should be discussed more often (in my opinion) as a potential form of birth control.  What makes the copper IUD amazing is that I don’t have to take hormones to prevent pregnancy, I don’t have to remember to do anything ever and it lasts for 10 years!  Incase you didn’t know about this, ladies, now you do.  If you want further information about the copper IUD, click here.

After reading all about the copper IUD online, I decided it was the best option for me.  Knowing that I would most likely not be able ask the gynecologist all of my questions regarding the IUD, I read extensively about it.  After reading as much as I could, I described what I wanted to my female co-teacher and after consulting with another co-worker, they decided what I was describing is called the “loop” procedure in Korea.  My co-teacher told me where there was a gynecologist and I went the next day after work. 

Confident that the gynecologist and I would be able to figure out what I wanted without sharing a language, I went alone.  Luckily, my doctor was even able to speak enough English to give me some counseling about the procedure.  After discussing the “loop” procedure for a few minutes, she instructed me to go into the next room to be examined.  The exam chair had a curtain around it but it stopped about a meter from the floor, leaving my lower half exposed as I changed.  It was odd to me, but I just went with it.  I then put on the cloth skirt that replaces the paper gown we wear in the US (how unwasteful!!).  While the doctor examined me, the curtain remained between us so we could not see each other.  This was strange to me and I imagine it could be uncomfortable for some women who are used to being able to see and talk to the doctor throughout the examination.  I wasn’t really bothered by it. 

I was told that everything looked good and we could go ahead and insert the IUD.  I explained to her that I would come back in a week.  Incase it was overwhelmingly painful for me, I wanted to have it inserted before a weekend during which I had nothing planned; so, I made an appointment for a week later and had the procedure.  The whole procedure literally took 60 seconds and while it was painful, it wasn’t unbearably so.  I paid 120,000 KRW (roughly $110) and was on my way.  I spent the next day or two feeling very crampy and bloated and am happy as a clam 2 weeks later.  I now have an extremely effective form of non-hormonal birth control that requires no maintenance for the next 10 years.  I am happy!