[Part 2] 033. 3 September 2010 Friday

While today was a slack day for me with no lessons, it was a bad day as I mysteriously suffered from a strained ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) on the wrong leg. The ACL on my left leg was partially torn about 6 years ago and today, I felt the same excruciating pain on my right knee whenever I walked down any stairs or sat down. The strange thing is that I didn't even do any sports except walk down the hill from my hostel and I didn't hear any pop sound either. Alright, so I was wearing my heels when I walked down the hill but my heels aren't high at all and I've been wearing them for 8 months with no problem and I've walked up and down the hill in heels on numerous occasions. The pain was only detected when I sat down in the Korean eatery for lunch. And there is one thing I dislike about Korea's subway stations: the minimal presence of escalators. Walking up stairs is fine for me but when walking down stairs, I have to take one step at a time and everyone blatantly stared at me. How embarrassing! -.-

Jeannie went to Carribean Bay this morning with her group and before she left, I got breakfast from her because she cooked too much. Thanks Jeannie!

My luggage doubles up as a makeshift table

Lunch was at a Korean eatery near my hostel, together with Jaehyun, Julia and Jimin.

Julia and Jimin left for Dongdaemun after lunch while Jaehyun and I went to a cafe near school for tea. He treated me to peppermint herb tea, which was nice and hot for my sore throat.

After our tea session, he left for his class while I took the subway to Myeongdong to exchange my H&M blouse for a smaller size and to get cash refunds for my H&M vest and F21 sweater because I decided that I didn't like them anymore. I love shopping in Korea! For a fickle-minded shopper like me who keeps receipts and tags on until I start wearing my new purchases, I can easily get cash refunds at H&M and F21. I don't think we can do this in Singapore, can we?
And I only realised that my leg problem was serious when I had to walk down the stairs to the subway station in Anam. While I really didn't feel like going to Myeongdong at all, I had no choice because my F21 sweater had to be exchanged/refunded by today as it's exactly a week since my purchase. In Myeongdong, I managed to hunt down a pharmacy where I bought lozenges (1,000KRW more expensive than the one I got in the Express Bus Terminal a few Saturdays ago) and a white fugly knee guard for a freaking 19,000KRW (daylight robbery). There were no other colours for the knee guard and I was too tired to look for another pharmacy and too desperate for one because I doubt I could survive walking down the subway station to go back to school without knee support. I should have brought my own skin-toned knee guard from Singapore! Never expected this to happen at all because my injury was sustained 6 years ago and since then, I've never experienced something as serious as this; though now that I think about it, I think I did suffer a very very minor sprain last year on my left knee's ACL when I was in Yonsei for immersion. I think it's due to walking up and down on endless number of hills here. Anyway, my white fugly knee guard was so conspicuous that I felt everyone's eyes on me as I walked.

Actually, I had a orientation group meeting at 4.30pm and the KUBS Welcoming Orientation at 5pm today. But since all the other NUS Business School exchange students weren't attending the orientation, I decided to be a good NUS ambassador and be the sole representative at the orientation so I didn't join my group which I partially regretted because the orientation wasn't that interesting. But at least, I learnt from the Business dean that (some) staff who handled the accommodation assignment for exchange students have been fired. The Residence Office was supposed to consult the Business School before making the final decision about housing accommodation (as was the normal practice in the past) but they didn't. Given that 90% of the exchange students to Korea University are Business School students and many of us didn't get accommodation in the hostel, there were a lot of complaints made (my dad called in to complain to NUS and KU too) so actions were taken to rectify the situation, including the KUBS International Office stepping in to look for alternative accommodation for us. The orientation lasted 1.5 hours during which we listened to a speech, watched a few presentations and dance performances and took a group photo. That's all we did. And that's why I regretted not joining my orientation group which went to Namsan Tower and some Folk Village. I've been to Namsan Tower a few times and given my sprained ACL, I will die if I have to walk down the flight of steps back to the cable car station so I'm glad I didn't join them for that. But I would love to go to the folk village which I've never visited before :(

After the orientation, I went back to my room and along the way, I walked past a pharmacy/drugstore which sold a more skin-coloured knee guard (though still not as nice as mine back in Singapore) for 7,000KRW. Great, I got cheated in Myeongdong so now you and I know what we shouldn't buy when in Myeongdong. Before I met my group at Anam Station around 8pm+ for Korean BBQ dinner, Byungsoo oppa called me. He was so concerned about me after I asked him where I could find skin-coloured knee guards for knee support! Thank you oppa for your concern and for being such a nice elder brother to me! Your gf is one lucky girl :)
Dinner was quite alright just that it was really hot and I turned very red after 1 shot of soju with a pounding heart and my right knee hurt because I couldn't stretch it. We all went our separate ways after dinner, mostly to go back to rest to prepare for a long day ahead tomorrow.

I'm so happy that Alex can use the chopsticks now and I was the one who taught him!!!