Ah-knee-yo!

It has been a few days since my last post so it's time to put that right. Usually my absence in one way or another can be attributed to a busy/heavy weekend and that's certainly the case this time around. I mentioned all my upcoming plans in my last entry and everything I planned for Friday and Saturday went ahead as planned. However, Saturday night went on that bit longer than is really sensible so I totally missed band practice on Sunday. Jeff did the same. It's pretty shabby from both of us and I'm sure Jim and Cheon were far from impressed. We'll have to make sure it doesn't become a regular occurrence.

I woke up on Monday with my head full of those ideas I always wonder how many I'm sharing them with across the globe. The common themes are, 'I'm never drinking again', 'why didn't I leave earlier on Saturday?', ' why did I go to INSERT LOCAL WATERING HOLE HERE on Sunday night?', etc, etc, etc... Accompanying those old favourites this Monday was the solemn oath to go off drinking for a bit. As it turns out, I really will be on this occasion.

Having shown signs of improvement last week, my knee was sore and swollen again on Monday having not been exactly rested up over the weekend. Ji and I headed to a local hospital today. I want to say right away - DON'T GO TO SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL!! That's where I went a couple of weeks ago to be ripped off, annoyed by smug volunteers and no more enlightened about what was actually wrong any more so than I had been when I went in. They also failed to see that I am covered by health insurance and so over-charged me by quite a bit. They haven't heard the last of me on that front.

Today I went to Him Chan Hospital and now actually know what was wrong and what I need to do to get better. I started of by getting some fluid drained from my knee. If you are a girlfriend going to the hospital to support and pacify your nervous boyfriend then don't say, "Oh My God what a huge needle!" when the doctor is about to treat him. Yeah, that doesn't help. After that joyous experience I had an MRI scan on my knee, a process that I wouldn't fancy experiencing if I was claustrophobic. It involves being put in a tube that wouldn't look out of place on Star Trek and listening to a much louder equivalent of those old dial-up internet tones for twenty minutes. I spent the whole time looking at a sign saying 'Philips Laser Aperture' and trying to rack my brains figuring out what 'aperture' actually means... That didn't make the time go by any longer you'll be aghast to hear.

The diagnosis is that I dislocated my patella and, although it magically went back into place on it's own, the event ripped a ligament. I'm in a new splint and on crutches for three more weeks at least. He also warned me that if it happens again (the dislocation) then I'll be in for surgery. I think it would be wise not to play football or do any serious jogging ever again but we'll see... It was a huge relief not to need surgery and I'm glad to finally have an answer for those who constantly ask me what's actually wrong with me (or my knee, at least). Additionally, the pills I'm on to aid my recovery strictly forbid me from drinking alcohol for a bit. That's fine by me...

So. Cycling trip to Seonyudo for my birthday: Off. Mud Festival trip with the lads: Forget about it. Jisan Valley and Pentaport Rock Festivals: Not on your nelly. Surprisingly, I actually don't mind at all right now. I'm looking forward to lots of reading, laying about, kicking Ji's ass on the Wii, maybe playing chess with my co-worker Kevin, and generally not feeling guilty for being lazy. You know what? This might be a blessing in disguise. That is until I hear everyone's fun stories from everything I'm missing and start feeling jealous...

The work side of things is quite quiet at the minute. I started my new class on Monday. It's just a 50-minute class with 4/5 students at the moment. Not tough to prepare for or execute. I'll be doing some curriculum development from Thursday with Richard Wright and Stacey but I'm not sure we've been told what's expected of us yet. It'll be nice to have allotted time to prepare some strong topic classes. Then I think I have some kids classes for a couple of weeks. Then three weeks off. Did I mention that I have three weeks off coming up? Not that I'll be able to do much other than hop around at this rate anyhow.

Well this is a lot of babbling today, isn't it? I'll pull myself together tomorrow to blog on the World Cup, Derry City FC and my thoughts Frost-Nixon, which I saw earlier tonight for the first time and was really impressed with. For now, goodnight everyone and I hope you are well.