Loosing my mind in Korea...

So it’s been a difficult couple of weeks, I’m not going to lie. The weather has been a bit rubbish, and I have had so many ordeals with my phone that I have started to wish for my stable and reliable Blackberry back. Good smart phones are totally overrated. True story! What happened? I hear you ask in wonder. Well, let me tell you...

It all started on Saturday night when I was out galavanting with some friends in Itaewon, Seoul. I had 1 or 2 drinks followed by a couple of Hand Grenade shots...and this is where it went dramatically downhill. A Hand Grenade shot is basically a glass half filled with Hot 6 (red bull), with two shot glasses squeezed into the top of the glass. One has tequila, and one has Jager. You pull out the Tequila and slam it down, whilst the Jagar drops into the pint glass. You then slam that down too, creating a sort of hand grenade effect. Its nice but totally lethal! WARNING: The alcohol in Korea is much stronger I swear, so Drink Responsibly folks.

See what I mean?! Lethal!

After this, I realised that I was without my telephonic communication device (mobile phone) and also my purse, as the two are very much stuck together in one of the those totally ridiculous wallets, that are possibly the worst invention EVER. Never again will I keep the two things together. First of all, I did what any normal person would do and looked in my bag, coat, general floor area and outside on the street. Standard. It was nowhere to be found. Next, I went to the bar to see if anyone had handed it in. The bar man looked at me with an expression that was quite hard to read. He asked for my name and when I answered, he leaned in and look at my facial features in more detail. ‘Ah yes Sarah, we have your phone’. They also had my ARC (identity card), my bank card and some cash. After seeing the state it was in he then told me that someone had found it...down the toilet!!! Whaaaat?!! How the hell did that happen?! The funny thing about this story (I have to laugh) is that I didn’t even notice that it had fallen in the toilet in the first place. Back pockets: another terrible idea!

Seriously though, only in Korea would someone not only hand in all of my possessions, but also fish it out of the loo for me. Amazing. If I knew who this person was, I would give them a huge high 5 and maybe some coins. People don’t really steal in Korea, everything you hear is true. I’m sure there are still occasions where theft is an issue, but on the whole its pretty rare here. Anyway, so my phone was quite messed up to say the least, and 24 hours later after sitting in rice for said time, the story hadn’t changed much. I decided to take it into school the next day where my director told me that it was no problem and took the phone to the repair centre straight away. Literally the next morning it was fixed. Koreans are certainly quick and efficient. So although it cost me a pretty penny, at the end of the day, it was all okay. 

This is how much I didn't loose! Phew!

I feel so strange out here at the moment, and I have never ever experienced such a sense of loss before. I’m not talking about breaking my phone or loosing my wallet (which happened in the first week) but I mean in sense of.... loosing my mind!! Back home in the UK, I am quite an organised person and I hardly ever lose or break anything, and now suddenly I have come to Korea and my mind is totally elsewhere. There are so many different things going on all around me, and so much that I am trying to get use to, that it is difficult to keep my mind on everything at once, or in fact anything for that matter. Just the other day I nearly left my entire shopping in the Supermarket. Its crazy. Hopefully that is it for me now though, as it is slightly difficult to sort these kind of things out when noone really speaks English! 

Thankfully, I do have a lot of great people around me that have been absolutely fantastic in helping me with these issues. That's the one thing you'll notice if you move to Korea - the people here are just so kind. But still, you really do have to focus and believe it or not - it's harder than it seems. Genuinely, in Korea....I think i’d loose my head if it wasn’t screwed on. Awkward.