NFL Teams of Westeros

Full disclaimer: This entry is not quite travel-related. If you want to stop reading now, I won't be heart-broken.

I'm a HUGE Game of Thrones fan.  The books.  The show.  All of it.  Last week, a fellow I follow on Twitter tweeted "Game of Thrones is to other TV shows like the Pats (Patriots) are to other football teams".  That statement is absolutely false for two reasons: I LOVE Game of Thrones, and I HATE the fucking Patriots.  I started thinking which houses/cities I would associate the Patriots and Broncos with if the NFL was based in Westeros.  Once I started thinking about my reasoning for relating these two NFL teams, I started thinking about other teams and where they would belong to in Westeros...IF Westeros and Essos existed and IF the NFL was based out of Westeros and Essos.

Here is my (admittedly biased, but all in good fun) list of where an NFL team would be from if the NFL came out of Westeros and Essos.

Denver Broncos: Winterfell
First, Winterfell = cold and snow, like Denver...very fitting.  Also, most fans of the show love the Starks, and the Broncos were recently named "America's Team"...again, very fitting.  Finally, the Lannister's do a damn good job at Stark-killing...chopping off Ned's head, Robb and the dreadful Red Wedding...I compare this to ripping us to shreds at Foxboro every season. However, much to the Lannister's dismay, the Stark's have had a few good licks in as well...ex: Robb Stark capturing Jaime Lannister in the Whispering Wood.  I liken that to the Denver Broncos Championship Game win against the Patriots last year.  The Broncos have the ability to take out the Patriots, it's just really fucking difficult.  Dear Patriots: Winter is Coming (which really doesn't effect you since you're used to it, but still...WINTER IS COMING!)

New England Patriots: Casterly Rock
This is actually a compliment...I mean, the Patriots are a good team, just like the Lannisters have a lot of power.  But, the only people who like the Lannisters are themselves.  Pretentious, easily angered, and power hungry.  They kill a lot of people as the Patriots have killed a lot of teams in the NFL.  The Lannisters, well, they don't have a fan base that compares to the Stark's.  Just like the Patriots' fan base doesn't compare to the Broncos'.

A sea of beautiful ORANGE!

Seattle Seahawks: Storm's End
The Seahawks are like the Baratheon's seated at Storm's End.  Kings of the Seven Kingdoms, but not for long.  They had their glory, now it's fading away.  Just like the Baratheon's.  Also, folks want to cheer for the Baratheon's, but in the end, they follow whoever sits on the Iron Throne.  A bunch of bandwagoners.

Oakland Raiders: Iron Islands
Bless 'em.  They try.  Those pillaging fools.  But they just. keep. losing.

San Diego Chargers: The Twins
The Frey's...Those back-stabbing sons of bitches.  They have the power to do damage to the Starks, same as the Chargers have power to do damage to the Broncos.

Kansas City Chiefs: Dreadfort
Like the Bolton's to Starks, you think the Chiefs are friendly to the Broncos (you know, for having a few shitty seasons).  But also like the Bolton's (Ramsay Snow), they have Jamaal Charles, who can flay the hell out of defenses.  It's kind of fun, in a morbid way, watching the Bolton's torture their captives, same as it's kind of fun, in a morbid way, watching the Chiefs do well....only to be shut out by Denver.  I shall re-name Jamaal Charles to Jamaal Snow, Bastard of Kansas City and flayer of NFL defenses!

Dallas Cowboys: Dorne/Sunspear
If you're only a watcher of the show and not a reader of the books, I would assume Dorne gained a big fan base after Oberyn Martell showed up in King's Landing with his poisoned spear and beautiful accent.  The Cowboys have always had a huge fan base and have always been known as "America's Team".  Dorne is also hot and sandy, and deserty.  Like Texas.  Also, the Prince of Dorne has a really bad case of gout.  I think Tony Romo does as well.

New Orleans Saints: Riverrun
We like Riverrun.  Like the Saints, they're not extremely powerful, but they get in there every now and then.

Minnesota Vikings: Beyond the Wall
C'mon, Minnesota?  Freezing temperatures, a shit ton of snow?  Just like Beyond the Wall.  Also BtW, there are giants and grumpkins and mammoths, just what I picture in Minnesota.

New York Giants: Eyrie
The Arryns, they just stay out of everything, up there in their impregnable fortress, high in the mountains.  Just like the Giants, bless 'em.  Do they even know it's football season?

Green Bay Packers: Oldtown
The Packers are an old and wise team.  Just like Oldtown, where the Maester's of Westeros are made and molded.

Miami Dolphins: White Harbor
Because basically, White Harbor sits on the coast and no one knows too much about them.

New York Jets: Deepwood Motte
Like the Glover's of Deepwood Motte, the Jets just aren't doing well.

Washington Redskins: Astapor
They're called the "Red"skins.  Astapor is known as the Red City.  Astapor also isn't faring too well, just like the Redskins.

Jacksonville Jaguars: Dragonstone
Poor Dragonstone.  It's just poor and broken down.  Similar to the Jaguars' season.

San Francisco 49ers: Lannisport
They're trying to be powerful.  But the Seahawks are to the 49ers as the Lannister's are to the Reyne's of Castamere.  Annihilators.  Cue the violin...

Arizona Cardinals: Myr
The red priest Thoros comes from Myr.  He has the ability to bring people back from the dead.  The Cardinals, who are red, having been playing their 2nd string quarterback all season, and killing it.  Now they're on their 3rd string quarterback.  And Beric Dondarrion is dead.  For real this time.

Indianapolis Colts: Highgarden
The Colts are up there in the power house race.  So is Highgarden.  Andrew Luck doesn't want to be just Luck.  He wants to be THE Luck.  Out of the shadow of one, Peyton Manning.

St. Louis Rams: Lys
Lys has sorcerers.  The Rams like to play tricks.  Sorcery-type tricks.  Anyone remember the Seattle game?

Cleveland Browns: The Red Waste
Johnny Football.  Need I say more?

And now I'm out of clever quips...but here's the rest of my list:

Tennessee Titans: Moat Cailin

Philadelphia Eagles: Horn Hill

Detroit Lions: Braavos

Chicago Bears: Pentos

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Tarth

Carolina Panthers: Maidenpool

Atlanta Falcons: Qarth

Pittsburgh Steelers: Saltpans

Baltimore Ravens: Yronwood

Houston Texans: Yunkai

Buffalo Bills: Acorn Hill

Here's hoping a Stark, I mean Snow (cough, cough) will soon sit the Iron Throne.  And the Lombardi trophy will be housed in Denver!  Go Broncos!!

Happy Trails!

P.S. If you're wondering why I've left out the Targaryens, well, Daenerys moves around quite a bit until she "settles" in Meereen.  Also, there is no NFL team worthy enough to be a Targaryen.  Not even Denver.

If you love me let me go, back to that bar in Tokyo...

Hey y'all.  I know it's been quite a while since my last post - four months, to be exact!  I'm still alive and kickin', just not living abroad anymore.  I left Korea at the end of August to head back to the Motherland to take a break from living the expat life...and to really give my ankle a chance at healing all good and proper ;)

There is nothing exciting happening in Colorado...unless you want to talk to me about the football season, particularly my Broncos.  Still hunting for a job.  Still hunting for a dude.  Being lazy while I can.  Spending money I don't have.  Enjoying watching shows on a television and not a computer screen.  Loving trips to the cinema without Korean or Thai subtitles.  You know, all the things that go with changing your lifestyle for the umpteenth time.

Anywho...I've been meaning to get back into blogging the Photo of the Day.  Photo of the "Day" never really took off for me (or was I doing "Week"?...either way, like Anakin to Obi Wan, I have failed you).  So after a long ass wait since Changgyeonggung Palace...a photo blog (which is actually a full photo BLOG, not just Photo of the Day), here's my attempt at jumping back on the Photo of the Day...Week? train.

I've had The Wombats - Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves) stuck in my head all morning.  It's a good earworm to have...I'm not gonna lie.  But it has me reminiscing about Japan, and I'd love to go back there someday.  I never made it to Tokyo, I spent my time in Kyoto and Osaka.  So, here is one of my favorite photos from that trip - taken on my iPhone, not even my full camera.

These "mush-mush" carts (a name I gave them) are all around in the quiet area of Arashiyama - a neighborhood of Kyoto.  I really loved Arashiyama, which is full of beautiful temples surrounding a peaceful bamboo forest.  If you ever go to Kyoto, I recommend a trip to Arashiyama.  I meant to have an hour long wander through the bamboo forest, then head back into the city...instead I spent my entire day wandering around Arashiyama - it's really lovely :)

I'll try to get back to posting a photo a week of places that I've been...but I'm not promising anything!

Happy Trails!

And for your earworm today...if you're wondering why I'm wanderlusting for Japan:

A Chick's Guide to South Korea before I Ramble On.

As I am soon (in two weeks) ending my stint in SK, I thought I would send out helpful places for anyone needing some expat guidance.  It's not nearly as fun as my Colorado list or Chiang Mai Top 12 list (I came here for the money, not the party...and my ankle kind of got in the way of extensive exploring, but with the way things are going on that front, there will be much and more of adventures - non-South Korean ones - to come!).

So, without further adieu, here is my helpful/useful South Korea list - for those of you who want to AVOID Itaewon and it's higher, foreigner prices:

Gringos Burritos!
I first have to give a shout out to Gringos Burritos.  As a Colorado native, I know Mexican food pretty damn well.  I'm convinced that my ma filled my baby bottles with green chili and salsa.  Saying that, living in Asia, it's difficult to find some authentic Mexican goodness.  That's where the Gringos guys come in.  One hails from my native Colorado.  One hails from Canada and is a sport nut.  Good guys making good burritos.  They're based out of Ilsan, but they ship glorious burritos all over Korea.  They spend the weekdays teaching the Common Tongue (like myself) to wee ones, and spend the weekends making burritos (not like myself).  The burritos come frozen to your door!  (Lucky me, they hand deliver mine as I live quite close to them...so we get to chat up all things sports and all things Colorado).  They offer breakfast and lunch/dinner burritos, and also sides like re-fried beans (which are great!), salsa (yum!), and red bean chili (some of the best red bean chili I've had...admittedly even better than my own, and I pack a mean red bean chili...).  Check out their menu and find them on Facebook.  If you're craving some Mexican...these dudes are the closest you'll get to it in Korea!  Thanks Mike and Mark for satiating my Mexican appetite over the last year!

My tip for heating the burritos - I will thaw the burrito in the fridge overnight.  Once it's fully thawed, I put it in a frying pan on low heat, turning it every few minutes and slow cooking it so it gets hot in the middle.  When it's hot, I'll crank the heat up for about a minute or two while turning it so the outside gets slightly crispy.  Nomnomnom...

My favorite from the Gringos...Carnitas oozing with cheese!
(FYI: That's not their salsa...that's my salsa)

Lucy Hair!
Ladies...I know you can relate to this one.  Where in the hell can a foreign chick get a "foreign chick" haircut in Korea?  I had yet another disaster (not nearly as bad as the one in Chiang Mai) with my hair when I went to Juno in Ilsan.  I had read on a Facebook group that a stylist at Juno spoke English and did a good job, so I decided to check her out.  First of all, she barely spoke English.  Second of all, she treated my "white girl hair" like "Korean girl hair".  So basically, she fried the living shit out of it.  I wanted my hair darker, I ended up with near platinum blonde locks so dry they made straw seem moist and lovely (the only upside...the cut was really good).  After a few months of sporting dry, weak, seriously damaged hair - and trying EVERYTHING I could think of to get the moisture back in it, I decided to chop it all off to start over again.  I heard about Lucy Hair in Sinchon from a co-worker.  Lucy was trained at Tony & Guy in London, speaks near perfect English, and most importantly knows how to color the hair of foreign chicks and dudes.  Ladies, if you need your hair done...I highly recommend Lucy.  Check out her Facebook page.

Awesome cut.  Awesome color.

EZ Shop Korea!
I don't know if you know this, but I love cheese.  And good cheese is hard to come by in Asia.  Therefore, when an acquaintance with a car offered to take me shopping at Costco, I didn't pass that up...

Costco = America = giant blocks of cheddar cheese!  

If you're in Korea for a while and have access to a car, getting a Costco membership is plausible.  Although I've been here for over a year, I don't have a car and didn't fancy flagging down taxis to get home from Costco.  That's where EZ Shop Korea comes in.  They have many Costco products - and you don't need a Costco card to shop with them - and they deliver it to your door.  The delivery costs can get pricey, especially if you're ordering refrigerator items, but it saves with the hassle of getting there and back, and like I said, you don't need a Costco card to shop with them.  Also, they have Lucky Charms.  Giant boxes of Lucky Charms and giant blocks of cheddar cheese.  (Also you can get a giant bag of delicious tortilla chips to help you consume your Gringos salsa!)

Cine in Korea!
I'm a film nut.  Lately I've been completely crazy about the magic of Marvel films. Recently, I've been thinking of our species as homo-sapiens and how obsessed we are with entertainment.  I often wonder what other, non-Earthly entities would think of us if they observed us from afar with our entertainment obsessions.  I think they would think we were weird...Anyways, I digress.  Koreans also love the cinema.  If you want to see a film, you're pretty much shit outta luck if you show up to the cinema to buy your tickets in person, and 30 minutes before the film starts...you know, like humans used to do pre-Internet days.  Therefore you English-speaking-and-reading person, I suggest you head on over to Cine In Korea for all of your cinema needs.  They have all the show times at all of the cinemas, and you can buy your tickets online, from the comfort of your bed, without worrying about only finding seats in the first row of a giant screen and that neck-ache you'll encounter afterwards.

Yonsei Severance Medical Center
If you're in need of an international clinic, Yonsei Medical Center has a great one!  The GP's are good and very thorough.  The GP at YMC told me more about what was wrong with my ankle than the actual orthopedic surgeon I saw in the emergency room in Chiang Mai.  She referred me to YMC's ankle specialist - who I didn't actually like and I ended up going with my surgery at Samsung Medical Center.  But saying that, the International Clinic and YMC is great if you're needing a doctor that is guaranteed to speak English.  They also have volunteers in the clinic to help you get around...YMC is massive, so they hooked me up with an English-speaking volunteer to take me around for X-rays, MRI's, orthopedics...you name it, they helped with it (something that wasn't offered at Samsung MC).

Check out what it's like to stay in a Korean hospital (Samsung MC) here.

Dentist
This one is specific to the Goyang area of Seoul (however, I've seen another branch of this dentist at Digital Media City, so perhaps it's a chain).  The Zi & Mi Clinic in Hwajeong is great!  I first went to the US Dental clinic near the Yongsan Army Base as I had heard good reviews...but I thought it was shit.  It was really dirty in my opinion and although the hygienist was good, the main doctor was not very gentle and put me off returning for a cavity filling.  A friend in Hwajeong recommended Zi & Mi.  The doctor speaks English, although most of the staff do not.  I ended up needing a root canal (which cost me a grand total of $18...thank you, Korea National Insurance!), and further needed a crown on a tooth I chipped.  The doctor was very gentle and explained EVERYTHING he was doing.  If you're in Hwajeong, his office is in the Lotteria building (next to McDonald's) on the 4th floor.

Chiropractor
I've always suffered from lower pain and need a good snappin', crackin' and a-poppin' from time to time.  Saying that, I've had a very difficult time trying to find a proper chiropractor anywhere in my area.  They all tend to be some kind of needle-poking acupuncturists, which do fuck all for my back.  After spending 6 months hobbling around on crutches, I needed a proper adjustment and this eastern remedy shit was NOT cutting it.  I could no longer avoid going to Itaewon.  After my trip to Singapore a few weeks ago, I've been suffering with some pretty horrible back pain.  A friend of a friend recommended Itaewon Wellness.  Again, I think there is a lot of traffic of Army dudes there as it is relatively close to the Yongsan Army Base.  I've gone 3 times in the past week and my back is finally starting to feel better.  It's a bit pricey, 50,000 won per session, but I honestly haven't been able to find any other chiropractor around...not a place that poses as a chiropractor, then sticks you with a bunch of unhelpful needles.

That's all I've got for you for now.  If I think of anything else, I'll add it to the list.  Hopefully this will help any of you foreign lads and lasses in, or coming to, South Korea.

As for me, well, it's time to Ramble On...

Happy Trails!

Related blogs:

Check out my Chenggyeonggung Palace Photo Blog.

Or, check out my Gyeongbokgung Palace Photo Blog.

Words of advice: Never transfer through China

This is what I've learned: China is whack. Like the daddy mac. If at all possible, I will never, EVER transfer through this whack place again.

Perhaps I've been fortunate during my travels and had never previously encountered flight problems before. But every flight I've had this trip to and from Singapore has been delayed. Coincidence? No, I think it's just whacky China.

First, I get up at the ass-crack o' dawn to catch my flight to Singapore via Shanghai. I had a 10 hour layover in Shanghai, so I was planning on exploring the city to pass the time. When I get to Inchon, the line to check in is horrendously long. No on-line check-in, no self check-in. After about 30 minutes (the line moved surprisingly fast considering), I get to the counter, only to be told my flight is delayed and to come back...and stand in line again...after 2 hours.  WHY someone didn't think to tell the people in line that ALL flights to Shanghai were delayed because of military training at the Shanghai airport is beyond me. So after 2 hours, I'm back in line again. This time the line is moving much slower because the flights were no longer delayed. After going through security and making it to the gate, we're told that the flight is delayed AGAIN. After we finally board, (can you guess what I'm going to say?), we were delayed on the Tarmac for another bloody hour! For fuck's sake!!

So we finally made it to Shanghai after a 6 hour delay. Most of the folks on my flight who were transferring had already missed their connections. Lucky I had that 10 hour layover. Unlucky because my day exploring Shanghai was now shot.

Shanghai airport is shit. The signs are misleading and confusing, the workers unfriendly, and most of the time it looks like you're walking through a fucking underground bunker to get to your gate. AND ONCE AGAIN, my flight is bloody delayed! They finally called for boarding. As I'm standing in line, (5 minutes after calling first boarding) they call "final" boarding and start rushing everyone through...only to be DELAYED ON THE TARMAC AGAIN!!!! Aye yei yei!! Seriously, what the fuck?

I FINALLY made it to Singapore...which was completely lovely (I'll write proper blogs on Singy later...for now, let's keep talking about how shit China is to transfer through).

Leaving Singapore, I had no problems...but I was looking at 2 transfers through bloody China on my way back to Seoul (hey, the tickets were cheap and I'm a poor, wanderlusting lass). I get to my first transfer...of which we're NOT changing planes - 1 hour layover - you'd expect to just sit on the plane, right? That's what I thought because I've done that before. Nope. Get off the plane, go through immigration, security and the likes, then told the flight is delayed. Should I really be surprised at this point? 

I finally make it to my second connection in Qingdao, where it's now 11am and they're shooting fireworks (or gunfire...) outside of the airport. Why?? There is no signage for international transfer anywhere. Information folks are a joke. I try to go for a coffee and when I walk in, one of the workers held her nose and went to the other end if the bar. Yeah, I probably smell a bit, but that's your fault China, for delaying every fucking flight to and from your country and ultimately delaying my well-needed after-travel shower. So lady in the coffee shop, go fuck yourself.

Also China, you need to figure out your pollution problem...cause damn! We were flying into a brown bubble of dirty China nastiness. 

That blue-ish strip between land and sky is haze. Nasty haze.

Haze and green sludge in the ocean (which I really hope is algae...)

Hazy, brown Qingdao.

Sorry if this blog is negative, but I had a negative experience transferring through China...so much that it put off any small desire I had to ever visit the country. Maybe I will one day, but China has dropped to the bottom of my list.

At least it wasn't enough to put a damper  on my trip to Sunny Singapore. Blogs on that wonderful wee country coming soon!

Happy (but not in China) Trails!

Changgyeonggung Palace...a photo blog

Two weeks ago, I had my first crutch-free post-surgery adventure in Seoul: Changgyeonggung Palace.  Changgyeonggung has a secret garden that I had been wanting to explore.

If you want to see the secret garden, be warned you have sign up for a tour and the entrance price is extra at 8,000 KRW (about $7.50).  Unfortunately, you can't explore the garden on your own and you're stuck in a large group of people, but I just hung out towards the back of the group to grab photos without people in them.  The secret garden tour is about 1.5 km and takes a good 90 minutes to get through.  It's also up and down some steep, un-paved, bumpy roads (which was interesting on my leg...I got my first real workout in a good 6 months, but I survived :)  It's well worth the going through (I'm not a group tour type of person); the garden is really beautiful and shouldn't be missed...I can imagine it's probably really beautiful in the spring with flowers in bloom, or in autumn with the changing trees.

So, without further adieu, here is my photo blog of Changgyeonggung Palace.  I highly recommend a visit if you're in Seoul!

Crossing the bridge to the entrance of Changgyeonggung Palace

Going through the first gate, it opens up into a large courtyard.

I have a thing for interesting doors.

...and rooftops.  The creatures on the top of the roofs are all Korean mythological creatures, like guardians.

A mini door.

Entrance into the secret garden

Walking through the first part of the secret garden

The secret garden

The old library of the secret garden

The heat was turning us into zombies...

Aww, my friend pointed out that the trees needed crutches, too.
We all need a little help now and again :)

One of the courtyards in the secret garden

So beautiful and green!

A beautiful day, with beautiful people!

A few flowers in bloom, but not many.  These lilies are quite frequent around Seoul.

I had to take a break after climbing a big hill...these designs are all over the ceilings of the temples, beautiful!

Heading down...it's a LOT steeper than it looks!

The worker's quarters

Some kind of rock statues...not sure of their importance.  I wasn't really paying attention to the tour.

About this time, my camera battery decided to peter out on me...so the rest of these photos are from my iPhone...

Beautiful buildings walking down from the exit of the garden

After we the garden tour, we went back to the main building of the palace, perfect timing as the crowds had died down

These are names of political leaders in Korea

Changgyeonggung and Namsan Seoul Tower

I love the colors and designs of the rooftops

Sunset after a lovely, tiring, crutch-less adventure :)

You can take a moonlight tour of the palace between April-November during the full moon.  The cost is 30,000 KRW (roughly $28).  You have to sign up early, and if there are signs of rain, the tour will be cancelled.

To get to Changgyeonggung Palace, you can take the subway Line 3 (orange line), exit 3 of Anguk Station.  Walk about 5 minutes and you're there!

Happy Trails!

Ankle-Fusion...A different kind of adventure.

I am now six months post-op since my surgery in December and I wanted to write about my journey.

Last year, exactly a year after my initial accident (and still having no knowledge of what was truly wrong with my shit), I said I wasn't going to bitch about my ankle any longer...a year of bitching about it was enough and it was time to move on.  I really wish that were the case, but truth be told, my thoughts are completely obsessed with the healing and taking extra care, worrying about the pain, just everything that comes with having an ankle difference.  I try to stay as positive as I can, but it's difficult when I want to be so active and I really can't be right now.  I've found a few ankle fusion support groups that have helped me understand that I'm not alone in this.  It's reassuring to hear other people's stories, what they've gone through, where they are, where they're going and tips on feeling better.

So, here's my story.

When I moved to Chiang Mai in February 2012, the first time that I needed to cross the street, I knew at some point that I was going to get hit by a car.  Call it a premonition, call it coincidence, call it whatever, but I could feel it.  I never actively thought about it, but I knew it would happen.  When I moved into my first apartment, I lived a five minute walk to my school.  That's when I started having dreams or visions of my left leg in a cast and me hobbling to work on crutches.  I could literally envision myself walking down the street that led to my school on crutches.  Two months after I started teaching, that's when it happened.  BAM!  Three underage girls on a motorbike slammed right into me.  Frogger: Game Over.

When I got to the emergency room, I was taken to the X-ray room and only had one angle of an X-ray taken.  THE angle that didn't show the fracture in my ankle.  I was diagnosed with a torn ligament, sent home with a cast on my leg and crutches under my arms.  The premonition came true.

July 8, 2012.  Frogger D-Day (left)
Two weeks later (center, right)

Many of my friends told me then, that I would have been better off with a broken ankle.  "Broken ankles heal so much easier than torn ligaments."  "Torn ligaments are so painful and take forever to heal."  These where the things I heard from so many people, which I think ultimately made my problem worse.

By October 2012, I was exploring Angkor Wat on a
misdiagnosed broken ankle.

Take no prisoneeeeeers!  Lara Croft, eat your heart out.
Exploring the magnificent temple of Ta Phrom.

The pain I was feeling for so long, I thought was normal because of what everyone told me about torn ligaments.  Therefore, I put up with it, thinking it would get better in time and wear off.  Thaaaaaat never happened...

A month before I left Thailand, nine months after my accident, I decided to see an orthopedic surgeon because I started to think my ligaments didn't heal properly.  He sent me for another X-ray - of the same, wrong, angle they took in the ER.  Because it was the same angle, again he didn't see the fracture.  He suggested I get an MRI to check out the joints and cartilage.  I decided to wait until I moved to Korea.

By the time I came to Korea in May 2013, I was broke like a joke.  The pay in Thailand is shit if you're trying to save, so I thought I would try acupuncture to help with the pain until I could get in to an orthopedic doctor here.  I really believe the acupuncture made the pain worse.  They did this blood-letting thing that never really helped, and after a few weeks, that's when my pain worsened.  By September, I finally got in to see an orthopedic doctor who only works on ankles and feet and had an MRI.

Some crazy, medieval blood-letting acupuncture...

The news wasn't good.  They took X-rays of all the angles of my ankle, which finally showed the doctor that my ankle was fractured.  The MRI showed the extent of the damage to my joints - they were trashed.  The MRI also showed the necrosis of the bone.  Because I was misdiagnosed, I was walking on a broken ankle for over a year.  That led to my ankle bone collapsing, which cut off the blood supply to the bone, which meant my ankle bone was dead.  I saw two doctors who both told me the same thing: I had one option because the extent of the damage was so severe and chronic arthritis was settling in.  I had to remove my ankle bone and ankle joints, replace the bone with either my hip (hell no!) or cadaver bone, then screw it all together, let it marinate, or fuse - if you will, then I would be pain-free.

I decided to have surgery from the doctor who offered to replace my ankle bone with cadaver bone.  I've seen the extent of extra pain years down the road from using part of your hip to replace bones (my mom had this done for her knee), and I wasn't about to put myself through that.

I had my surgery here in Korea on December 20, 2013 (here's my account of what it's like to stay in a Korean hospital).  I can't say it hasn't been challenging.  Going through major surgery, alone, and in a foreign country is not the easiest thing I've ever done.  The doctors are great here, very thorough and attentive.  They speak English.  And medical care is insanely cheap.  I probably paid at least 10 times less the amount it would have cost me back home...and that's a low-ball guesstimate.  The only bad thing is that Koreans don't use very strong drugs to kill pain.  My first night after surgery was fucking awful.  I think if there would have been a sharp object within reach, I would have cut my leg off.  That might be an exaggeration...but it wasn't pleasant.

Night before surgery:
The one on the left is the right one.

The day after surgery.  Ouch. Ouch. Ouch!

Getting a look at my battle wounds for the first time
while getting the dressings changed in the hospital

Needing to get my dressings changed before getting a hard cast after I made it home from the hospital.
Close to infection :-/

Here I am now, six months post-op and it's slowly getting better.  I don't need crutches when I'm at home walking around, but still do to walk around my little city.  If I do too much, it gets pretty painful (and "too much" isn't very much at all).  This last month, I've been able to do a bit more, which is giving me hope.  Sometimes I get up and have no pain at all, so I'm waiting for that day to come when every day is pain-free.  Through the support groups, I'm finding that this sort of surgery takes a good 18 months to fully heal.  My doctor said about a year.  So I'm definitely on my way ("from misery to happiness again...uh huh uh huh uh huh")!

Ready to journey outside for a bit

For any of you out there that are going through this...I feel your pain - literally.  For any of you thinking about having this kind of surgery, it's a long ass recovery, I'm not gonna lie, but it's slowly becoming a good decision that I made.

My ma came to Korea to help out for a few weeks...
Giving me a Bronco pedicure :)

Bronco blue cast. Bronco orange toes. One Bronco sock.
Lucky 2013 playoff combo!

Sweaty feet?  Just use the "cool" setting aaaaand RESULT!

Just a side note: Obviously my Bronco Blue cast was lucky...it got us through the playoffs.  My doctor took my cast off after we won the Championship game against New England.  Then we lost the bloody Super Bowl.  I would like to formally apologize to my fellow Bronco Country fans.  I should have convinced the doc to keep my cast on until February 3rd.

Battle wounds a few weeks after my hard cast came off

My big sis had some Bronco Nike's made for me for Christmas.
It wasn't until May that I could finally wear
the "Bronco" side...and proudly show off the battle wound!

Five screws and the bone of a Korean dude...
I can now say that I'm part Korean.

Battle wounds as of June 2014.
Coconut oil does WONDERS for scars!
(I only really used it for the first two months after my cast came off)

UPDATE: July 13, 2014 (I meant to post the update a few weeks ago...better late than never!)
As of June 23, 2014 I am crutch freeeeee!  For the first few weeks, I had about the same amount of pain without crutches as I did with one crutch, but it's slowly easing...and also dependent on the weather.  I'm considering a new career as a weather-chick...my leg tells me when there's a storm a' brewin'!

On the left is my X-ray from a few weeks after my surgery when my leg was in a cast.
Inside the red box, you can see a defined white square, which is the Korean bone.
X-ray from June 23rd, the white square is less defined because my bones are fusing with it.
Amazing!

Happy Trails, fellow ankle-fusioners!

One day (hopefully) soon...I WILL walk 500 miles ;)