So I booked my hotel! I ended up taking Abby's suggestion and booked 10 nights at Gangnam Artnouveau City II (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g294197-d1643621-Reviews-Gangnam_Artnouveau_City_II-Seoul.html). Thanks for the suggestion Abby!

I think that's pretty much it at this point. I have the surgery, flight, and hotel all taken care of. From what I can tell the transportation from the airport to the hotel won't be too difficult, and they are providing transportation back to the airport which is great.

I've been doing various voice recordings, trying to record my natural (male) voice without any explicit pitch change, my normal female speaking voice, and some additional female voices in higher ranges. I'm also recording my ranges from low to high so i can see the difference. I want to compare the difference between my voice in these different situations pre- and post-op. I'm curious if the pre- and post-op voices at the same frequency will sound the same (since technically it's just affecting the pitch) or if there will be a noticeable difference. My thought is that there will be a difference, if only because pre-op I am having to force it to go higher and I may not be using as much air, so the resonance may be off.

If your results are anything like mine, it will sound a little different- but still like you. The act of tying off part of the vocal cords stretches them slightly, thinning them out and giving a lighter/softer sound.

So excited for you!!

And hopefully we can hear kathyp's results soon

Great for you. So a bit more than one month, we'll all be curious about the months afterwards and the comparison, if you will share them.
Hehe - I dreamt of you all last night - a bunch of girls that were silent for a week in my dream because they got a new voice - it was a bit weird though as the evening before I tried to do the male voice, took me a while to do it. Got scared a bit of it. And then the dream and today when i woke up I had a really bad throat soreness and could not speak the whole day. I had to think of you all again as I tried to type and sign. It was harder than I thought it would be . But it made me think - does silent whispering count as speaking in your restrictions? Like the kind that you can only understand when really close?

Quote from: Jennygirl on October 01, 2013, 04:56:30 PM
If your results are anything like mine, it will sound a little different- but still like you. The act of tying off part of the vocal cords stretches them slightly, thinning them out and giving a lighter/softer sound.

So excited for you!!

And hopefully we can hear kathyp's results soon

That makes sense. And I hope my results are half as good as yours are, haha. I'm anxiously awaiting kathyp's results too!

Quote from: anjaq on October 01, 2013, 05:12:06 PM
Great for you. So a bit more than one month, we'll all be curious about the months afterwards and the comparison, if you will share them.
Hehe - I dreamt of you all last night - a bunch of girls that were silent for a week in my dream because they got a new voice - it was a bit weird though as the evening before I tried to do the male voice, took me a while to do it. Got scared a bit of it. And then the dream and today when i woke up I had a really bad throat soreness and could not speak the whole day. I had to think of you all again as I tried to type and sign. It was harder than I thought it would be . But it made me think - does silent whispering count as speaking in your restrictions? Like the kind that you can only understand when really close?

Of course I'll share the recordings! That's part of the reason I'm doing it, for me to compare, but also for the community.

Hmm, I think the main thing is to make sure the vocal chords don't move. If there is a way to whisper without them moving, while still being understood I can't think of a reason it would be restricted. Not that I'm going to take that chance

Oh my pre-op and post-op totally sound different even at the same pitch. I think part of it is because the vocal folds are thinner as Jenny mentioned and also you're not straining anymore after the surgery.

I think my first post here was a voice clip, and it was at around 190hz. It sounds soooo bad (truly embarrassing) compared to what my voice sounds like now at the same pitch, and the fact that it requires no effort from me is just amazing.

Edit: Oh, and you'll love the hotel. The decor is a bit gaudy for my taste but the value for what you get is outstanding. It was so nice coming back from a long day to a nice big comfy hotel room.

Just some tips since they didn't explain the keycard to me when I checked in:

-The keycard can be finicky to unlock your room, so just hold the card against the thing on the door for a few seconds and it will unlock
- When you first walk into your room, there's a little slot by the door to put your keycard in. This turns on the power and lights in your room, so that when you leave and take your card with you everything shuts off automatically. I was seriously confused because none of the lights were turning on since I didn't know I had to put my key card in the slot.
- There is no laundry detergent in the room, but if you call the front desk they'll send somebody up with a little container of it. The w/d unit thankfully has English labels on the buttons. The rice cooker was a different story and I could never figure that out.

The hotel is really convenient to Gangnam station which is a major metro stop. You just make a right out of the hotel, make a right down the first road you see, and then your second left. A short ways up you'll see the entrance to the subway station (Entrance 5.) COEX is a big shopping mall with a movie theatre and aquarium that is only three stops down (towards Yeoksam) the green line. It's also easy to connect to the lines that will take you across the river and to the more touristy areas of the city.

There's also a ton of convenience stores within a short walk of the hotel. If you make a left from the hotel there will be a CU a half block away. There are also roughly a million restaurants within walking distance of the hotel.

Oh and if you're a cat lover there's a really cool cat cafe not far from entrance 10 of Gangnam station.

I was bored (and missing Seoul, I wanna go back so bad ), so here's a map!



The blue line is the quickest way to the subway from the hotel.

Anywhere along the main streets that follow the red and green lines you see in the map have a ton of convenience stores, chain restaurants, some shopping, etc. If you want to find more authentic restaurants just walk around the little side streets and you'll see a ton. The area is super safe and there's a police station a few blocks south of your hotel.

If you take the green line going west for 3 stops you'll hit COEX. If you take it east one stop you can transfer to the orange line which will take you across the river. To get to Yeson, just go to the front desk and tell them to call you a cab. They will walk out to the cab driver with you and make sure the driver understands where you are going. I would give yourself a half-hour or so in case there is bad traffic, even though Yeson is only a few miles away.

If I think of more stuff I'll let you know

Wow, thanks Abby, that's some great information! I'm going to have to print that entire post out and take it with me.

Quote from: anjaq on October 01, 2013, 05:12:06 PM
does silent whispering count as speaking in your restrictions? Like the kind that you can only understand when really close?

You cannot whisper at all. Actually the turbulent air flow of "stage whispering" makes it one of the worst things you can do to your vocal cords even when just recovering from a cold. So remember that: if you ever lose your voice, DON'T whisper- it'll make things worse! It tenses and dries the cords out... and for recovery from this surgery that is equally as bad as talking during the silent period.

Ha, yeah ok. I did not do it either today. I wonder if this stupid voice loss of mine today is another psycho trick of my brain. I mean I never ever lost my voice totally in a cold and now I only have a mild one and do. All that worrying and trying voices of the past days, the first time in years old voice usage ... coincidence?

Abby that sounds great that you can now have the same pitch as before but it sounds better. Must be that somehow resonance got affected after all ....??

You've really done your homework haven't you Jenny. Good to know for when/if I lose my voice in the future. I'm not planning on opening my mouth at all unless it's to eat, drink, or brush my teeth.

Quote from: SarahR on October 01, 2013, 06:27:39 PM
You've really done your homework haven't you Jenny. Good to know for when/if I lose my voice in the future. I'm not planning on opening my mouth at all unless it's to eat, drink, or brush my teeth.

Recovering from the Yeson procedure put me through my usual paces of freaking out over nothing and learning a few things on accident. Sometimes I end up inadvertently using anxieties to my advantage

I decided to post some of my current voice recordings with the rainbow passage. After surgery, I'm going to do the same three types of recordings so I can compare the difference. They're not the best recordings as my voice is a little hoarse today, but I guess they'll do for now.

• Low: Normal (natural) male speaking voice. No effort.
  https://soundcloud.com/theartoflogic/rainbow-passage-low/s-meihH


• Mid - Normal female speaking voice. Little effort.
  https://soundcloud.com/theartoflogic/rainbow-passage-mid/s-NcJcb


• High - Elevated female speaking voice. Some effort.
  https://soundcloud.com/theartoflogic/rainbow-passage-high/s-Pjz6N

Quote from: SarahR on October 02, 2013, 07:19:42 PM
I decided to post some of my current voice recordings with the rainbow passage. After surgery, I'm going to do the same three types of recordings so I can compare the difference. They're not the best recordings as my voice is a little hoarse today, but I guess they'll do for now.

• Low: Normal (natural) male speaking voice. No effort.
  https://soundcloud.com/theartoflogic/rainbow-passage-low/s-meihH


• Mid - Normal female speaking voice. Little effort.
  https://soundcloud.com/theartoflogic/rainbow-passage-mid/s-NcJcb


• High - Elevated female speaking voice. Some effort.
  https://soundcloud.com/theartoflogic/rainbow-passage-high/s-Pjz6N

Your voice, while a bit quiet, sounds great even at the "male" level. You have resonance down girl, damn. I think you will be very, very happy with your results from Yeson.

Those recordings are already really great. Even the "no effort" voice sounds good except of course of the buzzing at times. You start with a rather good pitch already it seems. My guess would be 140Hz or so.
We will all be eager to listen to the comparison

Quote from: abbyt89 on October 02, 2013, 08:15:32 PM
Your voice, while a bit quiet, sounds great even at the "male" level. You have resonance down girl, damn. I think you will be very, very happy with your results from Yeson.

Thanks! I'm getting more and more excited for it as each day goes by!

Quote from: anjaq on October 03, 2013, 05:45:22 AM
Those recordings are already really great. Even the "no effort" voice sounds good except of course of the buzzing at times. You start with a rather good pitch already it seems. My guess would be 140Hz or so.
We will all be eager to listen to the comparison

Haha, you're spot on, the average of my starting voice is usually between 135-140Hz.

So after I went through Jenny's tutorial on Praat I decided to load in the three recordings I made and get a more accurate measurement of the average frequencies. Due to some little areas throughout the audio where Praat seems to put the frequency at like 4000+Hz, I didn't feel it was accurate to just select everything and see what the average frequency was. Instead, I cut out the little anomalies first, then I got the averages.

Here are the average frequencies I got:

Low:
Original: 175.1Hz
Edited: 153.7Hz

Mid:
Original: 193.2Hz
Edited: 169.3Hz

High:
Original: 225.3Hz
Edited: 190.2Hz

I'm not sure if these numbers are completely accurate, but they seem like they could be close, if nothing else. By the way, the "Original" numbers are the frequencies without cutting out the anomalies. The "Edited" ones are the frequencies after the edits.

If these numbers are close to accurate then I think the results will be exactly what I'm looking for! If I end up between 190-215Hz after the surgery then I should fall within the range of the "High" recording, which would be pretty awesome! A 75Hz increase from the current "Low" would mean my average speaking frequency would be around 228Hz. Based on my previous (veeeery rough estimates) I figured it was around 140Hz now, meaning post-op I would be around 215Hz. Based on Jenny's results, she seems to be between 190-210Hz on average, and she apparently started around where I am as well (~140Hz).

Yes I get that with the "spikes". I see them too. Also to the lower end at times. Also the blue line is like a snake, its moving up and down a lot as I seem to go up in pitch a lot in some words. So I guess it is safer to pick a part that is stable to do the analysis than to average it over the exceptions. I noticed I have some drops to like 110 Hz at times - Eww. just for a sylable or so. Erm - anyways Just wanted to say that I think best is to pick a part where the blue line is rather constant and go for that, IMO.

So I thought it might be useful to do a post outlining some of the smaller items I have to plan out while in Seoul.

Cell Phone Rental:
I read a lot of comments regarding renting cell phones at the airport when arriving in Seoul. Initially I was going to just add an international data plan to my phone for next month, but I was worried that my phone wouldn't be supported there or something (CDMA, GSM, MultiBand, Sim, No Sim, etc.). So to just make sure I know it'll work and I'll be able to make calls and use the internet I ended up just going the mobile phone rental route.

From the listed prices it seems like it'll be pretty cheap, relatively. I reserved one from http://roaming.kt.com/. They list an unlimited data service rate of 5,000KRW/day...which based on today's exchange rates would come out to $46.64 for the entire 10 days I'm staying there. The rental fee is 2,700KRW/day ($25.19 over 10 days). I don't plan on making many calls (maybe domestic calls to the clinic, but I'd likely just call them from the hotel for free, I assume). The rate is 100KRW/10 seconds ($0.56 per minute). Any international calls I'd make would be to people who I would just Skype video chat to anyways, which would be covered under the data plan. If my calculations are correct, it looks like it'll be about $71.83 total...that's not too bad to me for having unlimited data and the peace of mind knowing I won't be stuck without access to information when I'm out. And anyways, it's cheaper than the $120 I would have to spend to add an international data plan to my current cell phone plan.

Airport Transportation:
I've been looking into the transportation from the Incheon airport to the hotel and it looks like it'll be the ILWON Station route (#6009). They have a standard and deluxe version. I'm going to do the deluxe, since they say it has less stops and is more comfortable. It's 15,000KRW, so for the two of us it'll be 30,000KRW ($27.99). The clinic will be providing transportation back to the airport so I won't have to take the bus back. It looks like the bus stops just a couple of blocks away from the hotel, however, I'm still trying to figure out how I'll know when I'm at that stop. I assume it the Gangnam Station, I guess, and that they'll say when it's that stop. I just hope they say it in English so I'll understand it, lol!

I was also looking into the AREX train but it looks like it ends at the Seoul Station and I'm not sure what to do after that. It seems like it's a little cheaper, and it's faster since it doesn't have to deal with traffic like the bus does, but with the confusion with the train stop and likely being less comfortable (especially after a whole day of flying) I think the bus would be better overall.

Money / Credit Cards:
I've been looking into the card agreement for my American Express Blue Sky credit card and I don't see much about international use. I'm going to call beforehand and make sure they won't decline the card while I'm there. I already checked on their site and used their tool to check whether the large surgery payment would be accepted and they said it would, so that's good. I just hope that I don't run into any issues with that while I'm there. I'm going to also have my Debit Mastercard from my bank, but that's all. I don't have any other credit cards, so if either of those don't work then I'm screwed. If anyone has any experience with this I'd appreciate it any tips or suggestions.

I'm probably going to get some Korean Won at the airport or something to make sure I have at least a bit of cash just in case I have a problem with my cards.

Running Total:
Here's a breakdown of my current costs (and some projected costs).

• Cell Phone: $100 (rounding up just in case)
• Flight: $1,770.60 (total for 2 passengers)
• Hotel: $1,689.10 (for 10 days)
• Shuttle Bus: $28 (for 2 passengers)
• Food/Misc. Supplies/Taxis: $500*
• Surgery: $7,580*
• Botox: $410.80* (if it's needed)

That comes to a grand total of $12,078.50. I'm sure there will be other costs I'm not factoring in as well, so I'm assuming it'll end up being closer to $12,500. That's a lot of money all just so I can make the opening between my lungs and mouth smaller, haha! If I end up with a result even close to what I've heard so far though, it will all be 1000% worth it.

Anyways, that's all I have for now. Only 25 days until I leave!

---
* Includes 2.7% foreign transaction fee imposed by American Express. Price may vary depending on exchange rate at the time of purchase.

Hey Sarah.
For cell phones, I don't know about CDMA in Korea, but GSM is available everywhere. It's pretty much the global standard now.
I don't know much about the other stuff you have on there. You've found a pretty good deal on flights, less than $900 a person is pretty good for transpacific. Just curious, what airline are you going with?

Ahh it's so close I bet you are so excited!

Your plan sounds pretty good!

For cell phones, Korea is actually one of the few countries outside of the U.S. that is CDMA. But since you're renting it doesn't really matter to you.

For airport transportation, did you talk to Jesse about transportation? If your flights land/depart between 9-5pm during the week they provide transportation for free.

With the credit card, definitely call the bank and let them know that not only will you be out of the country but that you are going to charge a large amount to your card. They an notate your account so if it comes up for fraud review they will see  the note and approve it.

As for the debit card, is it just a debit card or is it a check card connected to your checking account? Check cards have a Visa/MC logo and can be used as credit cards. If it is just a debit card, you might have trouble using it at foreign ATMs. It depends on your bank, I would definitely call them before hand and see what they say about using it at foreign ATMs. My bank's (USAA) debit-only cards don't work even at "global" ATMs, so I had to make sure that I switched over to a check card.

And wow, you got a great deal on the flights! I paid that much for just my ticket!

Your projected costs seem to be pretty realistic! My total ended up being just over $12,200.