How many weeks do I start with, “well, THAT was a week!”? Well, add one.

Monday, March 11

So my tutoring schedule has lightened up since I’m in Korean 101 for the mumblemumblethirdtime. Instead of 5 mornings a week, we just meet (zoom) two mornings a week. Which is nice as it frees up some of my time both from the meetings and the homework assignments. But I kinda miss seeing him every day, ha ha. We just meet now on Monday and Wednesday mornings.

Then class, which is still going fine. I really like the teachers, I like my classmates, I’m following everything. Things are starting well.

In the evening we were having a little goodbye party for my friend who’s been here visiting and who was headed to a different part of Korea for the rest of her time here. So it was Friend, me, Jun (tutor), Hyungeun, and Yunjoon, the new language exchange partner, who I met through Jun. We met at Friend’s favorite restaurant, a local Mexican place very close to my home, maybe 200 meters. Which was good, cuz since my knee did that POP-pain-am I gonna fall down-thing on Friday as I was walking down the hill after class, I’d been more uncomfortable than for the past few weeks.

We had a nice quiet visit, Friend had little gifts for everyone, we had a couple drinks…and then it was time to leave.

OW. Wow. I could just barely hobble out of there. It was Not Good.

Tuesday, March 12

And it was worse the following morning. So much worse that I did the unthinkable: I called the hospital. Whoa. Who even am I?? However, I was told they couldn’t schedule an appointment at this time and suggested I go to a nearby orthopedic clinic.

Friend went with me, which was good as the pain was so bad I literally could not walk unsupported. They did an x-ray, I was told I had a torn meniscus (knee ligament) which would would probably need surgery. They set me up with a leg brace and crutches, gave me a prescription for some pain relief, and made an appointment for the next day for an MRI…strongly recommending that I bring a Korean speaker if at all possible, as there would be a lot of important stuff about the surgery.

Fortunately, Hyungeun graciously agreed to go with me the next day as my translator and moral support.

Anyway, after the clinic, Friend and I went into the Dunkin Donuts downstairs (I’m pretty obsessed with the mochi donuts) and I had my first real church/money cult experience. There’s a woman on campus who has come up to ask me the same questions like five times in the past six months and I know what she’s up to so I get myself out of it as quickly as I can, but everytime I’m like…I don’t exactly blend in here (#UNDERSTATEMENT), does she REALLY not remember talking to me all those other times??

Anyway, this was a young woman (maybe late 20s) inside the DD and she started right away asking about the crutches, what happened, when’s surgery, is that why you’re in Korea blah blah blah. Right away I detected a vibe. She wound up sitting with me and Friend, she got the convo to religion pretty quickly and I shut that right down (my family’s been trying with me since I was five years old), and then she moved to money…making up a cockamamie story about a really well-known Korean actor and her texting for the past year and he wanted her to go visit him but she had no money DOT DOT DOT. I gave Friend the ARE YOU ABOUT READY TO GO stare…and we finally all parted ways out on the sidewalk. Very interesting.

Anyway, after all this I was exhausted, class had already started, so I just went home and took a nap. I cancelled my language exchange session with Yunjoon (new guy) for later that evening. I’d done enough walking for one day.

Wednesday, March 13

I finally got the million dollar box. I’m not exaggerating.

Early morning tutoring session. Met Hyungeun at the ortho clinic at 10:15. They provided a car and driver to the MRI location – how nice is that? So people struggling with pain/injuries don’t need to try and get themselves there via public transport. Met with a doctor who seemed to spend more time explaining to Hyungeun (it’s so interesting how I become invisible when I’m with him, people just talk to him and don’t even acknowledge my presence. Hey, works for me) that I shouldn’t be afraid in the MRI …? I’m like uh, I get to lay down for 30 minutes in the middle of the day with my eyes closed?? I’m good. I didn’t even have to try and squeeze myself into the tiny Korean medical gown. I actually dozed a bit. Ha. Then the driver took us back to the clinic where the radiologist showed us the scan and said words to Hyungeun. This this and this are wrong, surgery asap to repair tear so it doesn’t get worse, call the University Hospital and schedule an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon.

Okay. Tomorrow. I have to pace myself with the adulting.

Between Katie and I we paid like $300 to get me some Cheez*It Grooves. HAVE YOU HAD THEM?? They’re pure salt and wonderful. Snacks are Not Salty here.

It was already 1:00 which is when I need to leave from home to get to class, so clearly I was going to miss the first session and the review test…so we went to Burger King for lunch 🙂 Then he walked home with me…and I went inside and lay down.

blah blah blah pain.

Useless National Health Insurance letter.

I do love the way they give you your prescriptions in neat little labeled packages. #9/10 “after breakfast.”

OH – my National Health Insurance eligibility letter came! And it essentially says, “Congratulations. Now, please pay an indeterminate amount of money…somewhere.” It is the most useless letter I have ever seen!

I’m going to take it to the bank tomorrow as one of the options is to pay at the bank, and maybe they’ll know how what how.

Thursday, March 14

And now even the medical school professors are threatening to resign, to show solidarity with the doctors.

I called the University Hospital a couple times in the morning but wasn’t getting through, so I sent an email explaining my situation. Normally it takes at least two days to get an email response from them, but I got a response in like 15 mnutes.

NOPE. No surgery for you…or anybody. There’s a huge doctor strike going on in Korea…sorry we can’t help you, bubye.

For awhile I’ve been reading about the issue between the doctors and the government, who wants to double the amount of medical school openings, to get more doctors because there’s a shortage in rural areas and aging communities. The doctors are like no, you’ll over-saturate the field and it’s going to affect our $$$!  The govt didn’t back down so the doctors walked out. 9,000 doctors across South Korea. The gov’t said come back by March 1 or you’re going to be fired or we’ll press charges. At “my” hospital 200 doctors had walked out…only 12 came back from the ultimatum. A lot of people in far more serious condition than I are going without vital medical care. It’s really a thing. Now there’s some new ultimatum for March 18 (which, at this writing, is tomorrow, so we’ll see). But in the hospital email they said that even if the doctors come back soon, I’ll go on a list behind all the other people who have already been waiting, so….

Oh, I took my insurance letter to the bank. She looked at it and looked it and finally said “there’s no information in here.” NO! There’s Not! Ha. She said I need to make a phone call.

Dammit.

This week is WAY too adulting-heavy.

I sighed and got an Uber to take me to class.

I had a whiskey with one of those giant ice balls…and then she brought out a little cup of chocolates to go with the whiskey.

The good news was that it was Hyunguen Night and that always lifts my spirits. We had dinner (Italian/Korean hybrid pasta chain) and then he found a little nearby bar on the first floor. Lots of restaurants and other business are on upper floors, and you’re never guaranteed an elevator. The owner (I think) had her little girl (in a pink tutu) bring us our snacks. She was super cute.

Friday, March 15

Did my homework at the convenience store before going home. And picked up the chicken.

Class. And REST. And fried chicken. A pretty good Friday night.

Saturday, March 16

Someone’s credit card left on a bench on the street. And it will sit there until the owner comes back for it or someone takes it to the police.

Since it’s very challenging to make phone calls to Korean-speaking establishments, I just bit the bullet and walked back to the orthopedic clinic to ask for a recommendation of someplace that would actually have surgeries happening. The radiologist gave me two places I can call on Monday.

I spent the next couple hours walking and sitting, walking and sitting, making my way VERY slowly back home, but mostly just sitting out on the street on the mild, sunny day, watching the people walk by (one of my favorite things to do). When I got home I napped and read.

And mopped up the mini flood on my floor. Apparently Floor 3’s ceiling is leaking. And Floor 3’s ceiling is Floor 4’s floor. I’m Floor 4. They were supposed to go around today and inspect all the rooms to see if they could figure out what the problem is but I don’t feel like anyone was in here while I was out. I hope they were able to fix it.

Sunday, March 17

There’s supposed to be a “rain storm” every 15 minutes. But it never rained while we were there 🙁

Yummy yum yum.

Next time.

The corners!

I had asked a fellow student from my last class to go to breakfast in a nearby town. The plan was to get an Uber for a door-to-door, easy trip.

It should have taken 15 minutes.

It took us TWO HOURS and 15 minutes !!!

Little did we know that it was the day of the Seoul Marathon and some bus routes were closed to accomodate the runners. All we knew was that no Ubers were responding, and when we tried the bus, they kept saying NOPE, you can’t get there from here…and finally our only option was the subway. Which…is how I got into this knee pickle in the first place. We managed to find UP elevators…but when we got to the other town there were no elevators down from the train platform and your girl was in PAIN, slowly making my way down the stairs, crabwalking while supporting myself on the handrail. Then we STILL had to get a bus to get closer to the cafe…and then walk the rest of the way.

When we finally got there I was like WE’RE GONNA EAT THE HECK OUT OF SOME PASTRIES!!! And they were lovely and delicious. I had something called like Ghost Pepper Coffee and it was a delight. We sat there for almost two hours just chatting and enjoying the day…and mercifully an Uber responded right away when we were ready to leave and got us home in 15 minutes.

It was only when I was back home that I saw marathon pictures on social and the light bulb clicked on. I checked the route, and sure enough, it was the same as the bus route to where we were going. Yeesh.

And now it’s Sunday night. I have to finish up my “Korean sentences of the day” for my tutoring session tomorrow…and then relax.

I know I should be resting more and staying off my knee. But…

My time in Korea is short.

Spring is short.

Life is short.

I don’t want to miss anything.