After work Friday, it's pouring. I didn't bring my rain coat and I can't hold an umbrella, obviously. I have been taking cabs home but I have to cross the street to go in the direction I need. I'm standing at the cross-walk waiting in the rain, and my supervisor Yugin sees me. "Lindsay! It's raining!" "Ya, you think!" "You're wet!" As she stands 5 feet from me under her umbrella. (This is the first time she has talked to me all week. She hadn't once, asked how I was doing or if I was ok.) "Yes, but I can't hold an umbrella." She looks at me, looks me up and down, checks my crutches to see why i can't hold an umbrella....She does this as I'm getting more and more soaked and she is standing nice and dry under her umbrella. It finally registers that I can't hold it because I have to use my hands to crutch. She then thinks to share her umbrella so I'm not completely in the rain, though by this time I'm already soaked.
Every week I send comment books home with my students, this is how the parents and I are able to communicate. Some of my kids described to their parents that I was on crutches and in a brace but instead of calling it a brace, one kid called it a roller shoe, another cast with wheels and another extra legs with a metal cast....haha, nice!
Korean nurses administer shots and take blood without gloves. They just use hand sanitizer in between patients.
Korea like to give shots in the butt....pain, immune boosters, etc. My bitt has never had so much attention.
There are horoscopes based on your blood type. Mine tells me I am a romantic and very sensitive. :) bhaahahhaa... John’s, however, was right on.
I was at the biggest hospital in S. Korea (which S. Korea claims to be one of the most internet savy countries, right?). In the first room I was put in, a semi-provate (2 beds) I have to use an ethernet line for internet but it’s free. After surgery, I’m moved to a 6 bed room where I’m told I have to pay for wireless if I wanted to use it. I ask to be connected to contact my family to let them know I’m ok. I was told, I wasn’t able to use it becuase it was the weekend and the internet place was closed, which was on another floor, and I had to take my computer to get some sort of chip installed. A chip? I don’t need a chip, i already have wireless connection, I just need a password. After lots of explaining and frustrations through both the nurse, John and I, the nurse returns to tell us that I wouldn’t be able to use the internet because I owned a MAC and the wireless internet wasn’t compatible, it was only worked with Windows XP.
I got yelled at by an ajuma (old lady) for saying "yay!!" after I finally peed following surgery (12 hours later). My nurse was worried, she thought I was holding it in. After three failed attempts even though I said, I didn’t have to go, she did an ultra sound on my bladder which confirmed I had no urine in my bladder. (When I'm super dehydrated all day and not given any fluids for 24hours, there's not going to be any fluids to discharge, lady!) On my fourth attempt I finally went, which is why I was so excited!
The lady who yelled at me got scolded earlier that day for asking for too many pain meds, so she was already a bit pissy. I knew how much pain I was in and how I handled it, I can only imagine how this old lady was doing with her's and I understood her grumpiness... my bad!
In the basement of the hospital there were restaurants, a grocery store, coffee shops, department stores for hiking gear, face creams and perfumes, underwear garments, business casual clothes, jewelry, etc...Kinda weird.
In the hospital, the majority of people who speak English will want to talk to you, though with having nothing to say, leaving you to make conversation..... the people who don’t, stare.
People all over Seoul will stand outside the hospitals in their gowns hooked up to IV's, some on oxygen, smoking cigarettes.
John can stake out beer no matter where he is!
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