The Subway: A love/hate relationship...

...it's a part of my daily existence. It takes me to work M-F. It gets me anywhere in Seoul for a dollar or two. It's pretty amazing to think about the massive undertaking that went into building it. Some of the coolest and strangest things I've seen in Korea have been on the subway.

The other day I got on and something was different. I couldn't quite place my finger on it at first. Same people sleeping, heads tilted back, nose hair on full display. Same grandma's texting while businessmen watched last night's baseball game on their phones. Then I realized it was the sweet sound of music caressing my eardrums that had completely changed the atmosphere. It was the classical gospel hymn, 'Amazing Grace'

I looked around. Where was it coming from? Then I saw him: a little old blind man carrying a speaker and basket of change, begging for alms. Genius. 'Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but not am found, was blind but now I see.'Beautiful synchronisity. How could I resist giving him 1000 won not (about a dollar)? I couldn't.

So the amusement and convenience factor are what I love about the subway. The hate part? It's really not that fast. At least 45 minutes to an hour to get into Seoul, generally standing up the whole time. People pushing and shoving to get on and off. The fact that it stops running at 11:30pm, 11pm on the weekends. Wanna go party in Seoul Saturday night? Be prepared to stay up till 5:30am when it starts running again, or be lame and go home at 10:30. I'd like to be going into Seoul more on the weekends to explore, but the thought of standing on a crowded subway for an hour or more honestly deters me. Best get over it though, too much to do and see here to let that deter me.

Supposedly the buses are actually much quicker to get into Seoul, the problem is that there is no English website that has the routes and times, while the subway is easily navigated through the English signs in the terminals and an English language website.

On the whole however, amusement and cheap transportation wins out and I love the subway more than hate it.

I'd be lying if I didn't admit it was close however.

Medical Update

Went to the Dr. again today to have him look at my ear. While the infection isn't totally gone it feels much much better and the eardrops and medication are working well. He told me to come back again Monday if it's not all better.

Instead of it being 3500 won.......it was 2500, or about $2. Oh, and this time there was no wait and the receptionist even remembered my name.

This place just keeps getting better and better.

I hate getting sick, but Korea is the place to do it

I am embarrassed to be so ignorant when it comes to the national health care debate. Private vs. Public vs. ? It's all Greek to me. I don't know the difference and I don't have the solution. All I know is...

...Yesterday my ear started hurting and I knew it was an ear infection. I went to the doctor today to get it taken care of. Nice modern office, very clean. Only had to wait about 10 minutes. The doctor spoke good enough English that I felt comfortable as he told me why he was sticking tubes and instruments in my ears. He explained the medication he was prescribing and then the nurse gave me some sort of warm light treatment. Felt great.

Went to pay.

3500 won please ($3)

Um, don't you mean 35,000?

No, 3500. Cheap cheap.

I go to the pharmacy directly across the hall. 2 minute wait. Given ear drops and 3 days of medication and told when to take it. 3700 won. This time it was written down so I know it was right.

Wow. For just over $6, or the same price as a fast food value meal, I visited a first class medical facility, was seen promptly and given medication. I'm guessing that in the States, seeing as I don't have health insurance there, that would have cost me at least a couple hundred dollars plus fifty or so for medication. Even if I had health insurance in the US the co-pay would have been fifty bucks or so.

I don't know how the medical system works over here, all I know is we should send some of our people over here to find out. I'll let you know in a couple of days how the medication worked. But I have great confidence that the infection will soon be gone and I'll be right as rain once again.

Interesting things I've seen lately...

...a 70 year old Korean man reading "Bridget Jones' Diary" on the subway. A 10 year old boy wearing a "Same shit, different day" sweatshirt at school. A book vending machine. Dead frogs and what looked to be fermented squirrels for sale at a country market. Photographs were forbidden. The terrible smell was not.

A middle aged man asleep at the subway stop, jacket folded neatly under his head, shoes stashed sensibly at his feet. He wasn't dozing while waiting for the train, he was straight up sleeping on the subway platform. Public sleeping is common here. Please see this website http://blackoutkorea.blogspot.com/

Remember a few years back when the hip thing in the states was to wear clothes with Chinese and Japanese writing on them? All the wanna-be gangsters back home in Santa Fe still do it. As far as you know they say offensive things about their wearers such as, "this guy's an asshole, he has no idea what this says!" Well it's the same here only the t-shirts are in English so I know for sure they don't make any sense.

Here's the formula for a successful Korean t-shirt: take a noun, a verb, an adjective and a couple of prepositions, mix together in a hat, dump on the table, make a shirt! "Freedom? High country best is love." Why not?

Bottled beer is cheaper than canned. As an American all you have to do is walk up to a pretty girl and say, "you're beautiful" and she's all over you. Want to go farther than that? Better talk to mom.

Interesting country.

Something useful and delicious...

I'm hoping this blog will be something useful to the people who choose to read it, not just me spouting soliloquies and babble. So here's something useful!

Bananas go bad. Here in Korea, they go bad really, really quickly for some reason. It's a waste of money and resources, and it's really frustrating; the banana looks so yellow and perfect in the morning, you're going to come home from work and snack on it. You look forward to it all day. You get home, eager with anticipation for that delicious infusion of potassium. And there it is, all black and nasty looking. Ewwww...

Well don't despair and DON'T throw it away!

Peel the sucker, cut it into bite sized pieces and place in a single layer in a good quality Tupperware container. Place in the freezer and allow to freeze solidly, about 12 to 24 hours. When you taste the frozen banana morsel it will be sweet and delicious, almost like banana ice cream! I don't know why, but the freezing kills all the slimy, yucky taste of over-ripe bananas and turns it into something sweet and delicious instead. They're also great for using in smoothies. These treats will keep well in your freezer for about 2 months.

Enjoy!

Constantly amused....

....by this place, Korea. I love ajuma's, little old ladies in technicolor hiking outfits pushing everyone out of the way, their ubiquitous perms never bouncing when they should. I love the, yeah, the lights green but I'll just wait until it's red and then go, taxi drivers, and their close relative the I really shouldn't pass this person around a blind curve but what the hell I lived through the war so eff it I'm going and damn the torpedoes, old men driving.

I love the food. Sitting on a warm floor, my hips screaming in agony from repeated and sustained attempts at crossing my legs, as pork belly and kimchi sizzle on the grill, a hundred tiny dishes surrounding my huge bottle of beer, unintelligible tongues, soju and smiles enveloping me. I love the wait, you like kimchi and can use chopsticks very well? I think you are half Korean! stares and expressions of my new Korean friends (they're easily impressed). I love that there's no such thing as an empty cup in Korea, and it's bad luck to pour a drink for yourself, someone else has to do it.

I love the women. Beautiful, petite, dashing to and fro, pushing and elbowing me on the subway, wearing high heels everywhere, at work, in the home, shopping, hiking. Yes, high heeled hiking. Giggling easily at my raised eyebrow.

I love peeking over the shoulder of someone on the subway watching TV on their cellphone only to find they're watching 30 Rock or CSI. I love people sleeping on the subway, heads tilted back, peering up their nose, knowing they are going to work for 14 hours that day, then will drink soju till 2 am, then getting up at 6 and doing it all over again. I love old men glaring at me suspiciously, clearing their throat to hawk one only not to, and knowing it's an insult only they won't look me in the eye.

I love jimjilbang, the communal bathhouses. Walking around naked unashamed of the nothingness between their legs, tiny children to old men, rich and poor, all there together, just soaking out the stress of their bow really deep to this person, kind of deep to this person, never to this person unless no one else is watching, and always make the boss look good no matter what, study till 3 am, get up at 6, it's all about what university you attend and who you marry, days. Then we put on matching pajamas and go upstairs to doze off in front of the big screen or in the massaging chair while practicing the Korean art of doing nothing we've refined because if we're not doing nothing we're doing something so in effect by doing nothing we feel we're still accomplishing something.

I love the kids I teach, so out of control and excited, only to fall back into line at the slightest promise of a tiny sticker or candy. Stickers and candy? You've got yourself a friend for life. Or at least until the bell rings. I love teaching 40 kids how to say, where is the bathroom? in 40 minutes when some are fluent in English and are obscenely bored, some can't say hello and are utterly confused, and most just stare at me blankly, not willing to reveal where their skill lies. I love hearing, E.J. teacher! and Hello! while a tiny Korean child barely rising to my legs waves maniacally, a thousand times a day, literally, as I walk through the halls. It's kind of like being a rock star, only it's really not.

I love that, sight unseen, this amazing country paid for me to come here, puts me up in a nice apartment, pays me a reasonable salary of which I'm able to save a large amount, and even gives me health care and tons of time off to explore all parts of Asia, all so I can practice a career that I have zero experience in. God Bless Korea.