Irritants

I figured it was time to update (again) on all things Jen since they have changed somewhat.

Let's see!! Ok, first, wanted to go to an endocrinologist in Suwon, and made an appointment with the MUCHO helpful English assistants there. The only problem is, I'm not on the national insurance plan. Prior to this appointment, that was no big deal. It was something of a big deal to get to this hospital, taking a good 1-1.5 hours, which it not being Seoul, is a little much. But get in to see him, and tell him my current dosage, which is 250 mg. He was astonished, and said that was extremely high for someone my weight. This doesn't really surprise me. Since I'd eaten before coming in, he wanted me to come in the next day for a blood test, then next week for an appointment to discuss results. Plus gave me a week's worth of meds.

I go back the next day, and luckily you have to pay before you have anything done. Now, Sophia, the English assistant (who even showed up in the waiting room!), had warned me that I'd have to fork over whatever money was required. Which was fine, because that's been in the $150 range up to now. But that day, I don't know WHAT he was going to have them do with my blood, but it was going to cost 415,000 won. Which is, well with the won being in free fall now, probably only $375 or so, but still, I was NOT, NOT NOT NOT expecting anything like that. If you want me to pay such an exorbitant amount, I'd gonna need a warning and some time to get money squirreled away for that. So I said no way, canceled the appointment next week, and went ahead to the Itaewon Foreigners Clinic. This is the doctor I went to for anti-anxiety meds who was unaware & unconcerned if the meds would interfere with my thyroid meds. So he ordered blood test, gave me 100 days' worth of my meds at the 250 level, and sent me on my way, with the pleasant surprise that he'd email me the test results.

Unsurprisingly, for the first time in my life, I'm hypERthyroid, so he told me to knock back down to 200. Easier said than done, because the more nuanced levels we have in the west (I was at 137 for 2-3 years) don't exist here. No, you have 50 and 100. 150 was closest to 137, but that wasn't working anymore, so up we went to 200. But the (different doc, at a clinic that moved but hasn't posted where yet, so no way to reach them) doc said I was STILL a little low, so up to 250. So maybe 210 or 225 would be better? Well, we'll never know, since that would require me doing a much better job of splitting the pills with my knife than I've been able to thus far. And the genius at the Itaewon Clinic prescribed 150 and 100 mg pills, instead of 50s and 100s, so once again, to go down to 200, I'd have split some of the 100s. I meant to ask at school if the pharmacists would take them back and split them themselves since the doc said to go down.

All of this also happened around the time I'd gone to the bank on Tuesday night to take out cash (80,000 won) to buy an oven from a departing expat! But I apparently didn't have that much in my account. Nope, I had 63,000. For about 2 weeks. Apparently, when I took into account the extra spending I'd do for the hotel for the ball, I didn't account for the extra doc visits, and that did me in. I was able to fill the prescription and pay my electric bill, but that all took it down a bit more. I'm currently at about 10,000, I'd estimate, but luckily my friend Lisa here told me she uses Western Union to transfer money, because it's only $15, compared to the $35 or so that my bank charges me. I had about $100 extra floating in my US account, but because I opened it while here, I don't have the ATM card (not that I'm even sure I can use it abroad, since I just found out that I can't make international transfers from it). Fortunately, Mark helped his super-cash-strapped sister, and since I wasn't getting the same options as him due to not using a VPN for the US options, I transferred the cash to him & he sent me through Western Union.

Which brings us to our NEXT adventure, having to find these banks. There are banks around me that have Western Union, but I don't know where they are. The addresses don't mean much to me, even though they're all in English. My map app wasn't finding those addresses, but it did find one. When I got there, though, no, they don't have Western Union. But it seemed to be a question they got a lot, because there was a little map printed out that she gave me. Which would be helpful if I could find street names and knew exactly which way to from there, but that wasn't the case. She sweetly put the address into google maps, though google maps isn't very helpful because it isn't really used here so not always accurate, but more than that, it always shows a diagonal line from where you are to where you're going, rather than the street routes you need to take.

That's ok, I'll do my best-- at least until my phone died with 77% battery. Lately it shuts down if I'm using any app and it's at 30%, but this was a new hell to contend with. I had my portable charger, but it was having trouble recognizing it was being charged. It was back to 70%, so I shut off all the apps, and was lucky enough to see that the corner I was on, trying to figure out how to get to the place the woman was trying to direct me to, was named after a bank that was listed on the Western Union site. I went in & waited, with just the notes open with the Korean translation which seemed to be making enough sense to get across what I needed. In 4 minutes of sitting inside, it lost 40% power. SOooo, apparently I also need a new phone! Awesome. Because I DEFINITELY don't have the money now (though I do have 114,000 won left after buying eggs and broccoli last night, thanks to the influx from my US account), but even with money, that shit's ridiculously expensive here.

The phone is fine today, and someone mentioned cold weather, so maybe it's that. Who knows.

What I DO know is that in addition to everything else I'm switching dermatologists. The guy I was seeing here trained in the west (please see my previous post about dermatologists here), but has been doing the usual: antibiotics for the pimple-like cystic shit on my chin. That worked... for two months, but now it doesn't again. Big surprise, antibiotics are not good to be on long term, though I was for a decade for the acne of my youth. I know that, and in Chile that guy knew it, and gave me an anti-inflammatory which worked just fine. When I asked this guy to do that, he said no, this was the only course of treatment for it, and something about needing to stay off of steroids with rosacea. Huh. Had no idea the 2 are the same. Found another clinic that apparently was recognized by the US Department of Defense because so many military people used it, so we'll see how that goes.

Other than that, just amazed at the shit show Trump got himself and the US into by accepting a call from the Taiwanese president. I had no idea that was our policy, but am not surprised by it, especially since Taiwan hasn't officially declared independence anyway. But I don't love kowtowing to those nut jobs, even though it is so massive population and economy-wise. While we're on the subject, I'd like the thank China for being such an enormous influence throughout Asia that lots of Asia, Korea included, have plenty of Chinese customs. In addition to a Confucian approach to education and society, Koreans have the noisy eating custom. You know, it was never a big deal, but after 11 months, it is. The longer I'm here, the more I think, could you PLEASE, at least TRY to chew SOMETHING with your mouth closed? I can deal with the noodle-slurping somehow, but eating like a cow is really fucking getting to me. Not enough to say anything, lol. It's a cultural thing and not my place, even if there's an official name in English for people who despise noisy eaters because it's such a thing. There are so many things that don't align here vs home. We have to offer an extra 6 hours/week of classes in January, provided I get students to sign up for mine, which I will now since they know me. I have to think of lessons. One I thought of was manners, because none of my students except the advanced middle schoolers know the word "rude," and it's not the middle-schoolers who are rude. I'm forging ahead because I have no idea what else to do there, but it's all a cultural lesson. Chew with your mouth closed? That's a Western thing, they don't do that here. Say, "Excuse me," when you bump into someone? Again, that's us in the West, here they don't, which still does annoy me. The number of things that turn out to be cultural are astounding. I'm sure I mentioned the leaf pile thing? I had to write a fall-themed conversation for a young class. So I wrote about one of the kids liking to jump in leaf piles. But the kids didn't get it, because:

1. They don't have yards, they live in apartments;
2. So no one has to rake up the leaves that fall;
3. And they have lots of ginkgo trees, which have the smelly seeds, so they probably wouldn't be encouraged to jump into those anyway.

I thought it was dependent on seasons, but nope! Hay rides, leaf piles, Veterans Day/Armistice Day... none of these things are things here. So, as you see, the cultural adjustments continue unabated. I think I'm just too stubborn to acclimate to the point where here is normal so that reverse culture shock will ever be a thing. I like the kind I had after coming back from South America, where everything was delightful because it was fully intelligible to my mainly monolingual ears, and everything was easy, food was tasty, and shit was just the way it's supposed to be. For me. An American who loves America for a couple months, then has to get the hell out. Yeah, I have no idea either. Jason is moving to Chicago, he said he just really doesn't like cities, and begged me to drop my contract and come back so he could be happy in Chicago. And then I said yeah, but I like the school and being able to pay off debt, but then we're right back to that whole me getting bored to death there. Maybe it'd help if Jason's there, since we got each other through the hell of Santiago, but I'm not sure. For his part, he just got a job, and after Chile he just doesn't want to leave the US again. Jesus, what the fuck show will do to you. Lol. 

Well, you've endured a long enough post. Until next time when I have too much shit to report.