Oh Yeah. I'm In Korea.

This evening I had the pleasure of visiting Gunsan’s finest hospital.  Hooray!  It wasn’t a big deal, but I was feeling quite crappy and knew that if I postponed a dr.’s visit things would only get incredibly worse over the next 16ish hours.  So I bit the financial bullet to save myself the pain and agony.

The ER was quite busy, mainly full of old people and the obligatory staff members.  I checked in at reception, showed my registered alien card (because Korea really is another planet), and was shown to my personal cot/bed in the corner to wait.  I took a moment to look around at what was happening and who was around me.  Two beds directly in front of me was an elderly woman who seemed to be having knee pain.  The bed directly in front of me and two feet away was occupied with a man who was asleep in the fetal position.  No idea what was going on there.  On the bed to my left was a man who came in with a limp due to a BADMINTON injury.  Just past him was a man who was moaning like a dying cow.  Every now and again he would kick his leg in agony whilst moaning.  This was very concerning to me for obvious reasons.  Upon further observations I noticed a cloth in his mouth that seemed to be saturated with dried blood.  He had purple spots on his hands, too.  I’m not sure what sort of drainage device was inserted into his body because after a while two nurses came over to empty a jug of reddish/pink liquid into a container.  Soon after he was moved to a different bed by his sons and wheeled away with his family in tow.  

Healthcare in Korea is compulsory i.e. it is government run.  I’ve been somewhat satisfied with my very basic coverage.  It costs about $50/month and provides basic care.  And I do mean basic.  I have a mouthful of crappy fillings that I’m sure will need to be replaced one day, but at the time they cost me $35 for seven(7) of them.  Had I opted for a resin filling it would’ve cost about $100 a pop as they are not covered by basic insurance.  Yikes.  If you go to a physician you typically get three days of pills and most of the time you still feel like crap at the end and have to go bad.  A visit to a clinic will cost you about $6, medication for three days is about double.  Not bad, but you have to go back twice (generally) and you cannot make an appointment.  A visit to a dr. in a hospital (most common) will cost you about $11.  My visit to the ER with some serious pain killers, antibiotic bag, and three doses of medication cost me about $50.  Without insurance it would’ve cost me $120.

When I first arrived in Korea I was shocked with the lack of privacy that took place everywhere.  Hospitals are no different.  Americans tend to be on the prudish side and I don’t see them being too receptive to this sort of health care.  Before you say, “But surely they’ll make adjustments to accommodate.”  No they won’t.  I had a TB test done at a county health clinic IN THE HALLWAY with people passing by.  Costs will be cut and your personal space will be the first thing to go.  For some that is a horrible crime.

Don’t get me wrong, I think healthcare needs reform, but I don’t think most Americans realize what is going to be cut and the type of service that will replace what there currently is.  Or what isn’t there in some cases.  You can’t have everything for nothing and most people just don’t get that idea.  Maybe people won’t care about the lack of personal space, or perhaps they’ll continue to bitch about what they don’t have.  Either way, America needs a bit of perspective on the matter and this is mine.  Take it as you will.

It took over a year for someone to comment about the lack of kimchi on my tray at lunch.  About 376 days, really.  That’s pretty good considering the fact that Koreans ask you about every detail relating as to why you exist.  I thought this was an astonishing record.  Then there was yesterday’s blunder.

Yesterday I went to the cafeteria with a fellow English teacher.  The menu was udong soup, rice, steamed kimchi and tofu, sweetened black beans, sesame steamed radish, and regular kimchi.  Not the most stellar of meals, but it worked.  About five minutes into the meal the woman next to me started to tell me (in Korean) that the steamed kimchi was supposed to be eaten with the tofu and asked why I didn’t have any.  I looked past her giant plastic nose and into her surgically enhanced eyes, and my co-worker explained that I don’t care for kimchi.  She went on and on about how I should eat the two together and other nonsensical things that I stopped listening to.  The need that some people have that makes them talk when they have nothing of value to say is worldwide.  These people are literally everywhere.  I went back to my meal and two chairs to my right a hefty man resembling a certain socialist leader to the North sat down.  She started commenting on how much tofu he had and made remarks about the giant piles of kimchi he had.  I can’t imagine my life ever being that boring that I feel the need to pick up a part time job as the Lunch Police and critique the lunch of others.  Screw that.  Let people eat as much stinky cabbage as they want.  Let me eat my tofu with radish instead.  At least now I know to avoid sitting next to her ever, ever again.

After being an expat for over 3.5 years, you hear a lot of the same shite, and a lot of it is America bashing.  I remember the Australian woman I worked with when I first arrived.  I went to dinner with her and a few other co-workers and she announced that Americans were similar to used car salesmen- liars and cheats.  I wanted to point out that Australia was originally Criminal Island, but I kept my mouth closed as I didn’t want to rock any boats since I had gotten off mine only two weeks prior.

What set me off most recently was the snide, passive comment that I heard this weekend from a non-American.  Something in the tone they used triggered me and I completely shut down and had negative interest in being with that group of people any longer.  To be honest, I was somewhat childlike in my non-verbal reactions.  However, I knew if I parted my lips I would lash everyone with my tongue and make a fool out of myself.  I kept quiet and was then called antisocial.  Great.  Go fuck yourself, lady.

My favorite “conversation” to have is when people talk about America like they know everything, but have never actually been there.  It’s kind of like saying, “I hate onions!” but have never actually eaten on onion.  I have a friend who does that.  I also enjoy reminding him that’s he’s never been to America before, but I do know that if he spoke like that when he does go to the States, he’d have plenty of people kick his ass along the way.  Or they’d shoot him with a gun since every American I know owns 79 guns and always carries at least 3 on them.  (For the record, I own 83 guns.)  I also love to hear people “talk like an American.”  That’s a fantastic one to be a part of.  An American friend was once driving me and two non-Americans in her car and all the while they were stressing the R and nasal-y A sounds in the backseat.  My friend looked as though she was about to come unglued, which I’m really surprised she didn’t.  One of the people, whom I was actually good friends with, used to explain everything she said after she said it.  I found that to be quite condescending.  Even though your English is different, I’m mentally sound and able to understand your accent, despite the fact that I’m a “dumb American.”  She never did catch on to my sarcastic remarks when she’d “translate”, but then again my sarcasm skillz are unnoticed by most and appreciated by only about 1% of the population.

I’m not saying I’ve never made snide remarks about another country.  I knock on the zoo animals of South Africa often in a joking way and who can resist to go oot and aboot with a Canadian, but I’ve never told someone their country is a terrible places because of XX President or because of the general ideas of the people.  I’ve more than likely never been there and quite honestly don’t know/care enough about it to have an intelligent conversation, so I shut up.  Some people feel the need to talk to make noise, I talk when I have something productive to say.  I enjoy listening, processing, forming an opinion, and then contribute if I feel as though I can.  

I want to say this stems from jealousy, but maybe I’m just naive.  I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve met some dumb Americans, but I’ve also met a lot of dumb people from other countries, too.  There are far more Americans in Korea so it is easier to make generalizations.  There are good and bad in each crowd; teachers, expats, Koreans, etc.  Either way, it is insulting to talk about another person’s country based on a bunch of generalizations you’ve found somewhere across the ocean when you picked up your passport weeks before leaving your own country for the first time.  Maybe after you’ve spent some time in the country you’re going to discredit, I’ll value your opinion.  Or not.

The problem with Korea, when you have a good job, is that you become a tad too comfortable.  This has definitely been my case for quite some time, probably the better part of a year.  It’s the sort of comfortable that is secure, yet complacent.  Good work hours, excellent pay, good students.  Then it’s offset by having very few challenges, repetitiveness, and micro-aggressions.  What’s a girl to do?

Well, this girl decided to update her resume and start looking for jobs.  Not an easy feat, but now my resume is current and in good form.  After my first round of sending out my resume I started to feel less restless and ok with my job/life in Korea.  The cooler weather has helped, as well as the raise I recently earned.  My mind started debating with itself if going home is really what I want.  It was having another debate this morning as I was walking to the bus stop and listening to my iPod.  Near the bus stop there is a building under construction and a worker had started to block off the entire sidewalk as I was walking by.  He yelled at me and told me to walk in the street which was 5 lanes filled with morning traffic.  I yelled back and told him he couldn’t take the entire sidewalk and expect people to walk in traffic.  His mouth gaped open and I continued on.  I found the timing quite ironic since I’ve been doing so much soul searching lately.  Perhaps this is the universe’s way of saying, “This is one of the reasons why you want to leave.  Get out when you can!”  Or maybe it was random timing.  Whatever it was, my mind has been in overdrive this morning.