2003-01-10 - 1:24 a.m.

January 7

Report on visiting the dentist:

I got going in good season this morning, but after getting to Samsung Station okay, I had a dickens of a time finding the Samahn Building. I called the dentist's office on my cellphone, but the woman on the front desk couldn't tell me how to get there. Finally, a patient (!) gave me directions that got me close and I asked a couple watchmen. The second one escorted me to the right elevator and held up 4 fingers (fourth floor). The patient saw me get off the elevator and beckoned me inside. We chuckled about it as I thanked her, because she is not from this area and had done a great job translating what I had described as I stood on the street. I was actually 2 buildings beyond the right one. He had said it was a 2-minute walk from the subway. I had walked faster, I guess. I paced it off in marching tempo.

It's a pretty up-scale neighbourhood, a lot of banks and so forth, so this course of treatments may cost quite a bit. There were three people inspecting my mouth.

First was the periodontal technician, a nice young lady who kept apologizing for her English, although I assured her that I understood her very well. She also took the x-ray, with a wrap-around machine that gave a picture that could have inspired the movie "Alien."

Then, Dr. Lee went in and explored. Finally, he asked another dentist (who specializes in partial plates) to take a look.

They determined that they could salvage some teeth and 4 would have to come out. My lower jaw has enough solid bone to hold implants, but my upper jaw's bone is too thin, so I'll need a partial plate. The crowns that Dr. Hui did in 1988 are holding up well. Dr. Lee doesn't use mercury fillings and can get those out and replace them with fillings that won't break down like these have.

After all the business was done, he asked me to have lunch with him. We had an excellent pibimbop at a nearby restaurant, decorated with Korean drums. Once he was away from the office, he unlimbered. His English became a lot more fluent and expressive. We had a really good time talking. He asked me about my kids. I told him about my daughter and that both boys had taught in Korea and that Peter now works for "Tan-halk" (Dan-hak). Then he got a remembering kind of look on his face, and said in a bemused tone, "Your other son's name is Jim. He plays the guitar very well. He is tall and thin." I said, "Yes!" I was amazed! He explained that he had been to see Jim's band three times in the past. He's quite a fan of their group, which has only been performing for a few months. "So you're Jim's mother," he said in a very happy voice. "Wow," I thought to myself, "Small world, inn't it!"

Who knows what will transpire from this fortuitous connection? It'll be interesting to see how it all works out.

Thanks for reading.

Happy Trails!

~ Sil in Corea

previous - next

http://www.newdream.org/

Free clicks save land at http://www.therainforestsite.com

Copyright 2001,2002, et al. Sillama1 (Andrew knows my real name, and you will suffer from rectal boils if you take anything from this site.)

Fight Spam! Click Here!