2003-01-26 - 2:14 p.m.

Sat., January 25, 2003

Week in Review:

Monday morning

I made it to "Moms' Class" in good time. I was pretty tired and not too good on leading. We got off-track a few times. I explained "off-track" and they diligently wrote it down in their vocabulary notebooks, with a couple chuckles. They know when they veer of-topic. Een-jung is especially good at it. (She's the English teacher, studying to be an importers' agent. That's a specialist in laws relating to the Customs office, who facilitates getting foreign goods into Korea. She told me that Korean law is based on the French and German legal systems, rather than the English/American bodies of law.)

Monday afternoon

I went to see June, thinking I was supposed to teach the kids' class. After hunting up and down in her section of the apartment building, I was standing, perplexed, outside when she and her youngsters came along. They'd been over to another friend's apartment to pick up a couple hamsters for her kids. She invited me in and fed me cake and coffee while explaining that the program is on hold for a while. "The children are too busy right now," she said. However, it was a polite way of telling me that the deal is off.

She invited me to a Buddhist celebration of Solnal, stressing that it was "very early in the morning" on February 1st, next Saturday. I said Jim would like to attend, too; "Could I bring him?" Of course, she said, "Yes," but the vibes were shaky. She walked me to the subway and took me to her favorite bakery on the way. Told me to select anything I wanted. I took 2 sweet rolls. She asked if that was all I wanted, and seemed a little relieved when I said, "Yes." She was trying to make me feel better about coming all the way over there for nothing, poor woman! What an awkward misunderstanding. I didn't pick up on Cho's clues last week about the deal being in suspension.

Ruby called, apologising for not coming to class; said she was depressed, but would come Wednesday. I told her about some of the changes that the moms and I had made. The biggest is reading the book at home and preparing written answers to the questions. I will correct these papers for grammar. Then, class time will be devoted to conversation based on the topics they have written about.

Tuesday

I went back to the dentist for major scaling!

At noon, I headed for Jim's place with the load of groceries I'd promised myself to bring to him. Left my cellphone home, ditzy me. Spent a couple of hours hiking up and down the mountain where he lives,- doing no good to the strained muscle in my upper thigh. I did have a nice rest stop at the Senior Center. No one spoke English, but they invited me in to warm up and watch the ladies play that Korean card game that looks like "Slap Jack."

After some more hiking, I asked a mechanic if I could use his cellphone, and tried calling Jim. His cellphone was off, but his office phone buzzed "busy." So I headed there.

About ten minutes later, I heard "Mom!" There was Jim, striding toward me from a side street! A few seconds either way and we would never have seen each other. He's been home all the time, waiting for me, but he'd fallen asleep (jet lag). We walked back up to his place. I'd been right about the street, but two doors off as to which house was his.

He had brought a large pack-ful of my Maine clothes for me (nothing from my "official work wardrobe" but some are suitable, and the others are good to have when I want "to be a tourist," - shorts, etc.).

He made a splendid tofu curry and I devoured a plateful. Then we sat and talked, sipping Brazilian coffee until sundown. I only got half of the clothes in my L.L. Bean tote bag, but he promised to bring the others Friday when we meet at the dentist's to go over the treatment plan costs.

Wednesday

I got to class half an hour early and found a good grocery store next door. Got a lot of my favorite foods. Since the good store closed in Anam, I've had no place to get tuna, pine-nut porridge, and the veggie soup mixes of which I've grown fond.

At Moms' Class, no Ruby! Eenjung, Eunjee and I talked about the situation frankly, but came to no conclusion.

Cho and I talked on the phone about getting together to discuss plans. He had an idea to apply to another city-sponsored program, so I copied my resume and other documents, planning to give them to him at the meditation meeting. Just Ed was there, though.

On the way home, Ruby called me again and said she'd decided to go to another study group at a hagwon near her home. Good luck to all concerned. She's not the easiest student. Maybe some of the others will come back, now. I'm sure Eunjee has contacts with them.

Thursday, I took it easy. Just did laundry and cleaned house. The muscle in my leg is still bothering.

Friday

Jim and I met in the Samseong subway station and went to the dentist. He got to talk with the bookkeeper and a translator about the treatment plan costs, and I got more scaling! When all seemed ready to finish up, there was only "the doctor needs to check the hygienist's work."

After about ten minutes, in came the prosthetic specialist. He proceeded to probe around and grabbed the drill. I jumped and he said to the nurse, "inject." He was good. I never felt a thing as he proceeded to do a root canal, in jig time, with great attention to detail. He is a real craftsman, doing most of the work with tiny "rat-tail" files.

I put down 6 manwon on the bill, from the money Jim gave me earlier. The last thing, the bookkeeper asked us to go into Dr. Lee's office. He says the work can be finished in six weeks, but if we need longer to raise the money, he could space it out over six months. The reason the dentist came up with for prolonging the treatment plan was, "an old person like you takes a long time to heal from extractions." As much as I like the man, when he expanded at length on that idea, I felt like slapping him.

Jim and I then headed out to supper at a pibimbap place and discussed the rather immense cost, by Korean standards, of my treatment plan. The low estimate* is 7,850,000 won (U.S.$6,743.99, at today's exchange rate). It could run as high as 10,476,000 won or U.S.$9,000.00. I think I'd better see if my brothers can help out. Jim hasn't got anywhere near that, in fact he had to borrow cash from me last night. He's flat until the university pays him next.

{Low estimate: The custom is to pay one-third of the estimate up front, so they usually fudge the figures downward to make it easier to meet the "down payment."}

The sooner it's done, the sooner my ugly mouth ceases to be an excuse not to hire me. Exercise, lose weight, dye my hair, get as spiffy as I can and maybe I can get a job. (I'm facing living on 4 manwon for the next few days. Darn, I hate scrimping. I can do it, but it means cutting out all socialising with friends and so forth.)

Can you tell I'm a bit grumpy today? Well, all isn't sweetness and light, as much as I'd wish it were. Please accept my apologies. Thanks for reading.

Anyway, here's wishing you Happy Trails!

~ Sil in Corea mood today 8-(

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