2003-02-07 - 12:51 a.m.

Thursday Feb. 6,'02

Well, I've got a new pair of eyeglasses. It's a roundabout story.

Jim and I met at Gangbyeon station this noontime. He is loaning the blender he brought from California because I'm having some teeth extracted tomorrow and I'll be on a liquid diet while my gums heal.

We went to the Tech Market to get a voltage adapter for it. (I may have mentioned that Korea is all wired for 220 volts.) Tech Market is the new shopping center for all sorts of electrical appliances and electronic gear. It's set up like most of the markets in Seoul,- lots of booths, each run by a small retailer renting the space from the center's owner. Often the local borough is the landlord. This keeps taxes low and provides work for local residents.

We tried a couple booths to find the best deal. It didn't take long, so we had lunch at one of the sidewalk diners. We had two kinds of soup, a plate of dumplings (biscuit dough wrapped around meat and veggies, then steamed), kim chi and yellow radish pickles. "Yellow radish" is the literal translation of "noransaek mu," or what the Japanese call"daikon."

Then Jim announced that he'd like to go to Dongdaemun (East big gate), and invited me to come along. We went into one of the underground malls by the medieval eastern gate to Seoul and he suggested I look at eyeglasses. I was drawn like a magnet to a pair of dark-green anodised metal frames. I felt guilty about Jim paying and said so. He understood, but said it was part of "the make-over" so I'll look more professional for job interviews. The optician was asking 70,000 won, but came down to 65,000 won (~ U.S.$55.66) when he saw I was about to renig on the whole deal.

The optician's booth was all fitted out to do eye exams. He sat me down and did a swift and expert examination, fitted the new lenses to the frames and I was seeing clearly in 20 minutes. I must say these frames do look sharp!

Jim had some more shopping to do that required a lot of walking, so I came along home with the blender (a heavy Osterizer), its adapter and my new glasses. I paused on the way to the subway to pick up some hooks for my kitchenette rack for 3,000 won ($2.57). The shopkeeper priced them at 4,000 won, but I pulled out 3,000 and said firmly "sam chunwon." He spoke good English and said, "You're getting a real bargain." I felt justified as they were a little rusty.

Tonight, I made a green-veggie soup with mushrooms and seaweed. It's good with the European-style six-grain bread from Hannam Supermarket's deli. I'm loading up on vitamins by this tactic, so I can heal fast after tomorrow's oral surgery. I'm determined to amaze that dentist, you see. I'll puree the rest of the potful of soup to drink for lunch, afterwards.

I've gotten a good supply of porridge makings and soup ingredients to take me into next week. The big question mark is Mondaay when I'm scheduled to teach the regular 9:30-11 a.m. Moms' class and the new Kid's class from 4-6 p.m. I may just come home and lay down for an hour in the middle, even though it's a long commute.

Carol wants me to cat-sit starting the 17th for a few days. Staying at her place will shorten my commuting time by about 30 minutes for all sorts of places I usually go to, such as my meetings and the classes. It will be a treat to have the use of a large bathtub, too. She and Mary are going to act like tourists for a little bit. They're going down south to see the temples in Cholla,I think.

Thanks for reading.

Happy Trails!

~ Sil in Corea

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