2006-12-29 - 2:49 p.m.

Catch-up entry from October 30, 2006

Anazing Grace! Friends in the fellowship loaned me $300 and gave me $120. Showers of blessings fell on me yesterday. Syll says,"Don't worry. It's a long-term loan without any interest."

Wed., Nov 1

Rent paid, electric bill paid.

A man called in the morning. He found my Oryx card-case in Gwanghwamun station. I'm going over to his station on line 2 after jisu's class to collect it. His English was so sketchy that I called Cho to talk to him. He lives over near KKachisan, in the far corner of Mokdong.

Yesterday, I lost the card-case (with my T-Money card in it) on the way to the U.S. Embassy to apply for another passport. The vice consul assured me that my new passport would be there by Nov. 8th at the latest. "Hummph" says I to myself. But he warned me that if I lose it, I'll get a restricted one next time. [Just enough to get me back home, I guessed. Aarrgghh!] He also recommended that I not carry it with me. He showed me that he has a laminated copy of the front page of his passport that he carries for identification.

Next thing is to find out where my driver's license went to. Must e-mail the Maine Secretary of State's office about that.

Nov. 6
One of my Kkachisan students, "Essentia", tells me that Korean kids refer to Santa as Santa-harapoeji[= Grandfather Santa].

Nov. 7

Actually, there was competition to take me to lunch today. Both classes wanted to. The girls in Basic Eng. won, so we had kalbi in Ha-an-dong commercial district. It was splendid and we did lots of "free talk."
Next week, my advanced English class has invited me to eat sulfer duck. Hummm, that should be interesting.

Nov. 8

(4:36 pm, outside Hyouin's apartment house) Left my place at 4:20 in case of bad traffic; but, no problem. Cho and I went to the jjajjang place for lunch today. He was worried that the bank used the 50 manwon that Miss Hahn sent to pay on his credit card, so he borrowed 20 mw from his employer to help with my bills. That's cool, cause I got 6 mw from the medical girls yesterday (later note: rent is 25 mw/month, about $250)
I'd used the loan from Syll to pay the rent so now I can pay part of that back. That was really earmarked for my next visa run.
Tomorrow I need to call the embassy to see if my new passport came in. Should have done that today, but was too busy getting the new group/meeting set up. Last night wasn't a good sleeping night, so I got a quick nap after eating jjajjangmyun with Cho, to get me through the 2 classes this evening (Gaibong at 5 and Haan-5-danji at 7 p.m.)

Nov. 19
I owe SoonChonHyang DaeHahkKyo ByongWon 129,000 won for stitches. The cashier gave me a paper with the payment number on it and then took it back, so I have to go in to pay them (instead of transferring money from my bank account to theirs). The ER charge and X-rays were 106,190 won, of which I paid 50,000 and Eunice paid the rest.

Backstory: I went over to Nonhyon to meet Eunice at KFC for lunch and a lesson. We hung out together from 12:35 till nearly 3 p.m. Then we headed outside to go to the bus station. She was kinda staring off into space and swayed toward me, so I sidestepped. somehow I stepped on the side of my other foot and lost my balance. Hit my head on a metal box as I went down. Lifted a piece of scalp loose and I bled like a stuck pig.

I sorta sat there assessing my injuries for about half a minute. Finally, I said "Eunice?" Then, she realized I'd disappeared from her side. [She later told the EMT that I was staggering when I left KFC and that she was walking behind me, watching me wobble around.] If what she told the EMT was true, how come she didn't know I fell until I called her name. The KFC staffers were already running out. The manager had a handful of napkins and applied pressure to the little cut of my forehead. I could still feel the scalp bleeding heavily, so I got him to give me some napkins and applied pressure to the top of my head.

The angle that my head hit the box told me to push forward a bit to close the wound. It settled down to gentle seeping soon after. Then, I could feel swelling begin, so I asked for "a plastic bag of ice," which the assistant manager brought promptly.

Meanwhile, Eunice was calling 119. I tried to talk her out of it, but she was adamant. Turns out that she's scared of blood.

The ambulance got there in about 20 minutes, by which time I was back inside KFC with the icebag on top of my head. The assistant manager had done a splendid job of cleaning me up with antibacterial wet-wipes.

When we got to the ER, I've no idea what she told them, other than that "halmoni" is as poor as a church mouse. The ER doctor spoke English well enough so that I could joke with him. He knew Harvard and MIT were in Cambridge, Mass, so I said that I came from about 300 kilometers north of there. I tried to talk him out of x-rays, as it was a scalp laceration, but the cut on my forehead made him think I had taken a more solid whack. [Actually, I think my glasses frame cut my forehead. When I flailed my right arm to try to balance, I knocked my glasses really hard.]

They told me I had to wait for the plastic surgeon. A chubby fellow came in and gave me a piercing look, so I knew he was the man. He had them take me to a different room. I told him I didn't need to have the little forehead scratch sewed up, but I was concerned about the larger cut in my scalp. I pointed out that I have 4 other facial scars, so what's one more. He said, "That's very true, but this is the way we do it in Korea!" I felt like I was dealing with a reincarnation of Dr. Jellerson! Nobody argued with him, either. He did a fine job, five dainty little stitches, but refused to sew up my scalp wound. The ER doctor came back, and I asked him what he could do for the scalp. "Well," he said, "I can staple it." And he did! I have 2 shiny staples. He told me to come in tomorrow and have the bandages changed, then come back in two weeks to have the stitches and staples removed.

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