Go tell it on the mountain!

A busy time here notwithstanding the morning calm.

Saturday marked the one year anniversary of my marriage to the lovely Jee Yeun Lee.  We celebrated with a dinner in Myeong-dong and then a dart tourney at B&B in Itaewon.  I guess that's our tradition.  After the wedding ceremony in Las Vegas last year I had to hurry down for the New World Dart Series pro tourney coincidentally also bein held in LV that day....

Saturday marked the one year anniversary of my marriage to the lovely Jee Yeun Lee. We celebrated with a dinner in Myeong-dong and then a dart tourney at B&B in Itaewon. I guess that’s our tradition. After the wedding ceremony in Las Vegas last year I had to hurry down for the New World Dart Series pro tourney coincidentally also being held in LV that day….

I've also founded a dart league--The Seoul Sunday Singles League--which began play this past Sunday...

I’ve also founded a dart league–The Seoul Sunday Singles League–which began play this past Sunday.  24 players competing in 3 divisions.  Gonna be a lot of work but I also expect it will be lots of fun.

My nephew Justin took us out for a belated anniversary supper.  He's a special young man who has made great strides in mastering the Korean language.  I do admit I was envious as he engaged my Korean friends in what appeared to be fascinating conversation.  He's a little confused politically however.  Here I am explaining the "facts of life" about our corrupt political class.  The poor lad has been indoctrinated into the liberal mindset.  But he is smart enough to concede some points regarding gov't excesses and failures so I don't consider him a lost cause--yet.

My nephew Justin took us out for a belated anniversary supper. He’s a special young man who has made great strides in mastering the Korean language. I do admit I was envious as he engaged my Korean friends in what appeared to be fascinating conversation. He’s a little confused politically however. Here I am explaining the “facts of life” about our corrupt political class. The poor lad has been indoctrinated into the liberal mindset. But he is smart enough to concede some points regarding gov’t excesses and failures so I don’t consider him a lost cause–yet.

And of course Jee Yeun dragged me up on the mountain yet again.  This time I let her go her familiar way and thereby avoided getting lost again...

And of course Jee Yeun dragged me up on the mountain yet again. This time I let her go her familiar way and thereby avoided getting lost again…

 

Bright and early in the morning Jee Yeun and I will be doing full physicals at Soonchunhwang hospital.  Mine includes a colonoscopy so tonight I'm "enjoying" large quantities of picolight and water.  I'll be flushing out my innards all night long and be clean as a whistle come morning.  At least that is the plan.

Bright and early in the morning Jee Yeun and I will be doing full physicals at Soonchunhwang hospital. Mine includes a colonoscopy so tonight I’m “enjoying” large quantities of picolight and water. I’ll be flushing out my innards all night long and be clean as a whistle come morning. At least that is the plan.

Oh, and I’ve got my Netflix account working here in Korea.  I’ve been re-enjoying Mad Men and House, M.D. of late.  And that’s about it for this update.

 

 

The Gu stuff

Friday we ventured out to the Jongro-gu office to register our marriage, a necessary prerequisite to my applying for an F-6 permanent residency visa here in Korea.

I guess no matter where you are you gotta admire the government bureaucracy and the nifty little traps they devise to ensnare you.  In this case it was the matter of our having failed to register our marriage within six months as is apparently required by some ministerial fiat or another.  Jee Yeun complained that we had been out of the country since the date of our marriage in the USA.  The bureaucrat was unmoved stating we should have registered at the Korean Embassy or consular office.  The nearest of those two is in Atlanta, a goodly 4+ hours from where we reside.  Oh well, I suppose the W50,000 fine was cheaper than the gas it would have cost us to be compliant with ROK law.

So I reckon in a week I should be registered with the Korean government as the spouse of one of their fair citizens.  And then we can begin the adventure of dealing with the Korean Immigration Service.  I’m sure that will supply more fodder for blogging.  Stay tuned!

 

 

 

Hey kid, how’d you like a nice Hertz donut?

*smack* Hurts, don’t it?

As painful as that joke might be it is nothing compared to what has been going on in my mouth these past few days.  I had a tooth start bothering me a couple of weeks ago so I went to visit the dentist.  S/He advised that the tooth I was complaining about had previously been subjected to a root canal so I shouldn’t be experiencing any problems there.  S/He speculated it was probably just a bit of an infection and prescribed antibiotics.  And also filled three cavities.

So this Tuesday the tooth with no nerve began hurting like a motherfucker.  I could knock the pain down for a couple of hours at a time by taking heavy doses of Advil and/or Tylenol.  I even used some of Jee Yeun’s prescription pain pills left over from her shoulder surgery but they didn’t help much either.  After a mostly sleepless night, I went back in to see .  S/He once again diagnosed an abscess below the tooth, did a little leveling off of said tooth to even my bite, and prescribed more antibiotics.

Wednesday night was also mostly sleepless and pain-wracked and Jee Yeun, bless her heart, got sick of hearing my whinging hated to see me suffer so she insisted I visit the dental clinic down the street.  When we hit the street at 10:00 a.m. it looked like a scene from a disaster movie.  Throngs of people pushing and shoving to get into a massive line of jam packed buses.  Never seen anything like that so I immediately figured something must be up with the subway.  It was.  Fortunately, we were walking to the dentist so we were able to observe the madhouse without actually participating in it.

Jee Yeun told me this dentist is very famous and related to the family in some distant way and that people come for all over the country for his services.  She stressed we had to get there early to get on the list of walk-ins.  When we arrived there were 3 folks ahead of us, which didn’t seem too bad.  And then the receptionist came out and apologetically announced that the doctor would not be in until 3:00 p.m.  Apparently he was doing some charity work that morning which is admirable, although it did not reduce the ache in my tooth in the slightest.

Back to the apartment for more aspirin and the brief interludes of comfort it provided.  I had also been applying heat in the form of a damp towel microwaved to a level of warmth right below that used for skin removal.  I don’t know if it helped, but it didn’t hurt.  Jee Yeun insisted I should be applying cold to the tooth.  I explained that Dr.  had specifically advised me to apply heat and s/he said that people who used cold were doing it wrong.  Armed with info she found on the internet Jee Yeun called the dentist’s office to say that heat wasn’t working.  Shortly thereafter Dr.  called my phone and asked how I was doing.  “I’ve been better” I truthfully responded.  S/He suggested I return to her office the following afternoon and she would remove my crown to try and relieve “pressure”.  By this point I was ready to tell her to just yank the damn thing out altogether and be done with it.

Meanwhile I’d gotten a text asking me to sub on a team in the Thursday night dart league.  I was inclined at first to decline given my condition but then I figured if I was going to suffer regardless I may as well suffer doing something I enjoy.  The pain was in an aspirin induced remission when I got on the subway, but by the team we reached Samgakji station the tooth was screaming again.  So I ate some Advil dry and continued on to the Bull and Barrel.  The dentist had advised me not not drink while taking the antibiotics and I had pushed back a little asking “why?”  S/he gave me some bullshit about making the body weaker so as not to be able to fight the infection.  So, I hadn’t been drinking and I ordered up a diet Coke at the bar but for the record it was only because I didn’t feel like drinking not some whacky doctor’s orders.

By the time I had finished my second Coke the pain had again subsided and the dart match was ready to begin.  I prefer to play darts while maintaining a finely tuned chemical balance that provides a maximum level of confidence and relaxation. Achieving this state of mind normally requires the consumption of beer, so I ordered up a Cass.  It tasted good and went down smooth so I had another.  And another.

Now, it could be that the antibiotics finally kicked in and killed that nasty infection.  Or it could be Cass beer contains some unadvertised healing powers.  All I know is that I slept through the night for the first time in days.  I awoke pain free and have been pain free ever since.

Which leads me to the point I wanted to make when I sat down to write this overly-long post.  Pain sucks.  I have zero tolerance for pain. That pain can even be allowed to exist in the 21st century strikes me as being particularly inhumane.  Pain I think is very subjective and very personal.  No one else can feel your pain nor can you feel theirs.  So, how does one truly measure pain.  When someone says “I have a high tolerance for pain” I don’t think they are in any way stronger than me, I just figure their pain is not as severe.

See, as I wrote about this experience with pain I knew some reader somewhere would be thinking “what a fuckin’ pussy.  He ‘gets a damn toothache and makes a big deal about it.  Why doesn’t he just man up and handle it in silence?”

Fuck that.  That tooth hurt so bad I literally could not sit still.  Moving around didn’t help either, but Jesus, I couldn’t just sit there and take it.  So maybe that does make me a wuss.  I’ll tell you this though, I certainly appreciated that scene in Castaway where Tom Hanks removes his tooth with an ice skate.  You reach a point where you just can’t stand it anymore.  I guess my pain intolerance does not bode well for my future.  I will not be one of those brave souls who withstand immense pain while battling cancer.  Just put a pillow over my face and let me be done with it.  Please.

Getting high in Korea

Yesterday I got high and then I got lost.  Sort of.

It all started innocently enough.  I was enjoying my morning coffee when Jee Yeun exclaimed “let’s go to the mountain!”  By mountain she was of course referring to her favorite place to hike–Bukhansan National Park.  I wasn’t exactly feeling it, but Jee Yeun had indulged me several hours of darts on Sunday so I figured it was wise to pretend to be enthusiastic.  So off we went.

It was about 10:00 a.m. when we reached our bus stop and the place was crawling with college-age kids.  The first bus to arrive was packed tighter than a can of sardines and I said “bullshit on this, you wanted to exercise, let’s walk!”  Which we did, at least as far as the next bus stop.  Jee Yeun had reminded me just how long the walk would be so I agreed to wait and see whether the next bus was filled beyond reasonable capacity.  It was.  But after consulting the bus schedule Jee said all of these are going to the university (she didn’t say which one).  She assured me that the bus we needed (the 110B) would not be crowded.  And she was 100% correct!  Just a few old folks dressed for a morning mountain hike.  I sadly noted to myself just how much I fit in with these elderly types.

Anyway, we arrived at our destination and began our climb.  This time I insisted we take a new path, as I was tired of the same one Jee Yeun preferred on each of our previous several visits.  I soon regretted not bringing along my camera.  The trees were in early flowering mode and there were several new and interesting vistas along the way.  And this trail took us straight to the top!  It’s the highest I’ve been in Korea (not counting my driving over Seroksan).

It was a tough climb and actually a little scary in places.  The footing was often difficult and in one place they had even secured ropes as a hand hold to assist in the prevention of plunging to serious injury or death at the bottom of the cliff.  It wasn’t the fall I was worried about, it was the sudden stop!  I was glad for my walking stick and the thought occurred that I ought to invest in some actual hiking boots.

After traversing the crest line trail for the better part of an hour, we began looking for a way back down to the place where we had started from.  Which as it turns out was on the other side of the mountain.  Not being one to back track (and not wanting to rely on ropes again to stay on the path) I decreed we’d take the first likely trail to down to wherever it led and taxi home from there if necessary.  That didn’t really go exactly as planned.

After a good long generally downward hike we did find an exit from the national park.  Which put us smack dab in the middle of an upscale residential area.  Well, upscale doesn’t do it justice.  These houses, or more aptly, mansions, were pert near the largest most opulent homes I’ve seen anywhere–including Beverly Hills.  Pyungchang-dong I guess neighborhood is called.  Again, I wish I’d had my camera!  We followed a meandering street for a good bit seeing nothing that looked like the Korea I know.  We eventually encountered some folk out for a walk and Jee Yeun asked where we might catch a bus.  Now, I’m language challenged, but I can read expressions.  And these were saying they’d never considered such a question.  They vaguely pointed down the road and off we walked.  And walked.  And walked.  Damn, who knew there were so many incredibly rich people in one place.

I finally spied some high rise apartments in the distance so we made for them.  It took awhile though because the road was neither straight nor narrow.  Eventually a cab stopped for us (I guess we were a bit of spectacle with our shabby attire and  walking sticks).  And so we finally made it back to the familiar environs of Gireum-dong in time for me to rest up for dart league.

And I was high again after turning in an 11-1 performance (regular readers may recall I went 1-8 the week before).  And I drank a lot of beer as well.

An adventure filled day to be sure!