…but tasty!

Fresh off Sunday’s adventure in dining at the Brazilian steak house in Itaewon; today we walked across the street from our apartment to a brand new place that does steak Korean-style.

I’m about as proficient in metrics as I am in Korean, but loosely translated the sign says you get a lot of beef for W39,000…

And as you can see the sign did not lie…

Because it is so expensive we rarely indulge ourselves with beef during our stays in Korea.  Don’t really miss it too much because I love me them pork dishes– especially daeji galbi and samgyapsal.  But on special occasions, like meeting the esteemed Kevin Kim or celebrating Jee Yeun’s sister’s birthday, we can splurge for the cow.  Now Tabom Brazil is all the meat you can eat for around W30,000 a head.  And at the place pictured above (name escapes me at the moment) we got more meat than we could eat for W45,000 (they add W2000 per person for the side dishes).  Jee Yeun liked the Korean style better than Brazil (surprise, surprise) and I’ll just say I like both apples and oranges.

In other news, I had my consult with Dr. Yoo yesterday where we discussed the findings from my recent comprehensive physical exam.

If I understood Dr. Yoo correctly somewhere there’s an 80 year old man without a liver…

Actually, my liver is fat but otherwise healthy.  The best news was my lungs, colon, and prostrate are doing fine.  The stomach thing wasn’t cancer either.  So I need to continue waging the battle of the bulge through diet and exercise.  And take some pills.

Breakfast of Champions!

Lots of pills.  Which I guess are supposed to keep the cholesterol low so the 50% blockage in one heart artery doesn’t progress any further.  Don’t want my sweet old heart attacking me any time soon, that’s for sure.

Life is good.

Maybe, maybe not.  But every little bit helps I suppose.

Yesterday me and my yobo headed up to the mountaintop park across the road from our apartment.  Instead of just walking around we availed ourselves to the exercise equipment stationed conveniently throughout the park.  It probably didn’t make for a pretty sight but we took pictures anyway.

Well, we can start with a pretty picture of the lovely Jee Yeun enjoying the view…

This thing swings side to side as you shift body weight. It actually reminded me of the snow skiing motion. Hard to believe I use to be a pretty ardent skier…and racquetball player…and softball…

Working the upper body…which requires lifting the weight of your lower body (er, well the seat rises as you pull the bar down). Not sure what the physics of that means…

Come on baby, let’s do the twist…

And everything came out okay in the hwajangsil as well…

We took a different trail down from the mountain which dropped us into a new neighborhood. A lovely street scene don’t ya think?

Jee Yeun and I agreed that this house would be perfect for us. If wishes were money it would be ours right now!

A neighborhood Buddhist enclave was bursting with springtime goodness…

And then we came across a rather large fire station…

This friendly firefighter didn’t have much to say but we exchanged a a high-five anyway…

But this guy wanted to do a Lizzie Borden on my neck!

Ah well.  It was a good day.  And we are going to go back for more today as well.  Because I definitely don’t want to start carrying this damn thing around again:

UPDATE: And while hopefully my belly will be shrinking, my brain won’t be!

Up bright and early this morning (no easy feat after dart league night) and made our way to the immigration office (also no easy feat during morning rush hour).  Despite arriving a few minutes after the 9:00 a.m. opening, we drew ticket number 35 in the waiting to be served queue.

Our purpose and mission was to change my immigration status to that of being the spouse of a Korean rather than my current inconvenient designation of tourist*.  Jee Yeun came armed with reams of paperwork from the gu-office verifying that my name has been rendered in Hangul on the marriage register, financial statements, and other documents she imagined would be required.  Turns out we didn’t need any of them.

Our number was called after a 45 minute wait that seemed longer than it was.  Jee Yeun did the talking in the language of the locals and explained our reason for being there.  The immigration agent looked at my passport, shook his head, and according to Jee Yeun said that I can’t get a marriage visa when I’m in the country on a tourist visa.  He told her I would have to apply for the visa at the Korean embassy in the USA. He did seem pretty adamant about this and we were dismissed from his window within two minutes of our arrival.

I of course had nothing to say in the matter.  But there were things I wanted to say.  Like the fact that I had called the Korean consulate in Atlanta last summer and inquired about applying for a marriage visa.  They told me it would be better to apply in Korea.  How do you say “stop giving me the fucking run around” in Korean anyway?**

* I honestly don’t care so much about my visa status.  The F-6 marriage visa would certainly be more convenient, but it’s not like I’m looking to get a job or live in Korea full time anyway.  It’s just an expensive pain in the ass to be limited to 90 stays when I travel to Korea.  Sometime around June 11 I’ll need to take a quick trip out of the country (probably to Japan again).  I’ll also have to change my return flight to the USA with Delta who will ream me to the tune of $250 for that privilege.

** I actually fully expected to be rejected for the F-6 visa precisely because I can’t say “stop giving me the fucking round around” in Korean.  Apparently the ability to speak in Korean is now a requirement for the marriage visa (although Jee Yeun speaks decent English, so that might be an exception). Anyway, I guess I’ll have to wait for the Korean embassy in the states to tell me “anio” for that reason.  Or I could make an effort to actually learn the language between now and then.  One of those.

…Ui dong.  Ahem.

Today we went to the other side of the mountain and visited the lovely Doseon Buddhist Temple.  I even took some pictures, although I didn’t realize just how thick the yellow dust was until I viewed them at home later.  And to think I gave up smoking for the good of my lungs.  Ah well.

The stairway to…Doseon. Not as strenuous as our normal Bukhansan hike, but I had worked up a pretty good sweat by the time we made it to the top…

Lots of people worshiping at the various alters around the temple grounds…

But the first thing Jee Yeun wanted to do was to partake in the free lunch. I had brought along some cheese and apples and ate simply as seemed befitting to the surroundings. Plus the offering didn’t appear all that appetizing…or sanitary.

With a full belly (although not by any means Buddha-esque) Jee Yeun offered up her thanks for the blessings of life…

…numerous times in numerous places…

…even said a prayer for me she says…

“What the hell? I learn the Korean alphabet and now they are writing shit in Chinese!
It was good hike and a nice change of pace. I reckon I’ll be back…

It was the best of lunches, it was the worst of lunches…

We were walking to E-mart yesterday and Jee Yeun declared her hunger in words even I could understand “baego payo!” She said this as we approached the Hyundae Dept Store so I reckoned the food court was in my immediate future. I was not feeling particularly hungry, but Jee Yeun enjoyed some naeng-myon and I settled for a Whopper (no fries, diet Coke). In my defense, it was the first American fast food I’ve consumed since my return one month ago…

I’m quite the dickens, am I not?

It’s a start.

Jee Yeun hasn’t been feeling well since undergoing all those medical tests Wednesday.  She’s been complaining about back pain and seems more tired than usual.  Not saying there is any relationship to the physical exam, just stating the facts.  I gave her a back massage this morning which helped as long as it lasted.  Later she announced she needed to exercise which is her parlance for “let’s go to Bukhansan”.  And so we did.

The cherry blossoms are already mostly gone at our apartment building but they are still going strong on the mountain…

and the gaenalee was also still in full flower…

…as was the magnolia tree.

We took our usual path…

…that led us up to…

…our mountaintop oasis where Jee Yeun did her hula hoop routine…

…and filled up the water bottles with fresh spring water (at least I hope it’s fresh!)

Back down at the bottom we end our hike in the traditional manner–with a blow job!

…well you know we’d all love to change the world…

Back in 1960 the Korean people took matters into their own hands to depose President Syngman Rhee.

On the way to e-mart this afternoon I encountered a group of college students commemorating that event.

…and subjected to all sorts of bizarre tests and invasions of various bodily orifices while they carried on in a native tongue I could only pretend to understand.  At least that is how it felt.

Yes, today was the day that Jee Yeun and I did our bi-annual comprehensive physical examinations.  Eyes, ears, blood, EKG, BMI, bone density, chest x-ray, sonogram, prostrate probe, MRI of the vital organs, endoscopy and colonoscopy.  Fortunately, I slept through the last two.  The prostrate check was done with a device that looked like a giant dildo and it felt bigger than it appeared.  Ah well, she didn’t even give me flowers afterwards.

I’ll get the results directly from my hilarious Korean doctor on April 24.  Apparently they took something from my stomach to biopsy.  And I’m hoping to learn if this almost constant chest pain is something to be concerned about.  It’s not heart pain, it’s just a generalized soreness.  I can feel it when I take a deep breath, roll over in bed, and sneezing is excruciating.  I’m assuming it just goes with being old (because my whole body seems to ache most of the time).  We’ll see.

They gave me this really cool bracelet as a parting gift! And that’s not all!

Anyway, I’m a pretty big fan the Korean health care system, unlike some folks I know.  Especially their preventative programs like this one.  We got a “his and her” discount, so both of our physicals wound up costing a total or just over W2,000,000 ($2000.00).  My brother who worked in the industry stateside says most of those tests would cost more individually than my entire total back home.  I expect Blue Cross will reimburse about 75% of that which is *ahem* pretty healthy.

In another nice touch Soonchunhwang Hospital gives you coupons for a free lunchee at the nearby porridge house!  This was especially welcome for me as I was approaching 24 hours on my mandated fast.

A nice hot bowl of juk! Truth be told, I find it rather bland. But when I’m starving…

…I find it extraordinarily delicious!

So, that was our day.  Here’s to good health!