Today I had a wonderful visit to a Korean OBGYN; it was quite an interesting experience. I knew I needed a pap smear done and so I finally broke down, accepted defeat, and asked our school’s nurse for a good doctor. She gave me the phone number to Hyosung Hospital, a number which I grudgingly called. When I called I was greeted by a cheerful woman who instead of making an appointment for me the following week, said I could come in the following afternoon! What joy flew into my heart….NOT!!!! I needed time to work up to this, days to mope around, hours to sigh in defeat, and many minutes to once again damn man for not having to suffer this injustice.
I do have to say though that the hospital was in tip-top shape; the receptionist understood the seriousness of my mission and was not overly chipper like some can be. You know the ones that find perverse pleasure in you paying to be raped by a doctor who overly excited to describe your body to you. I gave some basic information and before I knew it I was in the room with the doctor. A couple of minutes later I was in stirrups again cursing God for being a man; if he was a woman we would not have to suffer through cramps, childbirth, pap smears, and menopause. I had a pretty standard pap done; the only difference was I also was given an ultrasound. The doctor explained to me how she knew that in the states an ultrasound is fairly expensive, but it is not in Korea, so we are lucky enough to have one once a year. LUCKY ENOUGH? Having a long metal camera shoved into me is not a privilege! I demand a refund; can I file a complaint with my local senator? I should mention that the pap, ultrasound, and testing cost me a whopping $84. There are certain aspects of Korean medicine that I love; today it was my low bill.
After the pap, Jason and I walked around and explored Suseong-gu, which is a very quiet area with a lake and amusement park. We found the lake, but couldn’t find the entrance, and the amusement park, that I was planning on visiting to recapture my youth, was closed. We ended up in a very high scale coffee shop which was SO nice! We spent close to two hours there before the demands of my empty stomach begin to wake the dead. Since I didn’t want to see zombies walking down the street, we left the shop in search of some dinner. We had planned to eat at an Italian place called, Napoli, but it appeared to be closed. Me being me though refused to accept defeat, and I walked up the stairs and into the restaurant where we appeared to interrupt the staff’s dinner. Regardless of our intrusion, they quickly escorted us to a table with a view of the street. When the waiter returned with menus, and we opened the first page we realized that we were seriously out of our depth; this place doesn’t serve a plate of pasta like the Olive Garden. Oh no, this place does courses starting at 45 dollars and going up to 150 dollars. After some serious contemplation, aka number crunching, we both settled on Course D which was about 70 dollars per person. Over the next two hours, our taste buds were stimulated with the scrumptious plates of foods delivered to us; some of the foods served were things I don’t normally eat, but I decided to branch out and be adventurous. I ate the stuffed mushroom instead of saying, “Ewww.” At 23 I have finally matured to about an eight year old.
The next best thing about this restaurant was the chef; he was a seventy-three year old man from Italy and he seemed as interested in us as we were in him. He continually stopped by to chat with us and even took a picture with us when we left. Overall, I would give this place a ten out of ten, but I may not go back unless I start feeling richer:)
Once we left the restaurant we hailed a cab so we could head home. Did I mention we were in Suseong-gu? This is the same place we had our nightmare McDonald’s experience (see “Our McDonalds Saga” post). When we got into the cab I told the cabbie where to go and he was lost; he recognized all the places I named, but he still wasn’t sure where to go. He begins shouting at me in Korean, as I keep saying in Korean, “I DON’T SPEAK KOREAN.” Regardless, he wanted to express his annoyance with me, and I just wished the entire ride over. In desperation I ended up grabbing his phone and dialing one of our Korean staff members number; Jason happened to have his card in his wallet. I would like to say that I had given the card to the cabbie first, but he couldn’t get ahold of anyone when he tried the number, and ended up just throwing the card back at me. When he was looking at his phone I realized he had dialed the number wrong, because he was half BLIND and was peering at the number, with glasses on, from an inch away! Honestly!!! So I dialed the number for him, he contacted the staff member, and we finally got home.
I would just like to say, I will NOT miss this aspect of Korea when we return to the states.
