Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

(Newbies might be interested in the hospital part of this, in case�)

Last Monday after school there was a soccer game. During the first half Hyun-Suk had the ball but Jin-Woo tried to take it away. Jin-Woo wound up with a broken leg (shin) and was rushed to the emergency room. He is in the largest military hospital in the country (in Bundang).

So last night Hyun-Suk, Seung-Hoon, Jin-Chul and I went visit Jin-Woo in the hospital. Since the hospital is in Bundang and so is Samakhan, our favorite Indian restaurant, we went there first. We ordered Chicken Tikka with mustard sauce, Chili Chicken and 4 kabobs with shrimp and other seafood, garlic naan, 3 beers and a Coke. We each paid W26,000. Excellent eats. (only a block from Samsung Plaza)

On to the hospital at 8:30. (There is no such thing as �visiting hours�.) We parked in back and went in. Not a soul around in the first hall. Not a soul in the second hallway. Finally, a guy in a wheelchair went rolling by while we were waiting to for the elevator. The place felt abandoned. Up to the fourth floor. No one in sight. Down past the nurses station, not a nurse in sight. Then 3 patients in the laundry room doing their laundry.

We get to Jin-Woo�s room. 6 beds, all full. The baseball game is on (game 4 of the Korea Series: score 4-0, SK leading (?). Four patients from other rooms are gathered on the bed with their friend watching the game. Everyone�s eyes bug out when I come in. Within a minute the room was almost emptied. All four of my students are laughing; they said the other guys were afraid I�d talk to them and they�d be embarrassed. Jin-Woo is 26, so all the other roommates are his seniors. Two of them got in an argument yesterday over which TV channel to watch. Jin-Woo wants to watch AFKN, but the others won�t let him.

Anyway, Jin-Woo is starting to look better (Jin-Chul said) than the night before. He�ll have surgery on Monday or Tuesday. The doctor will insert a metal rod in the bone. A week after that, Jin-Woo will come back to class, against his doctor�s advice, but Jin-Woo feels he has to. If he doesn�t, he won�t get credit for the 17 weeks he�s been here�and won�t be allowed to complete the course at any future date. (Our school is weird.)

I asked where the nurses were and he said they had gone home. (BTW, one is beautiful but she has a bad character.) At night there are only 3 nurses on duty for the whole hospital. Jin-Woo said this is a �self-serve� hospital. Thursday night Jin-Chul washed Jin-Woo�s hair because he wasn�t able to do it himself. Another example: Jin-Woo said he wanted to get out of bed but needed the wheelchair up-graded. NONE of the wheelchairs in the hospital have an extension to support an injured leg. Seung-Hoon went out looking for something they could attach but came back with nothing useful. So the guys took a crutch and elastic bandages and jerry-rigged it to Jin-Woo�s wheelchair. After helping Jin-Woo into his up-graded chair, he went with us downstairs to see us off. His roommates will have to help him get back in bed.

We left at 9:30 without having seen a single person who was not a patient�not a nurse, doctor, orderly or anything else. Not even a janitor. Nothing.

One thing that was different about this hospital: There were no family members camped out under the beds of the patients. I don�t know if that is because this is a military hospital or not.

Jin-Woo said the food was awful. I guess that means I have to make something he and his roomies would like and take it down. Maybe some blueberry muffins...