Doctors and Beards and Other Musings

Ah, so, I got bitten by MORE mosquitos last week; 4 on one leg, 3 on the other. They got really huge and gross and bubbly and leaky so I went to the pharmacy to see if they had some magic cream for my disgusting bites--3 of them got especially bad. The pharmacist said they weren't mosquito bites and I should go to the dermatologist next door immediately. I went to "Dr. Lee's Urology and Dermatology Clinic" (a lot of the clinics have these odd combos) and was taken to the doctor immediately. He looked at my bites for about 30 seconds, and gave me a shot (I'm assuming it was a cortizone shot) and a prescription for some cream and pills (2-day supply), and told me to come back the next day. That trip cost me about $5 and I don't know what the prescriptions cost because one of the Korean teachers that I work with went with me and she took care of it (so nice, right?). 

I returned to Dr. Lee the next day (my bites were already 93847948 times better), and same drill--shot and prescription for pills (3-day supply this time), and come back Monday (this was Friday)--and this trip was about $4, and the pills were $3. Oh, and they also redressed my wounds for me, complete with painful antiseptic; the blisters had all broken and I just had exposed dermis (that's below the epidermis, right?)--I bought gauze and tape myself, but I was changing the dressings every couple of hours because they were leaking right through the bandages. I told you it was gross!

On a side note, I giggled a little when they called my name over the loudspeaker--most (if not all) Korean names are 3 syllables, but my name in Korean pronunciation is "Kuh-ree-suh-tee-nuh"--and they don't bother with the last name. It's quite amusing to me :) Sometimes when Marc and I are feeling silly we call each other our Korean names--Mah-kuh and Kuh-ree-suh-tee-nuh.

So Monday I went to Dr. Lee AGAIN and received--you guessed it--a shot and more pills! However, he said I didn't have to go back again unless I didn't get better. So now it's Friday and I'm pretty much healed except there's one that's still a little red so I'm keeping it covered because I've been wearing skirts and nobody wants to see the giant hole on my leg.

Oh, that's another thing--each of the blistered/broken skin places was about an inch in diameter. I looked like a leper (still do, kind of). 

Alright, enough about my leprosy. Big news--Marc shaved off his beard! Apparently his face was hot (like sweaty hot) or something. It's taken me a while to get used to it, but it's growing on me. He looks like he's about 18 now. With his beard, several students said he looked like Tom Cruise; now they say he looks like Tom Hanks. Someone also told him he looks more approachable. Koreans have this idea that men with beards are dirty and mean; I think it's beard envy because the majority of Korean men can't grow a full beard.

Also, for those of you who are interested, I'm still losing weight--more slowly that before, but still losing. I don't have a scale, but I can tell with how my clothes are fitting. I'm about 3 sizes smaller than in December (probably more--my clothes were pretty ill-fitting) and today I'm wearing a shirt that I haven't been able to fit into in over a year! Here are some comparison pictures...

December 18, 2008

5 Minutes Ago 

I found a great store on eBay to get clothes; their international shipping price is one of the most reasonable I've found, and it's all brand-new clothes from Macy's (I know the brands). The best part is that for $100 I basically got a brand-new wardrobe for work. Just wanted to brag a little :) 

Alright, that's all for now. I'm waiting at Starbucks for Marc to get off work so we can get some lunch. Take care!

Long Day

Ah, many apologies for being a bit slow on the updating. Truth is, there's not much to tell. However, some things are developing so there may be much news in the next month or so. 

I got my first mani/pedi in Korea today, and it was a success! I went outside of Camp Walker, which is one of the American military bases here, to a shop called Magic Nails. The owner speaks English (I'm pretty sure her husband's military) and all of the technicians speak pretty good English too. I actually thought I could be back in the USA--all of the employees are Asian, all of the customers were American (except my friend that went with me, she's from the UK). They even took US dollars, so I saw a $20 bill and almost crapped my pants (not really. But I did see the $20 bill!). 

There really isn't much else to report. I'll try to take some pictures this week and post them.