Currently in Seoul it is..

Atlanta Time

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Learn to Fly

It's the little things that make me feel like I'm becoming more at home here. I realized this during my solo venture after work today. I went out to Insadong to meet a bilingual Korean guy and his non-English speaking friend for dinner/drinks. After work, I came home to chill for a few minutes then went back outside and caught the green 2233 bus to the subway station. Just the fact that I got on a bus and knew where I was going is a small miracle for me in my book. I swiped my new T-money key fob/cell phone charm thing to get through the gate and walked down to the train..just like a Korean would. After getting on the train I sat down and got out my ipod..just like a Korean would. And for a brief second I almost felt like I fit in. For the tiniest of moments I forgot all about being a foreigner and saw myself as just another person on the subway.
Dinner was interesting. I forget the name of what we ate but it's all stuff I've had before. There were so many questions throughout the course of the evening..mostly about me and how I'm adjusting to Korea. This was probably not a great idea but I decided not to do a finger stick test or administer an insulin bolus because I wasn't up for explaining diabetes tonight. It says a lot about a disease when it becomes more daunting to educate people about it than to manage it. The concept of health/wellness/illness is on such a different plane here that I can't even engage it..trying to do so has only frustrated me. I imagine that diabetes is a difficult concept though in any language/culture..how do you tell people "yes I have a serious disease" and "no, I'm not sick" at the same time?
We walked around a little after we ate then decided to call it a night. I waved goodbye while descending the stairs of exit 15, bought some 1,000 KRW earrings in the station, and headed for home..the JHP.

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