medicine

This morning I was back at the local hospital (Asan Hospital) for more blood tests and a another doctor's appointment. The doctor is tapering one of my meds: a steroidal anti-inflammatory (solondo: prednisolone). I started out in July with 4 pills a day. Now I am down to 1 a day. I am still taking several other pills, though: calcium supplement (Health Cal)(2/day), stomach protector (Gaster: famotidine)(2/day), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (Mobic)(2/day), and a muscle relaxant (Exoperin)(3/day). Today he added ANOTHER kind of med; a painkiller. So now I am taking Ultracet three times a day, which is a combination of acetaminophen and tramadol. Now... tramadol is a narcotic-like painkiller. So... I am going off of steroids and onto narcotic-like drugs. Yay for me. I started taking it this afternoon. It made me feel a bit strange, actually. Nausea is one of the common side effects (there is quite a list of them, really). The doctor said that if I get really bad nausea, to taper the drug, or stop taking it. Well, I felt a bit sick a while after taking it, but that went away. I still felt a bit odd, though. After the second dose, the nausea was less than after the first. I guess I shall see how it goes; and see if it makes a difference.
The lab tests and visit with the doctor cost me 31,000 won (C$39/US$33.38). A month's worth meds cost me 55,240 won (C$69.51/US$59.48).
And then it's back to the doctor in another month.
For some reason, many Koreans think it strange that I know what meds I am taking, and what they do. Koreans don't seem to care. They just do what the doctor orders.

lunch

When I am home for lunch, I sometimes make myself sandwiches. My favorite bread here is from Paris Baguette. I am not sure exactly what it is made with; maybe the purple rice that I like, or black beans? I usually have two half sandwiches (once slice folded in half). Todays were:peanut butter and apple jam (an odd texture... slightly grainy, but good taste)
and...peanut butter and pickles. YUMMY!!!

The World's Densest Cities

World's Densest Cities

1. Manila, Philippines
population: 1,581,000;
density: 41,014 persons per square kilometer ...

2. Cairo, Egypt
Population: 15.2 million (official) / 25 million (unofficial)
Density: 36,618 persons per square kilometer
Egypt's capital also happens to be the cultural capital of the Arab world and the largest city in Africa. Its traffic is overwhelming. It has to be seen to be believed. Compounding the ever more horrendous noise is the variety of vehicles: autos, buses, bikes, vans and trucks on narrow streets with the use of the sidewalk almost a must. The traffic rarely stays in lanes, instead weaving its own tapestry. It is an elemental force.
[Not to mention the horses pulling carts and donkeys pulling carts that I kept seeing in the mix of vehicles.]

3. Lagos, Nigeria
Population: 10 million to 15 million
Density: 20,000-plus per square kilometer ...

4. Macau
Population: 508,500
Density: 16,521 persons per square kilometer ...

5. Seoul, South Korea
Population: 10,297,000 (20 million-plus metro area)
Density: 16,391 persons per square kilometer
South Korea's capital has great transportation facilities, but it also has 3 million vehicles plying its streets. The huge subway system moves 8 million a day. But rush hour in the evening is from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Seoul is also South Korea's business center with company headquarters for Samsung, LG Group and Hyundai. It uses on its streets a full range of vehicle fleets: buses and taxis. Driving can be arduous, and citizens have to learn to be Seoul survivors.

6. Dhaka, Bangladesh
Population: 6,724,976 (11 million-plus metro area)
Density: 14,688 persons per square kilometer ...

7. Buenos Aires, Argentina
Population: 2,776,138 (12 million-plus metro area)
Density: 13,680 persons per square kilometer ...

8. Jakarta, Indonesia
Population: 8,792,000
Density: 11,360 persons per square kilometer ...

9. Kaohsiung/Taipei, Taiwan
Population: of 1,510,577
Density: 9,835 persons per square kilometer ...

10. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Population: 2,530,000
Density: 9,516 persons per square kilometer ...

[Forbes]

New Year's Eve part III

Club OI is: "OI: LIVING SCULPTURE LOUNGE CLUB. WATER, ART AND DECOR FOR YOUR IMAGINATION". It was a VERY interesting place to walk into. First of all, when you enter, you have to take off your shoes. They give you a little baggie at the door to put them in so that you can keep them with your things. Going up the stairs, I almost bumped my head, the ceiling was so low. It got better at the top, though. The place is STRANGE, to say the least. It is very hard to explain. Even the bathrooms were odd.You turn on the water on once side (on the left) and the water comes down a half-pipe type thingy from the opposite side. I'm not sure how it happened, but I ended up with a chunk out of my knuckle when I was washing my hands. I slid my knuckle against the bottom of the waterfall/pipe and then there was blood everywhere. I'll live.They weren't very prepared for the number of people that showed up, I think, as they ran out of cups, then they ran out of gin and tonic, then they ran out of rum. When they ran out of cups, they were saying they would only serve beer (bottles) to those that didn't have cups.When I was at the bar, they managed to find a baby cup with little bears on it. :P

The dance floor was lowered a bit... what I assume would be a bit of a water hole.Around the rest of the place were little stream like ruts. Not the best place to be navigating while drunk.Above the dance floor is a huge shower type thingy. The DJ booth beyond that is a bit of an odd looking cage-like thing.Where people sit there are little tables and very comfortable throw pillows around (two levels).
The only thing bad about having no shoes on is when someone drops a bottle... it is not a good thing. They had plastic cups for other drinks, but not for the bottled beer. A bottle was dropped right beside me and a piece of it flew and hit my foot. It didn't cut me or anything... but it did feel sharp. And then, of course, the broken glass had to be cleaned up before dancing could resume.
April and her beau disappeared (went home?) at some point while we were there. The rest of us stayed there for quite a while and then decided we needed a change of scenery... somewhere not so... well... weird. We went to TinPan, a popular dance club in the area. (There is also a TinPanII across the street). It was sooooo crowded. We had a drink there and did a little bit of dancing before a couple of people started getting tired. Time to head home. At least this time I had people to share a cab with!!!!! That NEVER happens! I think I got home around 4 AM or so.Today I found out that one of the groups that was supposed to go skiing cancelled and stayed home. At least one of them fell asleep on the sofa by 10pm.

New Year's Eve part II

Once it was 2007, we toasted the new year with our sparkling wine and we all had a New Year's Kiss, or two, or three...I think Chris got the most kisses. One from each girl... he even had an offer from some random guy that was nearby. :OI'm not sure who's decision it was... but Stacey was giving Amy a New Year's Kiss. They both ran to the nearest bar to get another shot a few minutes before. (Just an innocent kiss on the lips, of course.)Then we passed out the sparklers. Some of the group went home at this point: Ally (Korean) and her husband (Canadian?). Ally is VERY pregnant... due in only 2 weeks!!! We were then ready to move on. We weren't sure where to go at first.We thought we'd check out a nearby hof to see if anything was going on there, but it was dead (very boring... not many people, no dancing). So, we went to Club OI, which had posters up on the street.They were having a New Year's party: "ATTACK OF THE LITTLE GREEN WOMEN". Basically, they had 5 female djs providing the entertainment, as well as a few other shows (2 drum pieces and one live painting). Some people were in costume as aliens or anything space related. One girl (one of the drummers) was Princess Pleia.

New Year's Eve part I

I was having a hard time figuring out what to do for New Year's Eve. The two groups that I would normally go out with were both going skiing (to different locations). I didn't feel like skiing, but didn't want to sit at home. Then, some of one of the groups decided not to go skiing and so we decided to spend the evening in Hongdae.
We started out at an Italian restaurant called Alla Torre. It would be a great place to go in the summer, as they have a huge outdoor area. The food was great, as was the wine. :D

April and her guy
When we finally had our fill, we went out in search of another place to drink. We went to a bar beside the Ice Bar (sorry... I don't remember the name of the place... but they had "Long Ireland Iced Tea" instead of Long Island Iced Tea on the menu). This was also where the urinal planter can be found (see previous post).

A bit of tequila (NOT for me)
We had a few drinks there and waited until it was closer to midnight before heading out to a little park to open up the champagne (actually French sparkling wine bought at the 7-eleven down the street) and count down to the new year.

Clockwise: Ally and her husband, April and her guy, Anthony, a couple of guys that joined the group when we arrived at the park, Amy, Stacey, Chris

A few people around the park were lighting up fireworks and sparklers and flares and such. We were following Chris' I-Pod for time, as it had seconds on it. I think it was a few seconds fast, though, as a group of Koreans nearby looked at us strange when we were counting down, and then cheered a few seconds later. Not a huge deal. Maybe their clock was late!!!

Chris

urinal

What would you do with an unused urinal in a women's bathroom???

in Hongdae

Hongdae is the Hongik University area in Seoul. It is a popular clubbing area for both Koreans and foreigners. Here are some randon pics of businesses around the Hongdae area. (I haven't actually been to any of these places.)a smoothie shopa hof (a sit down bar with a small food menu)the entrance... we were going to go there but decided we wanted something a bit more upbeat... we were feeling the need to danceummm...an eyewear shopHo Bar II. Yes, there is a Ho Bar I... and III, and IV and???Club The Hole

Harisu

A discussion the other night brought Harisu into the light again. One of links that I used in my previous post about Harisu no longer works, so I was looking for more links. She is now engaged and will probably be married sometime early this year. She is a model/actor/singer.

Here is her Temptation video:

If you don't know who Harisu is... well... check out the wikipedia page about her, or her international fan page.

More pictures of Harisu.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone.
Make it a good one!!!
Hopefully this year will be better than the last.
I'm hoping my streak of bad luck (that has lasted about a year now) will not follow through to the new year!!!!