Shared expectations are important in a doctor/patient relationship. Unfortunately, during many patient encounters in an office setting, we seem to have mismatched ideas of what we are trying to achieve in a 15-20 minute span of time. One thing that many patients are not aware of is even though they are scheduled to be seen at a certain time, that time is limited. If you show up late, you limit the time that we can spend together. If I am running late (not uncommon because the patient before you was late or needed extra time), I can still only give you the time that I have carved out of my daily schedule for one or two issues.

This past weekend was definitely one of the best I've experienced in Korea thus far. My sister and I traveled up to Seoul to meet with one of the Discover Korea meetup groups. The event was rafting and bungee jumping. We were a group of 18 that took a small bus to Inje, which is about three hours northeast of Seoul. We met some great people on this trip whom we plan to meet up with in the near future. On this trip, I met a Dominicana from NYC. Her experiences in Korea have been very similar to mine. Pero bueno, that's a topic for another blog entry otro día. On our way to Inje, we made a pit stop at Chungjung Sculpture Park. It's a park with erotic wood carvings of penises. Quite interesting, especially here in Korea.  

The first adventure of the day, besides our driver's crazy driving skills, was bungee jumping. We arrive and get to see some people jump before us who were doing the body bungee jumping (which I had decided I would do) instead of ankles. As I watched 5 body jumpers and at least one person do the ankle jump, I changed my mind and put myself down as an ankle jumper. My sister then decided to do the same. I was second in line to jump and I felt secure, quite calm for what I was about to do, excited, and surprisingly my hands weren't sweaty nervousness. As a matter of fact, I don't recall feeling nervous until I stepped out onto the platform to jump. The jump is 63 meters from a crane, in other words, 206.7 feet to be exact! On my way up, I took deep breaths, me persigné (which I never do these days!) and told myself I'm just going to jump on three. There's no thinking about it. Just jump!

Of course, that's a lot easier said than done. As I stepped onto the platform, my knees started shaking and it was hard to hold my balance without letting go of the handles. The instructor counted to three and I couldn't jump. I had visualized the water (we were over a river) and told myself it's just like diving. But as I looked down, all I saw were the rocks and the water to my left. That killed my visualization. I had to psyche myself up again. I had to visualize a pool at the bottom. I tried again. The instructor told me to let go of the handles and put my arms out. I did or so I tried. As soon as I put my arms out, I felt I'd lose my balance and I'd fall (I didn't want to just fall off, lol, I wanted to jump) so I held on again. I took a deep breath and again the instructor counted to three. Again, I didn't jump. I stepped back in off the platform, took a few deep breaths, and went back onto the platform. I told the instructor I was ready. This time he didn't even count. I counted and let myself go.

It was a rush of adrenaline and it felt exhilarating. I'm not going to lie, it was scary too. At first, it felt amazing and then I felt the rebound. That didn't feel so great. It wasn't rough, but I had just felt that anxiousness and build-up like when you're heading to the top of a rollercoaster with a high drop, and here I was feeling that again. I felt my body going back up and then down. The third rebound was scary for me. That one made me nervous for some reason. After the third rebound, I started spinning. It doesn't look like much spinning in the video, but it feels like you're spinning fast. I was super dizzy and shaky when they pulled me in. What I hadn't felt was anticipation before jumping, I felt it after the fact. I was super sweaty, I felt a knot in my stomache, and I was shaky. Yet, I also felt elated and in shock with myself. I couldn't believe I had just bungee jumped. It was a GREAT and UNFORGETTABLE experience.

The next adventure of the afternoon was rafting. At this point during the day, it was rainy, but we still had fun. The mist and fog along the river with the mountains in the background was such a breathtaking sight. There weren't many rapids; a rew rough patches here and there. Mostly, it was smooth. Our rafting leader made it fun. He'd rock the raft and at one point he started pushing people overboard.

After our adventurous day, it was time to head to Chuncheon for dinner. The city is known for their Dak Gallbi. It's a Korean chicken dish. The chicken is seasoned and spiced and grilled along with vegetables and rice cakes. It was a gratifying and tasty dish! It was also the first Korean dish my sister has truly enjoyed. She hasn't been fond of Korean cuisine.

After dinner, we were on the road again for Seoul. Two hours later, we arrived. My sister and I began our search for a hostel to stay the night and explore Seoul the next day. Seoul needs a blog entry of its own. I will write about these aventuras otra dia. In the mean time, check out my bunjee jumping video below and have a great Tuesday!

A vaguely familiar name is on my schedule of patients today. After arriving 20 minutes late because she claims she got lost on the way to the office (she’s been coming here for years), I enter the room.

Last week I had my first vacation in almost 6 months. With previous employers, I was able to get a vacation within my first 3 months of working or request a couple of days off to go on a long weekend vacation with my girlfriends. Well, in Korea, I only get a one week vacation in the summer and one week vacation in the winter. I get a few holidays off here and there, but oh how I would appreciate a two week vacation. Nonetheless, I took full advantage of this one week off and headed for Beijing, China.

My sister decided to visit me and meet me in China as the start to her trip to Asia. We arrived late in the evening on a Saturaday. The next day, we went to Panjiayuan Market, which we were told was great on the weekends. Asi que domingo was dedicated to Panjiayuan Market. Of course we had to hit el mercado first before anything else! Jajaja. Bueno we were in for great deals and a shocker of a surprise. I didn't know it before I got there, but I was on the hunt for a beautiful tea set. I went around to a sales people to check out prices y una me dijo 400 yuan and she brought it down to 200 yuan. That's about $30. I was told to bargain down to one fourth of the initial price I'm told because that would be the fair price to pay. I decided to walk away and she grabbed me and wouldn't let go. I had to repeatedly tell her I no longer wanted the tea set and it didn't matter if she lowered the price. I finally was able to get away and soon after I came across another tea set, which I fell in love with and this tea set had two extra cups. Lo consegui y a buen precio tambien along with a tea mug infuser that's really pretty. Final price was 120 yuan.

Bueno the lady selling this tea set, a young woman who spoke English well, moved on to my sister who was looking at a set of beautiful elephants. My sister and I started talking in Spanish and the woman was like, "Oh, español. Varato amiga, varato." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. First, I was amazed by my sister's Spanish. She's never been fully fluent and here she was talking to me fluently in Spanish AND to top it off the Chinese woman was talking to me in SPANISH! My sister didn't like the price she was told and said she wasn't interested so we started to walk away. The woman yelled, "¡Momento!" We turned around stunned at what she just said. She ended up giving us a good price and we got the elephants. Regalos para las tias.

The next market we went to (on a different day just to let you know lol) was the infamous Silk Market. Ahí, one of the sales women called my sister loca. She said, "Amiga, you loca. Crazy" as she made the you are crazy gesture. I guess that's a definite universal gesture that means the same thing across various cultures. My sister was bargaining for a coat and the woman wouldn't budge from 200 yuan. Mi hermanita es lista though. She got her coat for 130 yuan. As we continued to walk, we kept talking in Spanish. We realized we were given lower prices when we talked in Spanish and when asked if we were from Mexico or Spain, we said yes. It was more convenient saying we're Mexicanas then to say we're Spaniard. When we agreed to being Spaniard, we were given prices in Euro. No thank you. As one sales guy said, "Porque eres Mexicana amiga, te lo doy a este precio" as he shows me the number he's punched into the calculator.

I never expected to communicate in Spanish in China with the people at the market. I never expected to run into so many Spaniards either. Everywhere my sister and I went, we bumped into Spaniards. Being able to speak Spanish in China and communicate with natives in our native tongue was a pleasant surprise and a unique experience for us that worked to our advantage.

I will write more about our experience in China tomorrow. I'll talk about the places we visited and our favorites places in Beijing. For now, I'm off to bed. But first, I have to call mi abuela. It's her birthday. Have a great Tuesday, Cafeteros!

How could I have overlooked the topic of coffee addiction? After all, I am reminded of café every time I flip through an issue or check out the website. Thank you Vi-Ro for the suggestion. I assume you are among the thousands, if not more, of junkies that can’t let it go. Since there is no methadone equivalent for caffeine detox, you have to do it on your own – a painful process that can leave one as moody and shaky as a heroin addict needing a fix. Let’s talk a bit about caffeine and its properties. Here is some concise info from the National Institutes of Health: