Nineteen bucks

Nineteen bucks: That's the combined cost of a recent trip to a doctor and pharmacy here in Korea.  And I don't even have insurance.  I mean, it wasn't a pleasant experience:  I was poked, swabbed, sprayed and had things shoved up my nose and in my ears with reckless urgency.  In the end, though, it was quicker, cheaper and more efficient than any trip I've taken to an American doctor.  I just walked in, waited less than 20 minutes and was with the doctor for about 10 minutes.  He even spoke English to make it all easier for me.

Regarding other things related to nineteen bucks, I have been baffled by the trash system here in Korea since I first moved into my apartment: I couldn't figure out when or how to put out my trash for pick up.  (Oh the "little" things you take for granted living in country where you speak the language!)   I finally figured out, by utter accident, that you have to buy special trash bags in order to put out your trash.  A group of 40 trash bags -- each around the size of a regular Walmart bag -- costs around nineteen bucks, the same as a trip to the doctor.  And, when you check out at the store, they don't automatically give you a bag unless you have enough things to warrant one, and even then you have to pay around fifty cents per bag.  So the more trash you create, the more you pay.  I like that idea.  Especially since it seems to work wonderfully.  Every Tuesday the city provides bins and sacks in which you can deposit items to be recylced.  People bring everything you could imagine down to recycle so that they don't have to stuff it into one of those tiny sacks.  I've seen everything from broken plastic toys to rusty shovels.  You wouldn't believe how deftly these people can fill every air pocket of a trash sack; they've created a new genre of artistic talent.  (See photo above.)  You also wouldn't believe how this system has created a culture of people for whom recycling and conservation is second nature and nothing close to a burden.

tags: korea  travel