The Dying Man in my Hands…

(Do not read if you want a happy ending, because there may not be)

 I got a call about a man who may have been suffering from a heart attack at a local hotel. I was right next-door on another call and arrived at the guy’s room within 2 minutes of the call. On my way up, I grabbed the AED Defibrillator from my car and took the elevator up. When I opened the door to the guy’s room, I saw him sitting on the couch. He was barely able to breathe and was unresponsive to my calling out to him, however I could hear him gasping for air. I attempted to check for a pulse but was unable to locate one.  I was looking for the front desk clerk who escorted me up to the room in order to get him to help me move the guy to the ground, but he totally ditched me. I then moved the guy to the ground by myself so I could start rescue breathing and CPR. I was thinking to myself, OMG, I hope I remember how to do this and am I using the breathing mask right, and where the heck is the FD. I’m here all by myself. God help me. I first started rescue breathing and he was still able to gasp for air. I then decided to start pumping his chest. I wasn’t sure if that was working so I opened up my AED and started to look for the instructions and then…The paramedics came and relieved me. They started to work on the guy and asked me to help them with the chest compressions. The guy still wasn’t breathing on his own and had a very weak pulse. This whole time, the selfish part of me said, “I hope he doesn’t die, because I will have to take a report on this.” Yes it was a very inconsiderate thought. After my selfish moment, I started to pray, God have mercy on this man. Spirit breathe life into him. I was expecting a miracle but the man’s days had been numbered. After 10 mins, they transported him to the hospital where he was later declared deceased.

 I came to find out that the man was in town for 8 days on a business trip from Washington/Oregon. On this date, He had told his male co-worker that he was having a heart attack and the co-worker had the front desk call 911. I wonder if the man knew he was going to die that night. I wonder what he was thinking. I wonder if he was thinking about his wife back in Washington, or about his kids. I wonder if he was thinking about his regrets, wishing that he had done things differently, maybe not go on this trip. I can only wonder, but I know that this man died in a hotel room, far away from his loved ones. I can’t imagine what his wife is going through. He died at the age of 52.

 
Through this experience of seeing someone die, pretty much in my hands, I’ve come to realize even more that life is short and I can go at any minute. I was reminded to live my life without regrets. In the end all the petty stuff in this world doesn't matter. As I was lying in bed, I was taking  deep breaths and learned to appreciate each breath as a gift from God.

I'm home. Boooo!

 That sign says all students must bow when approaching teachers.

A girl can be impressed if you start speaking English but an old man will not be so impressed:
My friend and I got yelled at by some senile old man for speaking English. While my friend and I were on the subway speaking English, the old man started starring at us and shaking his head. I was like whatevs! When the old man gets off the subway, he says You should be speaking Korean, you should be ashamed of yourselves....etc. blah, blah, blah. 

I saw a movie called D-War (Korea's 1st Sci-fi flick). Most Koreans said they loved it and it was the greatest movie ever, so good that the Directors gave themselves credit at the end of the movie. However it was the second worst movie I have ever seen. Koreans love it because of their nationalistic PRIDE! They over inflated TIME Magazine's survery of the "Most Influential Person in the World" - Rainn. How in the world is Rainn the most influential person in the worldI? Seriously the movie sucks! The story line and lines are so cheesy. The movie is set to release in the US called Dragon Wars. 

Samuel may have met his dream girl in Korea. While Samuel was riding on the subway, he noticed an awkward looking lady. When another lady with a baby on her back sat down right next to the awkward girl, she looked at a baby a shrieked. I wanted to take a picture but that would have been wrong.  Samuel bought a new tie.

 

There's a fountain with rose pedals in the middle.

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Korea Vacation

Vacation Day 1: The Hustle.

I call this post the hustle, not because I was running all over Korea to try to cram all that I can in 1 week. I call this post the hustle because I almost got serious husttled out of $100 US dollars. So my friend who I'm staying with in Korea warned me about the cab drivers. He told me to make sure that I find a cab that has a meter, so I won't get ripped off. As I exited the airport, a guy comes up to me and ask if I need a cab. I said yes and asked if he had a meter. He said, "no, no one has meter." Then I asked him how much the ride would cost. He said $100. I was assuming that he meant $100 Wons, but at the same time, I had a feeling that I was going to get ripped off by this guy, but since I can be pretty trusting, I said Okay! I was also thinking that it's not that expensive because I just changed US currency to Korean currency and I had about $99,000 Wons in my wallet.  So I gave this guy the address that I had to go to and I got into the van. When I got in, I saw a big meter by the steering wheel, but it still didn't register with me. My gut feeling told me to call my friend Paul and ask him and at the same time the cabbie was insistent on leaving. I got a hold of my friend Paul and he said don't go anywhere, b/c he was at the airport. I then handed the phone to the cabbie to talk to my friend. That's when the cabbie started yelling something in Korean. He sound ticked off. Then I told the cabbie to take me to my friend. We drove around the block and started to look for my friend. I told the cabbie to just drop me off. I then asked the cabbie how much I owed him for the parking charge to leave the airport. He said $20, so I gave him $30 Wons. Little did I know it was only worth 30 cents. I guess he meant $20 US dollars. That's still a rip off!  He said "no, not enough." I told him that I will have my friend pay him. So when I found my friend, he paid. If I got a full ride with the cabbie, he would have ripped me off $100 US dollars for a 30 minute ride. Someone said that the average price that the cabbies would over charge is about $50 US, but this guy saw me coming. If you ever travel to Korea, a fair price for a 30-40 minute ride would be 15,000 Wons, which is equivalent $15 dollars. Seriously, I thank God that I didn't get ripped off. Me off all people who write reports about fraud. No bueno!

The plane ride was ok, but the guy that was sitting next to me was an older gentle who kept bumping my elbow and shoving his arm in the arm rest. I guess I'm supposed to submit to my elders.

I'm still learning a lot about the culture. I just learned that there is an informal caste system here. It's based on factors such as gender, age, university, place of employment, family name, social class etc. I guess if you don't fit into a particular mold, you're not accepted. Saving "face" is also a big deal here. A lot of the beliefs stem from confucionism. This country is very hierarchally structured.

As I'm learning more about the culture and evaluating the society, I'm fighting the urge to be ethnocentric. I sometimes think that somethings are so backwards and things should be done differently. That's a matter of opionion. Who am I to tell a country what to do or how they ought to live?

On a separate note, I met "Samuel's" twin. So I went to visit my friend's school, where he teaches English. He warned me about a teacher who can be very clingy by asking tons of questions and even going so far as getting they're email, telephone numbers, and home addresses. Fortunately he didn't ask me for all of that. He did invade my private space thoough. Sorry that bugs me. I just met this guy and he squated down right next to me. Our elbows were practically touching. Awkward! maybe not according to Korean standards. He happened to be a technology guy. I did not feel comfortable whatsoever, but I wasn't rude about it. I did have small talk with him. Samuel would have been able to relate to him. They would have been talking about Battle Star Gallactica.

I also played a hilarous game with the students who are learning English. So the students had to memorize part of a script from Madagascar and recite it as a group. If one person mis-quotes a line, they would get hit with a metal bakign pan by the teachers and myself. The hit wasn't extremely hard but it would still hurt. So there were 3 groups of 4 people and we literally spent over an hour hitting them over the head with the pan. Ouch that's gotta hurt. I guess it's a Korean game. When I got the pan, it had a bunch of dents in it. It's a really fun game if you're not the receiver.

The food is so good! I had 2 Korean BBQ meals. I'm gonna smell like garlic for several months when I get back.

I'm feeling light headed. Time to go to sleep.