More healthy hospital food!

                                         

This was my healthy hospital food after the two days of fasting and liquid diet. Some was tasty but my appetite was low post-surgery. All of this was super healthy, though. 

Shout out to the hospital cooks and nutrition system.

Racism in S Korea FINALLY worked in my favor...

                                                                         

                                            

Soooo... racism in South Korea finally worked in my favor.

I recently had necessary surgery at a hospital here, and when it came time to pick a recovery room, I was staring down a very interesting pricing menu:

• Solo room: $450 a night (only for a five star hotel, thank you)
• Double room: $130 a night
• Five-person room: $10 a night

Now, if you’ve spent any time in South Korea, you know the local customs regarding personal space. On buses and subways, people would rather stand through an earthquake than sit in the empty seat next to a foreigner. This is also a place where "White Only" and "No Africans" still casually pop up in job postings, largely because anti-discrimination laws are still missing from the legal books.

Going into surgery is stressful enough without feeling like the main attraction at a zoo. I really didn't want to spend my recovery dodging stares, listening to four other patients gossip about my hair, skin, hospital gown, or staging a strategic operation just to use the bathroom in peace. 

So, I decided to treat myself to the $130 double room to salvage at least a shred of human dignity.

And that is when the universe—and a little bit of systemic bias—blessed me.

At first, the nurses accidentally wheeled me into an occupied double room. The moment they realized their mistake, I was promptly escorted out and placed into a completely empty room. With a window! Wooohoooo!

Best of all, the second bed stayed gloriously empty for all four nights of my stay. I got the $450 VIP solo suite experience on a $130 budget. I got to recover from one of the most stressful things a body can endure in total, uninterrupted privacy.

So, thank you, Korean racism! You finally paid off.                                       

Snacks and Saline: My First IV-Pole Convenience Store Run in South Korea

                                              

If you’ve ever been hospitalized back home, you probably associate it with strict rules and having to beg a nurse just to shuffle down the hallway. South Korea, however, treats hospital stays a lot more like a casual staycation with aggressive hydration.

Here, the number one rule for inpatients is simple: keep your phone on you. As long as the nurses can call you back for vitals or meds, you’re basically on a very loose leash. Patients are free to roam the hospital grounds and even wander into the surrounding neighborhood.

Before today, my favorite example of this freedom was walking past the hospital entrance and seeing patients in matching pajamas casually chain-smoking while hooked up to their IV poles. Watching someone balance a life-saving saline drip in one hand and a cigarette in the other is the ultimate "health is all about balance" vibe. 

I used to walk by, chuckle, and think, Only in Korea.

Well, today I officially graduated from observer to participant. Hospital food technically keeps you alive, but eventually, the siren song of real snacks becomes impossible to ignore. So, with my phone in my pocket and my squeaky metal IV stand by my side, I staged a slow jailbreak to the local convenience store.

Nothing screams "peak wellness" quite like navigating an elevator trip with a bag of fluids dangling over your head like a medical balloon. Inside the store, I had to master the one-handed snack grab while parallel-parking my IV pole away from the instant ramen.

The best part? Nobody even blinked. The cashier scanned my items with total indifference, as if rolling medical equipment through the beverage aisle is just a normal Tuesday. I made it back to my room before my phone even buzzed, triumphantly clutching my contraband haul. Landing in the hospital is never fun, but at least in South Korea, nothing stands between you and a cold bottle of banana milk.

Sunset from my solo hospital room

 

Post surgery ~ recovery Nov 2026