The Plan

Well, now that I'm back from vacation, completely packed up, finished with summer school, and just chilling at my desk, I have time to update this thing and unveil the new plan: India--Pakistan--India--Sri Lanka--Thailand (Maybe?)--Australia.

Yes, that's right, I'm going to Pakistan. I can't wait! What an adventure that will be! Save your tears and whining about me going there though. I am fully aware of the situation in Pakistan and am not worried at all. Pakistan is actually a relatively safe place to travel with very hospitable people. I'm really not concerned. The Taliban conflict areas are no where near where I'm going and I don't think the presidential stuff will get too out of hand. Instead of everyone wanting the job, it seems like no one wants the job!

In other news, I've decided not to commit to a school in Australia just yet. The credit problems in the US are making it impossible to get loans for the school I want so I'm just going to wait until maybe July next year for enrollment. I did find a different school in Sydney with a significantly better financial situation but their program doesn't offer everything I want/need from a grad school. My plan is to just show up in Sydney on a work holiday visa, get a job, check out some schools, meet profs and scope the media scene before applying or making a decision. I think that's the best thing I could do.

As for vacation, it was pretty boring. I poked around in Seoul a bit but it was raining pretty hard, I did a little shopping, watched the Olympics at Seoul Plaza downtown, watched a lot of movies and TV, helped Jeremy pack, and went out a couple nights to the movies. We saw X Files and Batman: The Dark Knight. Oooh, the batman was REALLY good! By far the BEST batman yet!

I just finished cleaning and packing up my apartment yesterday. I shipped three boxes of stuff to Jeremy's parent's in Australia which came to a surprising amount: $125.00! Amazing! I love Korea. Everything is so cheap.

And by the way, thinking of cheap, I need to say that for all of you who are skeptical of socialized health care, you should really look at the Korean model. Yesterday I went to the dermatologist without appointment. I walked in, handed them my health card and in less than a minute later I was in the doctor's office. Less than two minutes after that, I was paying $2.50 at the counter with my new prescription in hand. The whole visit was literally less than 5 minutes long. Then I walked downstairs to the pharmacy, handed them my prescription, waited a minute, paid $1.40 for my medicine, and left. From the time I entered the doctor's office to the time I left the pharmacy with my prescription, about 8 minutes had passed.

NO ONE goes without health care here. And another cool thing: government employees (that includes teachers) all get a free physical each year--and it's not your basic physical! It includes a dental exam, a full body x-ray scan, blood work, urology work, for women a pap and mammogram, and the normal nose-ear-lungs check. You can't get even the basic nose-ear-lung check in the US without a co-payment--regardless of who your insurer is! In the states, blood and urology work are extra for physicals and you can forget x-rays! But here, it's cheap. And if you're not a government employee, don't worry. Your basic health care still makes everything cheap. For example, a mammogram is about $25. Mole removal: $7.00.

And the best thing about socialized health care is that there are no pre-exsisting condition limitations. I recently read that a lot of pregnant women are now opting not to have their babies tested for disorders like Down Syndrome because many insurance companies are now calling that a pre-existing condition. You know what that means: insurance companies are encouraging abortion. And if you don't abort or don't test? The insurance companies still hurt you. Most insurance companies will retract coverage for children with Autism around the age of 7 as most parents have reached their maximum insurance coverage with the cost of therapy and medical treatments.

Our system will not fix itself. As long as medical care operates in a free-market, people and conditions will always be reduced to dollar signs.

Tthus ends my rant. I just had to get that out. I guess I've had too much solitary time at my desk today... :)

Anyway, back to planning my trip! Hope you are all doing well. More updates and photos to come. Until then, if you would like to view my new photo collection on Flickr, the address is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kortneythoma/.