Posts from Ruth's stay in Korea and our jaunt to Japan are on the way. I promise. I was actually doing school stuff at school yesterday and today, so maybe this weekend will afford me some time to chronicle the glory of the last three weeks. Also, please excuse my seventh grade style self portraits, and my gross attempts at artsy photographs to show off my new nerd glasses. I'm just so jazzed about them and want to share how they came to be.
Let me preface this with a little self-disclosure. My eyes are bad news bears - like Coke bottle lenses style. So, wearing my real glasses in public is much like wearing a monocle. On both eyes. Not attractive. Also, I haven't had an eye exam in a year and a half.
Desiree wanted some new glasses and I had heard tell of how cheap they are here, so I decided that I would check into some too. So, Desiree and I had grand plans to venture to Seoul to a market where Dionne and Scott always get new glasses for real cheap. Like, blow your mind America cheap. As we were running a few errands before getting on the bus yesterday, we ran into Mario, one of the head teachers at the high school. We told him our plans and he told us about a shop that one of his former students owns. "I'll call and tell her to give the two beauties about to come to her shop a big discount," he said. That sounded much better than going all the way to Seoul for new glasses, so we took him up on his offer. He had some time to kill, so he decided to walk us there himself. Desiree and I got right to work trying on new frames and both quickly found exactly what we wanted.
Once we had picked out our respective frames, we each sat through an eye exam, right there in the store. Awesome. Upon removing my contacts, the woman in the store informed me that I would be taking two exams - one with contacts and one without. Oh boy. The exam was real slick - all computerized and very similar to what I'm used to at the Mt. Vernon Eye Clinic with small differences and heightened technology... So, first I did the standard reading numbers, only vertically instead of horizontally. At one point in my non-contacts exam, I saw a white box, but literally could not see any numbers (or black figures of any kind). I told Mario this, he translated to the woman and she sat back, stunned. I was more than she bargained for. On top of that, the box was fuzzy and glowing to me - like 3D style. I also shared this with Mario, who then shook my chair and asked if that made it a 4D experience. He also asked if I was a superhero. What a circus we brought to that store!
Anyway, after several other kinds of tests, many of which I horribly failed (like, there was a definite correct answer, and I kept saying the definite wrong one), two pairs of test glasses (the first with so many combinations of lenses that I felt seven feet tall wearing them) and lots of laughing, Desiree and I paid for our glasses and made arrangements to come back the next day (!!) to pick up our new glasses. How much did they cost, you ask? Brace yourself, American readers. My new glasses (including frames and two exams) cost me a little less than $60! How is that even possible?
Here's the catch - my eyes are so terrible that my new glasses are reading glasses. To wear with my contacts. Can you say old lady at 24? Today, while telling these stories to Ruth, one of the co-teachers at school, I made the decision to have LASAK eye surgery at my next possible convenience. This bad eyes thing is for the birds.
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