I am simultaneously proud of having donated blood and embarrassed at having donated so seldom.

There were hassles in donating blood in Korea but today I saw the nurses had translated questionnaires for English speakers.  The translation seemed to be of a previous form and the question numbers didn’t match but the important questions could be matched.

for donating my blood, the nurses offered me a variety of gifts: I chose a 5,000 won (about $5.00 Can) gift certificate to be used for ‘culture-related purchases’ – bookstores.

The donation exhausted me.  Well, laying there and letting my blood pour out was fine, but I was a tired and weak teacher for the rest of the day.  As a university student, twenty-five years ago, I would donate blood and then train for competitive swimming in the afternoon .  Now, I took it easy and had a nap in the teacher’s lounge.

This evening, I took off the bandage and exposed my tender inner-elbow.  The yellow is from iodine and I found the sterile precautions were well-done: disposable needles and such were used and discarded safely.

If you want to give blood and can’t find a blood-bus, you could go to the donation centre in Hadan.  Photo from Hadan Subway Station.

Previous posts on blood donation: One, Two.