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| credit/thanks: Brian Rosenfeld (Ansananswers.com) |
Admit it, I sparked your interest with the title didn't I???
Not Enough? (Divert eyes to the left)
Now I know I've got you.
I promised myself this blog would be both the good and the bad of my year here, so I guess this one is a bit of both..
Halloween Seoul Style
For those dear readers living under a rock, the past weekend was Halloween in Korea (as well as the US.. and everywhere.) Although typically Koreans don't celebrate Halloween, the foreigner population makes up for this by coming out in full force. The wide-spread foreigner euphoria, combined with the propensity of most Native English Teachers to plan Halloween themed lessons and shower their children with candy for a week, is enough to ensure both a week plagued by hoards of children chanting, "Trick-or-Treat" over and over again outside one's office door, and some rockin' Saturday festivities in Seoul. So, after a week of teaching, trick-or-treating, and trying to explain to the 6th graders that I have to save some candy for the 1st and 2nd graders, I spent Friday night catching up on NCIS and cutting out dinosaurs in my bed. Why you may ask? (if you glazed over my spectacular title) After abandoning my dream of creating a "Zeeto" costume (Zeeto is an Alien cartoon that accompanies my 3rd grade books) due to my lack of a hot glue gun, face paint, and giant fabric/craft store, I decided to be Miss Frizzle from the Magic School Bus, learning about dinosaurs. If I had to dig deeper, I'd say this costume is a shout out to my Canadian dearest KQ, an expression of my love for dino's, preparation for my Magic School Buss science themed winter camp, and homage to the teacher I always want to be (the frizz).
After taking it easy Friday night, I hoped on a train/bus to Ansan to get ready with Ali and meet up with some other friends before heading to Seoul. The necessary kimbap and mandu were scarfed, before changing into our costumes and heading up to Whitney and Brian's apartment, during which time more costume pieces were assembled, readjusted and competed, and lost. A hand full of us hung out there for a while before heading to the subway, not having the slightest idea what to expect once stepping out the door. Growing up in the states, and living in Madison for the last 5 years, costumes have become pretty much the regular. I cannot even begin to count the amount of time I have spent cutting ridiculous patterns, ending up covered in fur or feathers, and nearly burning my fingerprints off with hot glue. Such is not the case in Korea, especially as most of the festivities remain condensed in a few areas of the city. Needless to say, we created a bit of a scene walking to the subway. I'm talking large groups of Korean's wanting to take photos of us, take photos of us with their children, taking photos with their cell phones from second story windows, and (I think) generally enjoying our entertainment. These antics continued the entire subway ride, where we happened upon a group of parents and their children, who were simply overjoyed/terrified to see us (most likely due to the fact that we were traveling with a ladybug, Miss Frizzle, a green glittery leprechaun, a sliver glittery wizard, a giant ghostbuster symbol, and a werewolf). Many photos were taken, laughs were had, and one of the kids (in a superman costume/shirt) even gave us some Korean snacks. Now, if I was a parent, I am not so sure I would be encouraging my child to go talk to a bunch of rowdy, costumed, foreigners, on the subway BUT we loved every second of it, so thanks a million SoKo parents.
Throughout the course of the night, we made the rounds through Itaewon and Hongdae, finding friends here and there and loosing some others along the way. Some time was spent in a park in the middle of Hongdae, and a some confusion ensued after everyone we spoke to said they were in the same place, yet no one could tell us how to get there. Although we never found the elusive "Soundaholic," the night was a blast and good times were had by all. Somehow Ali and I managed to loose each other, but I got myself back to her apartment. and all was well in the end. I even woke up on Sunday felling pretty fab.
Little did I know, this was not to last.
Korean Plague vs. Swine'09 / My co-teacher saw half my tushie
For those who didn't experience the joys of Swine Flu, it basically hits you like a ton of bricks. One min your fine... the next .. done-zo. My Sunday night went down kind of like that. As I said, I felt just dandy when I woke up on Sunday, grabbed some food (you guessed it...spicy noodle bowl) and headed back to Pyeongtaek. It is important to note that I was all ready to go home and clean the apt, finish up some last min lesson stuff etc, and that alcohol had literally nothing to do with the onset of this mystery illness. After arriving home, I did actually accomplish the work I needed to for school; so, I decided to make some dinner and get to bed early. All was going according to plan until say... midnight, when I woke up with a raging fever, feeling like acid was eating away at my throat, and my brain was going to explode out my ears. Sounds nice right?
The next 36 hours were spent in and our of sleep, fever raging, totally delirious, cursing the hammering constructions workers, and being generally miserable. Now, when I say delirious. I mean serious business. I am not a frequent reader of bible stories, at least not since Hebrew school graduation; but, I am currently reading The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant, a fictional novel about Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. (Highly recommended, at least to those with ovaries) Again, I am not an expert on biblical literature (in fact, it was the only class I nearly failed in college) but for a large portion of Monday, I was having vivid delusional dreams about biblical family trees. This stream of (un)concisouness ended only after talking to my teacher for the second time and being told she would plan the lessons for the next day. What happened next? Are you ready for this? At this point, I started having delusional dreams about the lessons I am supposed to be teaching this week! I literally couldn't get them out of my head! All these things I needed to do, or bring to school, or remember to make... all of which were completely irrational and fabricated. Maybe that's how I know I am meant to be a teacher. I was also surviving solely on water and a few spoon fulls of rice at this point.. so maybe starvation had something to do with it.
After a confusing and disgusting day and night, during most of which I had trouble telling whether it was 6 am or 6pm, I still felt pretty bad on Tuesday morning BUT I wasn't throwing up anymore, so I decided to try to go to school. I woke up and showered, contemplated calling to say I couldn't come to school, but then thought "Hey, I worked for 2 weeks with Swine Flu. I can do this." and walked out the door. Giving myself ample time to shuffle my feet to school, I arrived about 25 min later, sweating like and dog, my most recent batch of fever breaking as I collapsed into my chair and tried to think about what lessons I was even supposed to be teaching that day. Exactly one minute later, Juha walked into the office, took one look at me and said "Oh, Emily! You need to rest more, you should have called me. You need to rest!" I nearly cried I was so happy (Koreans can usually put this work-a-holic to shame) and set off in search of my pretty pretty princess bed. 8 hours of horrible sleep, breaking fevers, and a monster trying to claw its way of of my throat later, I decided it was time to see a doctor. Now, here is where the party really gets started.
Seeing as I A. don't know where to find a doctor B. don't know how to tell someone what is wrong short of pointing to places and saying "Apayo" (hurt) and C. can't even pretend like I would understand much medical termanology thrown at me in English, let alone Korean, I called Juha at the end of the school day and ask if she could help me. Fast forward 25 minutes. I am sitting in a chair sort of like a dentists the a ENT (ear nose and throat) clinic. A Korean doctor has just introduced himself (he actually speaks decent English) and then asks me about my symptoms. At one point he is asking me a questions I don't understand, so I he writes the English word on a piece of paper. I stare blankly and eventually say, "I'm sorry, I have no idea what this is..." He asks me what my major in college was, and I think figures out that I will not understand medical terms, when I respond, "Art Education." After checking my ears and declaring them normal, doctor tells me to open wide so he can look at my throat. After about one second, his sits back and says "Oh, it is very severe." Then doctor doctor takes out a 4-5 inch skinny camera tube thing, which he informs me he will shove down my throat, so I can see the problem on the screen. Lovely. Also, at this exact moment, doctor decides it is the appropriate time to talk about Midway airport. After showing me the sick nasty white patches on my throat (which I'm pretty sure horrified my co-teacher) this man tells me he will remove the white patches. I'm confused and not quite clear on what sort of method this is, but doctor is sure. He shoves a long swab of something gross and then some sort of sucker contraption further down my throat than I thought possible. I presume this machine was removing said patches, but it's realllllly hard to say. Keep in mind, he is continuing the chatter about Midway, and now Northwestern, that is, until I almost throw up on him.
Ok, sucker down the throat, Check. I think the treatment is over.
No, no, no Emily; how could you be so silly. I forgot, I am in Korea. Before I leave I must be hooked up to an IV of what I am pretty sure was Gatorade and painkillers, be given an antibiotic shot in my hip/tushie, and pick up my prescribed candypackets of pills for the next two days. Literally 30 pills, in a variety of shapes and sizes. (note : this whole experience cost me a whopping 18$ .. what up Korean heath insurance)
I'm not exactly sure what medications or treatment I have been given. Seeing as my medical expertise comes from only two places, House and my father, I'd say there are two options. Number one: if I listen to house, I probably had Sarcoigdosis. I am not sure what that is, but they think the patient has it on nearly every episode. If I take the road of sanity and reality, and listen to my father, I would guess that the shot was the higher does of antibiotics you take the first day in order to kill the majority of the illness. The IV bag was restoring the electrolites I had lost over the last two days, and numbing the pain in my throat and ears, and as for the sucker contraption... suggestions are welcome.
At the end of the day, I may not understand their methods, I may have blindly trusted a Korean doctor who may or may not have visited Chicago, and I may have been dosed up with a dozen kinds of medication; BUT after my trip to the doctor I felt fantastic. A little tired, yes. Hungry, definitely; but, overall I was doing great, had a wonderful night sleep, and was as happy as I have ever been to go back to work in the morning.
The last two days at school have been lovely; although, I must repeatedly assure various teachers, who are living in fear that I will drop dead at any moment, that I am still resting.
That is all for my tales of the Korean heath care system! Hopefully it will be my last note on the subject! For now, I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend, taking it easy and taking it slow.
On a final note, if you all could be so kind as to not relay this post to my dearest Bubbie, I think it would be for the best... for everyone.
안녕히계세요
