medical mystery of the orient

Today I had my first run- in with Korean medicine. I woke up yesterday morning with a sore throat. Early on, I chalked it up to merely paying my dues for a Saturday night of drinking and singing at the noreabang (karaoke). However, upon checking out the scene in the mirror, I realized that it was in fact the latest visitation by my longstanding, intimate acquaintance: strep throat.

I damned my luck (and my tonsils), knowing full well that I would be expected to teach today (Monday), regardless of my ailment. When people in these parts get sick, they don't stay home. Istead, they go to school or work wearing medical masks. The kids wear masks with cartoons or cute animals on them. I'd equate them to children's band-aids. It's pretty unnerving at first to see people walking down the street in these masks, and I've gotta tell you, it seems that alot of people around here are sick alot of the time. Moving on.

I went to work and had to prepare my classes. My first class of the day is at 3:30. I'd spoken to Sandy-Teacher about my predicament on the way in to work, and his advice was as follows: "If you don't want to go to the doctor today, DO NOT tell Mr. Choi that you're sick. He will take you there immediately, no matter what you say."

(The reason for this is that Mr. Choi treats us teachers like prize-winning racehorses. Considering that he paid to fly us out here and goes though alot of trouble with the whole process of getting teachers, this makes sense. It's also great for us teachers because he always makes sure we're taken care of, like the thoroughbreds we are.)

I did not, in fact, want to go to the doctor today. I had to prepare my classes and just figured I'd tell him about it tommorow, at which point I'd be prepared for classes early. So I waited until 3:00 to tell him that I'd "need to go to the doctor tommorow." I figured I was safe by this time, since my first class is at 3:30. Instead, Mr. Choi responded with, "Come on. We go now." I tried to protest, but he said we'd be back in time. And when the boss says "jump," I get my horse's ass over that bar. So off we went to the medicine man.

I was worried that they would try to give me a shot at the doctor. Apparently, according to the other teachers, they like to shoot you up with amniotic fluid here in response to pretty much any ailment (I don't think there is any scientific basis for this practice, but hey, doctors here also diagnose fan death). You can refuse the shot, but luckily I didn't even have to. Another thing they do here, when you are having sinus problems, is use a machine to suck boogers out of your nose. You know, like that turkey baster your mom used to use when you were a kid, only this one's a machine, like the spit-sucker at the dentist's office. I wanted nothing to do with this, either. Again, it luckily wasn't an issue. The doc took one look at my throat, told Mr. Choi some things in Korean, asked if I was allergic to any medicine, and wrote me a prescription. The boss man paid for the doctor's office and my medicine, which all together came to about $10. (Turns out any kind of healthcare here is unbelievably cheap, thus I rue the day that I bought traveller's insurance.)

At this point, I understood why my 3:30 class wasn't an issue at 3:00. The time it took to walk from the school to the doctor, go to the doctor, and walk back to the school was a whopping ten minutes, and apparently this is par for the course. This is very ironic considering it takes about 15 minutes to get a coffee or a fast food cheeseburger anywhere, and at least 20 minutes to get an ice cream at Baskin Robbins.

So I've been taking whatever pills they gave me (I assume they're antibiotics because they're working, although the doses are quite different), and I'm feeling much better. Mr. Choi gave me green tea all day and expressed his concern to another teacher that "Kelly isn't sleeping enough." What a guy!

With that, I'd better make sure I get enough sleep tonight. I'll post again soon.

Until that day,
Kelly