Sick as a dog!

The past couple weeks, I have been sick! And for those of you who know me really well, you know that I rarely ever get sick.  So of course, karma being what it is, I ended up RIDICULOUSY sick!  It started off with what seemed like a sore throat, and then it turned into sore throat + crazy coughing + a mad fever all the time.  So I dealt with this for a few days, until I finally gave in a little bit to my co-teachers constant telling me to go see the doctor, by making a visit to our school nurse.  She took my temperature and told me that I didn’t have a fever, but I’m telling you, it really felt like I did – my forehead and cheeks felt like they had been on fire all week!  Anyway, she gave me some medicine to take – some pills and a little bottle of some liquid medicine – which I of course had no idea what it was or what it was for.  All I had to go off of was my co-teacher telling me that this is what all Koreans take when they get a cold.  Ok, step of blind faith – I tried this medicine.  Amazingly it’s not like our medicine, and doesn’t have a bad taste at all.  In fact, it was actually kind of nice – it tasted smooth and had a hint of spice like cinnamon or cloves, I don’t know, I couldn’t really put my finger on it.  I was really hoping that this medicine would make me feel better because it was a long weekend here in Korea for Buddha’s Birthday, and I had all kinds of things that I wanted to do!  Unfortunately for me, I ended spending most of my time that weekend in bed because I felt so bad!  Every day it felt like I might be getting a little bit better, so I would think to myself, “Excellent! I can go out tomorrow!” But yeah, that didn’t happen.  Which of course irritated me even more because it was warm and sunny outside, and you all know how I feel about being inside on those kind of days!

Then it was back to school on Monday for my grade six class – my first class teaching with my new co-teacher.  That day went pretty well, with only some coughing getting in the way.  The next day, however, was a completely different story!  Tuesday morning, I woke up and I had no voice!! You can probably imagine how I felt – how was I going to teach without a voice?! (*ahem* thanks to certain people for cursing me about that…I still had my tongue, but no voice!) So what happened was, I ended up wandering around the classroom, keeping order, miming, and playing the game with the kids who had no partner.  So it was still actually fun, because normally I wouldn’t get to actually play with them… Wednesday I lucked out with my lack of voice because the students were all writing their midterms and I wouldn’t have had any classes to teach anyway.  Thursday my voice came back!! Just in time to play with my grade 6’s again!  And I did indeed – making them sing and dance for me…muahahaha!  However, even though I got my voice back, I am still far from 100% because after the return of my voice, I ended up not being able to hear out of one ear. Lovely.  The best way I can describe it is like having an earplug permanently stuck in one ear or like when you go on a plane and the pressure messes with your ears, only it won’t pop back to normal.  Irritating.  Anyway, so after this happened, I finally broke down and decided that I should in fact go see a doctor.  So, my co-teacher found out about the nearest hospital for me (because in Korea when you go see a doctor, you go to the hospital not a doctor’s office) and phoned them to let them know I was coming.  Also, apparently this hospital is only open until 5pm (weird!) so I had to take the afternoon off of work to go there.  But first, I had to go discuss a lesson plan with a co-teacher, who told me when were done that it was good I’m going to the doctor, and that I looked really tired and should get some rest.  How nice.  Too bad I HATE being told I look tired!! (It’s a pet peeve, what can I say?)

So I left school, and went in search for a taxi to take me to a hospital.  Oddly enough, the streets were really quiet that afternoon, and it was crazy hot (not that that’s relevant, but I just thought I’d throw it in there).  So I headed down towards LotteMart (a big department/grocery store) where I know there are ALWAYS multiple taxis lined up, and sure enough, there were.

Once I got to the hospital, everything went super fast.  I stood in line to get myself checked into their system, then they had a guide take me to my doctor, who by the way, wasn’t just a regular doctor, he was a ‘ears, nose and throat specialist’. So he sits me in a chair, reads the Korean that my co-teacher wrote about my problem, and then asks me which ear I can’t hear out of.  So I tell him, and he takes a look.  Next thing I know, he’s got this tool thing and is blowing air or something into my nose.  Umm….so sudden! I was really surprised about it – there was no warning – he just did it!  I get the feeling that he was trying to see if he could get it to pop, but I don’t really know. Next, he asked a few questions in mostly Korean, with a few words of English and started explaining things in Korean.  Too bad, my level of Korean isn’t that good.  So I just stare at him blankly.  In the end, he just gave me a piece of paper, which I took back to the front desk with the guide, who had very kindly stayed to wait for me.  At the front desk, I paid my 7800 won for the visit and then was told to go to the pharmacy which was down the street, but of course I had no idea what a Korean pharmacy even looks like, so my guide very nicely took me there too!  Once I got there, I was given 3 different kinds of medicine which I have to take twice a day for the next week. And they’re all individually packaged with one of each medicine in a little vacuum sealed package, so I don’t have to read any instructions or anything like that, which is wonderful!  And this only cost me 4200 won.  So a trip to see the doctor plus getting medicine cost me about $12 and took less than 20 minutes.  Pretty sure it wouldn’t have been that fast or cheap back home! The only thing is, once again, I have no idea what I’m taking or what I’m taking it for.  I have been getting the feeling that you need a lot of blind faith that things won’t kill you when you’re in Korea.  Just like the food.  Lots of times, no idea what I’m putting into my mouth.  Sometimes I think it’s better if I don’t ask though. ;)  So hopefully this medicine will fix up my hearing, and then I can be back on my merry way.