I'm sitting in a coffee shop at the end of my work week, and man what a work week it has been! It started off with the end of a fairly good Chuseok holiday which should have left me well rested and prepared for the start of classes, right? Absolutely not. Not only did I wake up late, I ended up meeting my first class in the elevator and walking with them to my classroom. Jane, the head English teacher, had previously told me that she needed time to prepared October's lesson materials, which I took as her saying she'd have them ready on Monday morning. Not the case. She meant, prepare something from the lesson book for the first day back... whoops!
So there I was frantically flipping through the lesson book in front of an expectant group of 6 year olds, fresh off their three-day holiday, presumably rested and ready to start the first day! Did I mention my first two classes are the rowdiest and therefore I hate them like them less than my other classes? Luckily, right after I finished my morning greetings, Jane burst into my classroom and thrust this month's materials into my trembling hands!... (Actually, now that I think about it, she may have quietly called me and Sean aside and divvied up the materials... hmm same difference). I ended up using flashcards for the rest of the day.
The real drama didn't really start until Tuesday evening when I decided I'd had enough of the ants in my apartment. I went straight to my local E-Mart (Kind of like Wal-Mart or Target) and bought cleaning supplies galore. I cleaned all I could for two hours and started laundry as well. Then around 6 PM my sinuses started flaring (a normal occasion for someone who used to need allergy shots every week as a child) so I took a thirty minute break... which turned into an hour break... which turned into a two hour break... which turned into me dumping out my unused cleaning solution and cursing it for my allergies. By 8 PM my minor sinus attack turned into an all-out war on my entire head! The veins near my eye were pumping so furiously I couldn't wear my glasses. So I was blind, in pain, in my bedsucking my thumb in the fetal position not in bed... I wasn't in bed. I finally took some ibuprofen and prayed for either sleep or death... whichever one could come first.
I didn't wake up to the sinus pressure, but I was sneezing and coughing throughout the morning. OBVIOUSLY I had to go in to work and infect as many children as possible! Well, I actually thought that Claritin would do the trick. Be that as it may, I was not in a good mood that day. Upside? I've now instilled fear into my first class. The co-teacher wasn't in the room, so they took it as a sign to act up. I took it as a sign to humiliate each one of them into submission. Turns out they respond to alternating between English and Korean (I think it confuses them or something).
Anyway when I finally got home, I took stronger medicine and tried to sleep. Things took a turn for the worse at around 7 PM. I for some reason could NOT stay warm! I toyed with the idea of turning on the heat, but when I checked the weather, it said it was "fucking nice!" so I decided to look up fever symptoms instead. After wrapping myself in blankets and watching two episodes of 90210 (don't judge me) I started getting hot... really hot. And my body ached. I was sneezing and coughing and I wanted to get up and take medicine, but I knew getting up meant reliving my bad dinner choice (a heavy meat and rice stew at my favorite local restaurant). So I laid there and maybe slept or hallucinated, I don't know. All I know is I thought I was this undiscovered virtuoso on the brink of musical history! I was "writing" lyrics and making beats in my head. I seriously think I was hallucinating because I definitely was not getting any sleep being in that much pain.
At around 1 AM I was finally feeling well enough to get up and take some medicine (at which point I saw about 10-15 ants crowding around my refrigerator... but that's neither here nor there). Next morning I called out of work and slept all day. Then I felt well enough to go to the hospital because clearly western medicine was not cutting it. After a less than stellar experience with the English speaking receptionist (at least no fever!) the doctor looked at me throat and listened to my breathing (which he said was normal) and proscribed me antibiotics and a flu test. I was fine with the drugs, but the fly test was unnecessary I thought, and I told him. He laughed and said no one knows that ('Clearly you don't'), but once I found out how much the flu test was (130,000 won) I flat out refused. I'm not exactly swimming in money at the moment. ('But the children; your school...’, 'They'll be fine, just give me the drugs.')
And they WERE fine! That little worry-wart! Anyway here I am, in Coffee Bene, a little stuffy as I drink my green tea (good for the throat) and write to you all, but definitely better than yesterday. Also, my classes were better than ever today! Turns out my absence made the heart grow fonder... They're still little shits.
So there I was frantically flipping through the lesson book in front of an expectant group of 6 year olds, fresh off their three-day holiday, presumably rested and ready to start the first day! Did I mention my first two classes are the rowdiest and therefore I hate them like them less than my other classes? Luckily, right after I finished my morning greetings, Jane burst into my classroom and thrust this month's materials into my trembling hands!... (Actually, now that I think about it, she may have quietly called me and Sean aside and divvied up the materials... hmm same difference). I ended up using flashcards for the rest of the day.
The real drama didn't really start until Tuesday evening when I decided I'd had enough of the ants in my apartment. I went straight to my local E-Mart (Kind of like Wal-Mart or Target) and bought cleaning supplies galore. I cleaned all I could for two hours and started laundry as well. Then around 6 PM my sinuses started flaring (a normal occasion for someone who used to need allergy shots every week as a child) so I took a thirty minute break... which turned into an hour break... which turned into a two hour break... which turned into me dumping out my unused cleaning solution and cursing it for my allergies. By 8 PM my minor sinus attack turned into an all-out war on my entire head! The veins near my eye were pumping so furiously I couldn't wear my glasses. So I was blind, in pain, in my bed
I didn't wake up to the sinus pressure, but I was sneezing and coughing throughout the morning. OBVIOUSLY I had to go in to work and infect as many children as possible! Well, I actually thought that Claritin would do the trick. Be that as it may, I was not in a good mood that day. Upside? I've now instilled fear into my first class. The co-teacher wasn't in the room, so they took it as a sign to act up. I took it as a sign to humiliate each one of them into submission. Turns out they respond to alternating between English and Korean (I think it confuses them or something).
Anyway when I finally got home, I took stronger medicine and tried to sleep. Things took a turn for the worse at around 7 PM. I for some reason could NOT stay warm! I toyed with the idea of turning on the heat, but when I checked the weather, it said it was "fucking nice!" so I decided to look up fever symptoms instead. After wrapping myself in blankets and watching two episodes of 90210 (don't judge me) I started getting hot... really hot. And my body ached. I was sneezing and coughing and I wanted to get up and take medicine, but I knew getting up meant reliving my bad dinner choice (a heavy meat and rice stew at my favorite local restaurant). So I laid there and maybe slept or hallucinated, I don't know. All I know is I thought I was this undiscovered virtuoso on the brink of musical history! I was "writing" lyrics and making beats in my head. I seriously think I was hallucinating because I definitely was not getting any sleep being in that much pain.
At around 1 AM I was finally feeling well enough to get up and take some medicine (at which point I saw about 10-15 ants crowding around my refrigerator... but that's neither here nor there). Next morning I called out of work and slept all day. Then I felt well enough to go to the hospital because clearly western medicine was not cutting it. After a less than stellar experience with the English speaking receptionist (at least no fever!) the doctor looked at me throat and listened to my breathing (which he said was normal) and proscribed me antibiotics and a flu test. I was fine with the drugs, but the fly test was unnecessary I thought, and I told him. He laughed and said no one knows that ('Clearly you don't'), but once I found out how much the flu test was (130,000 won) I flat out refused. I'm not exactly swimming in money at the moment. ('But the children; your school...’, 'They'll be fine, just give me the drugs.')
And they WERE fine! That little worry-wart! Anyway here I am, in Coffee Bene, a little stuffy as I drink my green tea (good for the throat) and write to you all, but definitely better than yesterday. Also, my classes were better than ever today! Turns out my absence made the heart grow fonder... They're still little shits.
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