happy may day

four months to go! i know that sounds pessimistic, but i know it's going to fly by just as quickly as the last eight have. today was labour day in korea, as it was in many countries around the world. being canadian, i have always celebrated labour day on the first monday in september and until today didn't know that it's may 1st in almost every other country in the world (barring the US). however, since i am not a "labourer" i didn't get the day off. that was the weird part for me, since in canada it's a day for everyone, not just "labourers". oh well... it was a pretty chill day anyway...

the students are all taking their mid-term exams so there isn't anything for me to do. which is nice because it meant that i spent the morning sleeping in the "rest room" at school and then was allowed to leave at lunch time. so i guess i got my labour day after all! it's just so weird that i still have to go in, even if i spend the whole time sleeping. why not just let me do that at home? anyway, tomorrow will be the same as today (and yesterday) except that i have to teach one class in the afternoon - at work from 8:30 to 4:30 and my only class is from 2:35 to 3:20! ridiculous. anway, like i said only four months and of those, i only have 12 weeks of actual teaching left... it'll fly by.

i went back to the doctor today since i haven't really been getting any better. he gave me 5 days of antibiotics. this is probably why i keep getting more sick, he only wanted to give three days and i told him it wsan't enough - i've pobably developed some kind of antibiotic resistance... who knows if i even need the stupid pills. i think it's all just allergies gone crazy and now that i've gotten some flonase and an inhaler that i'll be better in no time. i hope so anyway, i'm really sick of being sick!

that's my update. there hasn't been anything particularly interesting to write about of late, so sorry if this is kind of boring... promise loads of good reading after my trip to japan this week! so stay tuned!!!

the trip you don't want to make...

one of my stitches has been consumed by my skin... that might be a problem when they take it out. stupid doctor.

i guess i still haven't actually written about the hospital... according to one of my students korean hospitals are either "really good" or "really bad". i guess i ended up in one of the latter. oh well, lesson learned, right? but really, when it's a emergency do you have choice?

the hospital was kind of dark inside when we got there. it wasn't even 7 PM so i'm not sure why it was so dark... the lights may have been turned off or simply insufficient, i'm not sure. i walked up to the counter and there was a young man. he didn't speak any english, so it's a good thing i had the korean man with me... even though he didn't speak english either. at least they could communicate together and the korean man knew what was wrong with me, so he explained. they wanted my passport, which i didn't think to bring, but he was relieved when i handed him my health card. (which isn't really a card, but a peice of paper).

they brought me around a corner, down a short hallway, and through some doors into the "emergency" area. a couple of nurses were standing behind a counter. i showed them my hand and made a stabbing gesture. one of them came from behind the counter and pulled me toward a gurny. "sit down" at least there was some english. the gurny was covered in that brown fake leather that so many couches are upholstered with. no sheet. no giant roll of paper. nothing. just the brown fake leather that has probably seen thousands of other patients. ew.

i sat holding my hand and looking at the floor. it had spots and splotches of dried blood all over the area that i was in. ew. i couldn't beleive it. but i knew at that moment that i wasn't "in kansas" anymore... and that i had to watch carefully to make sure the proper hygenic precautions would be taken with me. the nurse came over and took my blood pressure, making sure to ask me "mensa?" what has my period got to do with anything? but she wanted to know when i had last had it. i told her.

a couple of minutes later a man came over to me, i'm not sure if he was a doctor, nurse or orderly, but he grabbed my hand, opened the wound (which by this point had stopped bleeding) and walked away. a nurse came over and started putting all kinds of things on various trays. she looked at me and told me to lie down. i started to, but she pointed at my feet and said "shoes". (what IS it with the shoes???) so i took them off and laid back but still watched her to make sure the utensils, needles, etc... were coming out of sterile packs. they were. thank god!

a few minutes later another man - the doctor i assume since he stitched me up - came over. he didn't even look at me, let alone say anything to me. he grabbed my hand. i looked away. the next thing i knew i was experiencing more pain than i had when i stabbed myself. he was anesthetizing my hand to give me the stitches, but it felt (again, i wasn't looking - not good with stuff like that) like he had jabbed the needle straight into the wound. it must have sounded like every emergency room horror story, because i was screaming like freddy kruger was after me. i've heard people scream in situations like that, but never imagined i'd be one of them. it hurt. a lot. anyway, finally, or thankfully, my hand went numb, and he started stitching me up. he didn't ask first if it was frozen, just started stitching. i guess he didn't care either way, or maybe he knew.

i could feel the stitches going in because they were pulling on my hand. it kept moving involuntarily and the doctor was getting visibly aggravated by it, but still said nothing. a few minutes later it was over and he just walked away, never speaking a single word, or looking me in the face. way to make a foreigner feel better in a bad situation. the nurse told me to make sure and not get it wet for TWO weeks. "what?" i said. i didn't beleive her and i know it's total crap, but i made sure there wasn't a communication problem and counted out fourteen days on my fingers. she nodded. what a load of bull. then i was alone on the fake leather gurney.

no one told me to stay or what to do, so i got up to look for the korean who drove me. i couldn't find him. i didn't know what to do. was i supposed to pay? there was a sign that said "cashier" but no one had given me a bill. i wandered around the reception for a bit wondering what i should do. the nurse came up to me and gave me some papers, one of which was the bill, the other a prescription for i-didn't-know-what. (painkillers) i paid the bill without hassle, and looked around again for the korean who drove me. i didn't think it was possible that he would just leave without me, but his car was gone.

i walked out the back door and into the pharmacy across the street. the korean man found me there... he hadn't left after all. i filled the prescription, picked up some gauze, and then the korena man drove me home. i finally ate my dinner - it was half cooked when everything started - and the rest as they say...

the thing that bothered me the most was not the blood on the floor, or the pain of the needle, but that the doctor didn't even look at me. fine, if you don't speak english, but everyone (in my experience) can at least say hello. every other doctor i've seen since in korea has had some grasp of english... you'd think that a person in medicine would have picked up a little somewhere... so i can't imagine that he didn't look at me because he was shy of his english, so then what was it? bad bedside manner? a hate-on for foreigners? i don't know... either way, it made the experience a lot worse than it had to be... now i have the fun task of finding a way to get the bloody things out of me! and with one of them grown over, that is sure to be another exciting tale.

drama...drama...drama...

no, i'm not leaving teaching for acting... there was a little drama here this evening.

i was making dinner - a yummy "mexican" stir-fry (chicken, peppers, onion, cilantro, lemon juice, pepper). i was going to put it on one of my three tortillas that i still have in my freezer with some salsa and avocado. mmmm.... yummy, right? of course!

everything was done and i was prepping the avocado. 1. cut in half. 2. remove pit. this is where the drama comes in... you know how to remove the pit? stick a knife in it and pull it out of the half that it's stuck in, right? that's how i was taught anyway. so the problem was when the knife went straight through the avocado instead of into the pit... what was on the other side of the avocado? that's right, my hand.

i saw it happen before i felt it. it actually took a couple of seconds to hit me. i'm not a squeamish person and i tend to remain quite calm during emergency situations; this was no exception. i quickly put my hand under running water and applied pressure. a few seconds later i peeked at it. i knew right away that i would need stitches. the knife didn't just cut me, it stabbed me and it looked really deep... so i grabbed a massive wad of paper towel and held it there. i figured if the bleeding stopped within 5 minutes that it might be ok. well, it wasn't.

i grabbed my purse and left thhe house. thank god the realtor for the building was in the hallway. he doesn't speak english at all but i justt kept saying doctor and pointing at the bloody paper towel. he got his car and drove me to the hospital - a place i do not recommend visiting for ant kind of major surgery (more on that when i'm not typing with one hand). thank god he was there though, i don't know what i would have done if he weren't.

anyway, i've got i don't know how many stitches, since i didn't look and now my hand looks like this:

i have to change the dressing tomorrow, and i got some pills... not sure what they are so will ask at school before i take them... anyway... just my luck, isn't it? finally getting over whatever has been plaguing me for the last three weeks, and the laryngitis, and now, this. wish me luck taking a shower and doing the dishes... the nurse said no water can touch it for two weeks... i think that's a load of bull though... but won't be easy for at least a couple of days... here's to a healthier life! ha!

korea in bloom... and a laryngoscopy

as promised yesterday i took some pictures on my way to school this morning of the cherry blossom trees (i think that's what they are) that i walk by every day... they didn't look like this two days ago... i'm sure of it! and the photos don't really do them justice. i'll try to get out this afternoon or this weekend and get some better shots.

it kind of reminds me of the trees covered in ice in winter... but it's not cold out!!!

a close-up in one of the trees

this one branch caught my eye... the tree itself looks like it's waiting for death, but this one branch just won't give up! beautiful!

Now on to more gross things. as you may or may not know, i've been sick off and on for the last two weeks (or more). for the last week my throat has been particularly sore, but just thought it was the yellow sand of china irritating it. this morning, however, i woke up at about 5am with the sorest throat i've had in ages and i could feel that it was swollen - much like in fall when i had tonsillitis. so, i figured i should go to the doctor. a friend of mine here has tonsillitis, which is highly contagious, and i thought i'd caught it from him.

i walked to school as usual, figuring i could do the two classes no problem, i'd just have to talk really quietly. when i got to class the kids in the back couldn't hear me so my co-teacher took over. the second class i spent resting in the "resting room"... the other co-teacher i work with told me not to bother coming to class that she could take care of everything.

so after school was over (thank god for the science thing that let me out early today) i walked to the ear-nose-throat guy i saw last fall. he speaks better english than any other doctor i've been to here and he's a specialist in what is wrong with me.

i didn't have to wait more than two minutes, (what a difference from canada) before being shown into the office. he looked down my throat with a light and told me that my pharynx looked fine, as did my tonsils. he wanted to get a good look at my larynx (deep down in your throat - it's your voicebox). so i had to lean forward, stick out my tongue and breathe through my mouth. he tried to stick this long pole with a light and camera on the end down my throat... i gagged. he stopped and tried again. i gagged. then he suggested spraying a local anasthetic to relax my throat. i said try one more time... so he did, and i gagged.

finally he sprayed my throat - which was actually really nice cause it lessened the pain - with anasthetic and i waited a bout five minutes. we went through the same procedure as before and he managed to get it down there. then he told me to make a high pitched squeel, well i tried, but all i could do was kind of groan! finally i gagged again and he stopped saying he'd gotten enough pictures to make a diagnosis.

he was really great. he showed me pictures of a healthy throat, a slightly infected throat, a really infected throat, and then the ones of me. this was really cool, cause how often do you get to see inside your own body? anyway, i could tell the second he pulled mine up that it was pretty bad - see for yourself:

see the dark red? that's supposed to be really light pink.

see the two sort of balls deep down there? those are the mucous membranes of my voicebox, you aren't really supposed to see them... they're totally inflamed. anyway, that's a little gross eh? sorry for the squeamish out there!

so, i have laryngitis. i'm not allowed to talk (or supposed to talk as little as possible) i have pills up the wazoo to take after every meal for the next three days... i don't feel sick really except that my throat hurts. i mean, i'm not excessively tired or achey, or anything else... so this really sucks! and of course, it's right in time for the weekend! what's a girl to do? anyway, hopefully it'll start feeling better and it won't ruin my weekend too much. guess i should carry a pen and notepad around with me!

sorry

i've been neglecting this blog for the last couple of days. not because i've been so busy doing interesting things, but quite the opposite. i haven't been feeling well since last week (see previous post) and i just had no energy all weekend and a low grade head ache until this morning. no amount of advil liqui-gel migraine (from canada) would make it go away. i'm still not feeling great. last night i couldn't sleep because because i was having trouble breathing and my chest was pounding... i got to school this morning and it was no better so Jo brought me to the doctor who said that my chest sounded fine... my heart was normal, and my blood pressure ok. he was under the impression that i was having a panic attack or something. they wanted to give me some kind of IV drip, buut i said no. i don't like needles because i have really small veins and they always miss and it hurts like hell. they talked me into taking an injection of something they called a "stabilizer" ... whatever the hell that is (i think it was a tranquilizer of some kind), anyway, she missed my vein the first try, then she tried on my wrist, which was worse and she finally got it in at my elbow. within seconds i was out like a light. dead asleep. i slept at the doctors for like an hour then woke up and felt not myself at all... i was floating... anyway, they only let me leave when they made sure i wasn't driving. i took the bus home and passed out again for another two hours. my wrist has a huge bump and a bruise where she tried to inject me and my arm doesn't look much better... i'm still tired (it's almost 6pm now) and my chest is kind of sore, but i'm feeling better than i did this morning. hopefully a good nights' sleep tonight will make everything better... trying to stay positive...

in happier news i did have one benefit from staying home on saturday night - i got to spend the night on the phone (skype) with ranya. we're planning our trip to thailand. we've both found flights that we can afford and that arrive/depart at almost the same time. i'm really excited. we're starting to plan our itinerary, though we're going to make a loose one full of things we want to do and then we're going to play it by ear... more on that when i have it...

woe... is me

what will it take? i am here working for the ministry of education of south korea... they plan on having a native english speaker in every public school by (i think) 2010... that's in three years... i wish them luck with their deadline. there are so many things wrong with the system and the way they treat foreigners within it... that i can't see that many people wanting to come - especially if they read about experiences like mine... (i do what i can to get the word out).

once again, i have not been paid on time. my contract stipulates that i am to be paid on the 25th of the month. if the 25th falls on a weekend or a holiday i am to be paid on the preceeding friday - this month, that would be today. but of course, the shortfalls of the gimhae office of education have screwed me over, again, - and on christmas weekend. they don't seem to understand that this is unacceptable.

i went to the bank at 3:30 to take out my money to bring it to a different bank to transfer to my canadian account. i do this every payday. my bank won't do the transfer, so i have to carry over a thousand dollars in my purse two blocks to a bank that will... but when i tried to take it out, it wasn't there.

i called my co-teacher immediately. it took me about half an hour to get hold of him. i told him he had to call the office of education to find out why i wasn't paid yet, he said he'd call me back. when he called back he said that the person in charge of accounting wasn't available, but the other people there said that i would be paid on tuesday!!! i tried to explain to him this was unacceptable - especially this being a long weekend and Christmas, that i had friends coming to visit and my contract says... blah blah blah... that's what i should have said for all the good it did. he gave me the number for the office and told me to call them. well, no one there speaks english, so a load of good that does me.

i just don't know what to do at this point. i mean, i'm okay, money wise, i can always use my canadian accounts - but that's the reason i'm here, to pay off my visa and line of credit - not to use them! i will have to make some kind of official complaint.

so a very merry christmas... hopefully the weekend won't be completely destroyed because of this, it just makes things more difficult... and that is the bigger problem. the people who run this program need to make adjusting to life here as simple and easy as possible, and they don't. point finale.

i also went back to the doctor today because of this cough that won't go away and was told (of all things!!!) that i'm allergic to, get this... the weather. "it's very cold outside" said the doctor. "i'm from CANADA" was my reply... "it's much colder there." but he insisted... and the korean teacher that came with me wasn't able to translate any better than that. so i got another shot and pills for three more days that will hopefully do something... maybe i should go to a traditional doctor for some acupuncture...i'm thinking about it anyway...

so, woe is me... everywhere i go, and everything i do, turns to crap... bad luck? bad karma? maybe that means i have something really great coming my way... trying to stay positive, signing off...

to the doctor...

today, for the second time since my arrival in korea i went to the doctor. this time was quite different than the first.

mrs. Che, one of the english teachers at my school, brought me this time (i guess jay didn't want to have to deal with it). we went to dr choi... the place i went last time, but were told that he would only be in around 10:30 - an hour and a half away. so we went down the street to dr jeong's ENT clinic (ear, nose, throat).

after waiting about ten minutes i was brought into his office where i was sat in a chair surrounded by medical equipment. it almost felt like going to the dentist, except the chair didn't recline. he put on a head lamp - made him look like he should be 200 feet down a mine shaft, not in a doctors office...

he looked at my throat, which he said didn't look so bad - "gamgi" he said, which means "cold" - as if i had to be told that! anyway, then he put this metal tong-like utensil up my left nostril and spread it, to get a better look up my nose. then his assistant sprayed some air, then some liquid, then some more air... all while he was looking up my nose. it was the strangest thing i've ever experienced at the doctors. then they did the same to my right nostril.

then the korean banter started and i have no idea what was said after that... i guess he was just telling her that i was sick and needed a shot - something you always get when you go to the doctor. a lot of people think it's just some kind of placebo to make the patient feel like something is being done, and i'm starting to believe it. when you ask what it is for, no one ever seems to be able to give me a straight answer... but i got it anyway, IF it does do something, then i want it... after the way i've been feeling for the past five days, i'll try anything, and hey, maybe the koreans know something about the common cold that they haven't shared with the rest of us!?!

so after my diagnosis, i was sat in front of a machine that sprayed hot, wet air and told to open my mouth and breathe for one minute... another oddity, but it did feel good on my lungs. then to the little room for the shot and i was released.

all of this cost me just over three dollars. we then went to the pharmacy where i was given pills and cough syrup. all of it individually wrapped for each dose.
no tricky bottles and figuring what is what, just take the pills in each pouch and take the amount of cough syrup that you need... seems so much easier than back home... of course, they do give you four times the number of pills here...

then after a half hour at school waiting to see if i was allowed to go home, i did. i've been napping off and on all day...

tomorrow i'm off to changwon in the morning for some big foreign teacher meeting that people only found out about today or yesterday... gotta love the last minute-ness of everything here... for someone who loves to know "the plan" and what is going on, this is one of the more difficult aspects of living here...

for those of you who are worried or concerned for my well-being here, i'm doing okay, i think that getting sick just made a lot of small things seem a lot worse... i know that everything will work out in the end - i am in control of my own life, and i can go home really, whenever i want... i just hope it doesn't come to that. maybe the meeting tomorrow will make things a lot clearer for all of us. at the very least, i'll get to see a bunch of peeps i haven't seen since august.