Wednesday, August 18, 2010

"We don't have a teacher for your all-day class..."

Woke up this morning feeling like death was handed to me on a silver platter. Fever, runny nose, sore throat, headache, body ache, chills, you name it, I felt it. When calling in sick, I was told that I would not have to teach my first class and could go to the doctor. The head teacher even made me a house call visit to "make sure I was not lying."

How condescending is this? I know it's another culture, and I know they don't believe in substitute teachers here, but for real? I was then escorted to the clinic, where I was told after less than five minutes of examination that I have the flu (I could have told you that) and mild bronchitis. The female doctor spoke very good English and didn't hesitate to write me a prescription for FIVE different medications.

Most of which I suspect are very heavy doses of pain medications. I received these in individual packages of pills, so now I look like a drug dealer, LOL. For crying out loud, I want to do is sleep. Any other country would promote rest for healing, but not in KOREA. Jesus. So yeah, I contaminated I don't want to know how many children today. No, I couldn't go home. It's been a day folks. Keepin' it real.

Upshot? A visit to the doctor will have you waiting no longer than ten minutes and have you paying no more than $3.60 for the doctor and $4 for the meds. America can take a lesson here. Not sure if this is because my health insurance is super good or because Korea is just that cheap, but I don't question such things.

Also, Korean women coworkers aren't afraid to push their tea on you. Tea. Soup. Good for health. Ha.

AND...I love how they thought they were DOING ME A FAVOR by "letting" me skip my first class to go to the doctor. I'll give them that one, I suppose. In the name of compromise. Sheesh. I love this country. I love my life.

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