Monday: Ok, so I'm sick! Lots and lots of sick! Not sure what's wrong yet! I didn't have school today, because today is finals for the school. Yep...even the little ones have finals. I stayed in bed for a large portion of today and talked online. I went into school at around 1:00PM to work on stuff for the orphanage. While there, I realized that I couldn't even handle the few kids coming up and saying hi repeatedly, and I was stressed out from being sick. So, I asked my host teacher to cancel my trip to the orphanage today. Of course I felt like crap for doing so, but I knew that I couldn't handle it. I spent the rest of the day vegging as far as I can remember.
Tuesday: I taught some of my first grade classes for the last time this year today. I'm done with teaching the first graders after this week because of changing my schedule for the China trip. I decided that we are going to play Christmas BINGO for the last class for first and second grade. It's something simple and fun to do, and most of the kids already understand how to play! Today after school, my host mom took me to the clinic down the road. What I believe he said was that I have phlegm in my throat and he prescribed cough medicine and some sort of mystery pills. (In Korea: 1) You come to school no matter how sick you are. 2) You never know what pills you are taking, because they don't freaking label the bags.) So, the doctor, assuming that I hadn't already thought of it being a cold...gave me cold medicine. I have to take it for 3 days, and then I will come back in and tell him point blank that he was wrong...which I already know.
Wednesday: I taught a first grade and three second grade classes (because of the schedule change). Today is the last day to have any of these classes, so we played BINGO in all of them. It was strange...my first two classes showed up super late. My 1-7 class showed up with 20 minutes left of class. Be flexible! After classes, I hung out in the office with the first grade teachers. We talked about the importance of English. I was talking to the teachers about this in the first grade office, because once again nobody showed up to my teachers' class and this was the topic to be discussed. I'm still trying to understand why they push themselves so hard to learn English. ("Themselves" read: the teachers, their children, their students, their citizens). Next year, if I'm not here, the first grade and second grade teachers have to teach English on their own. Some of these teachers DO NOT speak English at all! I'm not saying that in a critical way, I'm saying that in a matter of fact way. They DO NOT speak English! How can they be expected to teach an English class. Their students will not learn, they will be stressed out, and English class will be boring. Teachers will be forced to stick to text-book English, because they will not know what else to teach. They will have to teach themselves, before they can teach their students. Even the teachers who speak English fairly well, hate the idea of teaching English. It's hard to teach a second language, let alone a first language! Different teachers have different levels of English ability; therefore, their students will have different levels of English ability. Which already happens a great deal, because half of these students spend at least an hour of their daily lives in an English institute, while some students can't afford these privatized special institutes. English is SO important that they have a name for the father who stays in Korea while his family moves to an English speaking country to become more fluent in English! (Kiragi Abba) There has to be another way; I don't know what way it is yet, but there has to be another way!
Thursday: I taught a first grade class and three second grade classes again today. I love 2-5 class! They're so adorable, and they're so attentive! There is one little girl who comes up to see me every week just to try to speak English to me. She's super cute! Ok...so I agreed to go to a basketball game today with 1-5 teacher and her friend. They picked me up at 6:00PM and I found out at 6:10PM that I am to be a half time event. Ha! I was given a jersey (pretty cool!) and told what to do. I was actually to be a quarter event...it all happened very fast. I was put into pads, rushed out onto the court with a big green monster that is one of their mascots, and made to sit on a skateboard. I was then placed in a human slingshot and shot down court while sitting on this skateboard. I was slingshotted at pins...like a human bowling ball. Unfortunately I only made it half-way down court before falling off of the skateboard. Luckily, they still gave me a prize...of meat! LOL! Meat for the vegetarian. Wonju won by nearly 20 points! WOOT! I gave the meat to my family; they were pretty excited! At first my host mom told me that I should have given it to 1-5 teacher, and I felt kind of bad. Eh...I got over it! My host family will enjoy it!
1-5 teacher's friend and me before the first quarter break.
Me watching the Green Monster prepare to be slingshotted.
Me preparing to be slingshotted down court while on a skateboard.
Wheee....look at me go!!
Me with the two Wonju mascots after the first quarter break!
Friday: Day from hell! I had four classes today, and I usually only have 2 on Fridays. Luckily, it wasn't too bad! I tried to email the travel agency to look up tickets in addition to the ones they had already found and to change a bit of the original flight. We'll see if I hear from them. After classes, I went to the clinic...by myself. The lady remembered me, so that was good. They had a hard time finding my information initially though. I went in to see the doctor. He confirmed what I've basically known since last weekend; I have bronchitis. He prescribed some medicine, including an antibiotic, and I got it filled at the pharmacy downstairs. I went home and tried to get some packing done. I didn't! After dinner, I realized that I took the prescription without checking to see if the antibiotic had penicillin in it. For those of you that don't know, I am INCREDIBLY allergic to penicillin. So, in a panic, I walked/ran back to the pharmacy to ask them if the antibiotic had penicillin in it. They kind of understood what I was saying but didn't understand how urgent it was that I know. They simply told me to stop taking it, and see the doctor in the morning. I wanted to scream, "IT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT! I HAVE TO KNOW NOW!" Alas, I didn't. I did tell them that I needed to know now and that it was very important. They were looking it up, and I called my host mom. She also didn't understand why it was so important to know and told me that she would call in the morning. I finally got through to her that I needed to know asap, and she called the pharmacy. They explained that the name is Cefaclor and that it is a type of penicillin. They again told me to just stop taking it and see the doctor in the morning. I told them that I was leaving for China in less than 10 hours. I accepted the diagnosis of not taking the medicine anymore and attempted to buy the anti-allergy medicine that they gave to me. Because I left the house so quickly, I only had 3,000 Won in my pocket. The medicine was 4,000 Won. They took the 3,000 and said it was okay. By this point, I had tears streaming down my face. I left the pharmacy, called Lauren, and just started bawling. It was so incredibly frustrating; there are hardly words to describe the way I felt at that moment. I had yet to cry that intensely in Korea, but leave it to being truly lost in translation at the worst possible time. I walked home, came in my room, and shut the door. I had no desire to see anyone, especially my 10 year old host sis who was the only one home at the time. I immediately looked up the drug online and talked to a few friends in the program who know about medical stuff (good thing I'm in a program full of future doctors). I also tried calling an on call doctor who we were given the number for during orientation. He, also, didn't really understand me too well. I just decided that I was going to wait and see if anything happened. I made it past the anaphylactic shock stage...so that's a plus! After that I became more and more confident that nothing was going to happen. My friend in Wonju did a little bit of research as well and found out that only 10% of people allergic to penicillin are allergic to this drug as well. Another friend of mine in the program who is also allergic to penicillin, told me that she is not allergic to Cefaclor. Needless to say, it was a horrible experience, and I hate being sick in a country where I don't speak the language well enough to avoid these kinds of situations. I tried to explain further when my host mom came home why it was so important that I find out immediately; she understood a little more. The best I could describe it was, "VERY VERY ALLERGIC!" I had a horrible experience with an allergic reaction a few years ago, and I would prefer that it never happen again. My doctor in the states...well...he just told me that I had better never take it again. My whole host fam was up super late; I finished packing and got to bed around 12:30AM or so. I might get a total of 3 hours of sleep!
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