28 November 2005
Wonderful wonderland
Josh just had two classes dropped from his Thursday schedule - parents keep pulling kids out of the school - they don't like our director, according to our supervisor. I don't think us teachers are in trouble. wonderland is a corporation - they have other schools across Seoul. We'll see how long our current school can stay afloat, then if shit finally hits the fan, excitement!
16 November 2005
Severe Throat Infection
"I have one?" I ask the doctor in the clinic.
"Yes."
I look over at his computer screen: the program is in English, and he's typed in all of the symptoms I told him. A list of conditions follows the symptoms, including Severe Throat Infection. Remember that Simpsons episode with the virtual doctor program?: "You've got Herpes."
I'm lucky the doctor knows English. The aides at the front desk did not. They ran and got him after he finished treating a woman for an ear infection. The clinic is set up so you can see into the examination room right when you enter. There is no door to the examination room - it's wide open. The patients in waiting could hear me gag when the doctor swabbed my throat.
He also sprayed a menthol-smelling mist into my throat, then air, then menthol, then air - he went back and forth about five times. Then he pulled out a different little metal tube and some tweezers. He pulled on my right nostril and put the little tube in, releasing a spray that made my eyes water. He went to the left nostril, then back to the right, then left again. I smiled nervously the whole time - it's pretty different from what the doctors do to me back home.
After the chair sequence, an aide showed me to another room with a bunch of tubes. It reminded me of the assisted-suicide room they showed on the news during the Kevorkian debacle. The aide put a tube in my hand and told me to say "aghh." A mist flowed from the tube, and I spent six minutes sitting and breathing in vapor.
I wasn't finished, though. The same aid showed me to the other side of the room, where she had me stick my face in a light gun (it's about as big as a cop's radar gun). At the bottom of the barrel was a red light bulb. It's super hot, but the barrel isn't wide enough for anyone to touch face to the bulb. Three minutes breathing in hot air from the light, maybe there was more herbal stuff coming from the light gun - it had a soothing smell.
That was it, though. I paid eleven bucks (I don't have insurance), took a sheet of paper downstairs to the pharmacy, and paid fourteen bucks for twelve individually wrapped bags of multicolored pills of all shapes and sizes.
Who knew being sick in Korea could be this much fun?!
"Yes."
I look over at his computer screen: the program is in English, and he's typed in all of the symptoms I told him. A list of conditions follows the symptoms, including Severe Throat Infection. Remember that Simpsons episode with the virtual doctor program?: "You've got Herpes."
I'm lucky the doctor knows English. The aides at the front desk did not. They ran and got him after he finished treating a woman for an ear infection. The clinic is set up so you can see into the examination room right when you enter. There is no door to the examination room - it's wide open. The patients in waiting could hear me gag when the doctor swabbed my throat.
He also sprayed a menthol-smelling mist into my throat, then air, then menthol, then air - he went back and forth about five times. Then he pulled out a different little metal tube and some tweezers. He pulled on my right nostril and put the little tube in, releasing a spray that made my eyes water. He went to the left nostril, then back to the right, then left again. I smiled nervously the whole time - it's pretty different from what the doctors do to me back home.
After the chair sequence, an aide showed me to another room with a bunch of tubes. It reminded me of the assisted-suicide room they showed on the news during the Kevorkian debacle. The aide put a tube in my hand and told me to say "aghh." A mist flowed from the tube, and I spent six minutes sitting and breathing in vapor.
I wasn't finished, though. The same aid showed me to the other side of the room, where she had me stick my face in a light gun (it's about as big as a cop's radar gun). At the bottom of the barrel was a red light bulb. It's super hot, but the barrel isn't wide enough for anyone to touch face to the bulb. Three minutes breathing in hot air from the light, maybe there was more herbal stuff coming from the light gun - it had a soothing smell.
That was it, though. I paid eleven bucks (I don't have insurance), took a sheet of paper downstairs to the pharmacy, and paid fourteen bucks for twelve individually wrapped bags of multicolored pills of all shapes and sizes.
Who knew being sick in Korea could be this much fun?!
11 November 2005
Girl Hair
One of my classes is obsessed with looking at my hair, laughing at it, and then telling me that I have "girl's hair." Lots of older women like to perm their hair, I've noticed, and my hair is curly. I think I know why they laugh at me. Only that one class.
I got boxes of little cookie sticks from students today. The Korean version of Valentine's Day is in progress, and they give each other cookie sticks as a sign of love, I guess. I didn't have anything with to stir my coffee this morning, until a kindergartener handed me a cookie stick. They're covered in chocolate, too, yum.
I like wearing suits in class - they make me feel like an intelligent teacher instead of a bumbling fool. I've recently experienced an influx of new music from friends back home (Nick and Miller) and from the internet, so I spend lots of my free time listening. Animal Collective runs through my head while I'm in class teaching and goofing around with kindergarteners - I often feel like I'm going insane and start freestyle singing about the class sometimes, sometimes I'll tap my shoes on the floor, do a little dance. Sometimes, when I arrive at the classroom, I walk right by, then come back and walk by again, then crouch by the door and peep my head in, look around at the ceiling, then at the kids, and crack a smile.
I like storytime. I get to read books to the kids, and I add little sound effects and change the voices of different characters. I sometimes have to play keep away with the book in order to get the kids interested (I take the book and whiz it in front of their uninterested faces, then weeve the book around my ankles like a basketball). One of the books has an accompanying music CD, and the singing is all little kids singing. I sing along in falsetto, amusing a couple kids and freaking out the others.
I got boxes of little cookie sticks from students today. The Korean version of Valentine's Day is in progress, and they give each other cookie sticks as a sign of love, I guess. I didn't have anything with to stir my coffee this morning, until a kindergartener handed me a cookie stick. They're covered in chocolate, too, yum.
I like wearing suits in class - they make me feel like an intelligent teacher instead of a bumbling fool. I've recently experienced an influx of new music from friends back home (Nick and Miller) and from the internet, so I spend lots of my free time listening. Animal Collective runs through my head while I'm in class teaching and goofing around with kindergarteners - I often feel like I'm going insane and start freestyle singing about the class sometimes, sometimes I'll tap my shoes on the floor, do a little dance. Sometimes, when I arrive at the classroom, I walk right by, then come back and walk by again, then crouch by the door and peep my head in, look around at the ceiling, then at the kids, and crack a smile.
I like storytime. I get to read books to the kids, and I add little sound effects and change the voices of different characters. I sometimes have to play keep away with the book in order to get the kids interested (I take the book and whiz it in front of their uninterested faces, then weeve the book around my ankles like a basketball). One of the books has an accompanying music CD, and the singing is all little kids singing. I sing along in falsetto, amusing a couple kids and freaking out the others.
02 November 2005
Movies in a moleroom
I caught up on a couple of movies this past week - the city has its assortment of PC rooms, one type being movie rooms. These have nice comfy reclining chairs at every computer, and a pair of headphones with each as well. There is a network full of (most likely illegal) movies. They have subtitles, but most are english-speaking movies.
I watched "Sideways" finally. The best was while he's sneaking into the house, a Korean woman was asking me what the name of the movie was. I didn't know what she was saying at first, and then she pointed at the monitor, right when the scene flashed to the naked couple fornicating on the bed. The woman blushed, pulled her hand away and quickly ran off to her computer.
I'm sitting amongst about thirty or forty people, thinking "well, at least one person here knows that I'm watching a movie with naked people engaging in intercourse."
Two nights ago, I watched the final installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Finally. It was good, probably would've been better had I seen it upon its initial release two years ago.
I'm doing some reading as well. I accomplished a great feat: I read Pride and Prejudice, all the way to the end. It took me three months, but I pulled it off. For the first two months, I could only maybe read five pages at a time, because I had to read and reread paragraphs. The language of Jane Austen took much getting used to. I'd never heard of a male reading this book in its entirety, and finding some enjoyment. It really made me think about myself in my present and past relations with others. I can at least acknowledge my own faults more easily now, as Elizabeth and Darcy both confessed to each other their behavioral miscues.
I'm going to start Crime and Punishment soon. I'm going to read all of the older books first, so I don't have as hard a time trying to figure out exactly what is being said by the writers of 150 years ago.
I get cable TV next Monday, the beginning of my demise whilst in Korea.
I watched "Sideways" finally. The best was while he's sneaking into the house, a Korean woman was asking me what the name of the movie was. I didn't know what she was saying at first, and then she pointed at the monitor, right when the scene flashed to the naked couple fornicating on the bed. The woman blushed, pulled her hand away and quickly ran off to her computer.
I'm sitting amongst about thirty or forty people, thinking "well, at least one person here knows that I'm watching a movie with naked people engaging in intercourse."
Two nights ago, I watched the final installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Finally. It was good, probably would've been better had I seen it upon its initial release two years ago.
I'm doing some reading as well. I accomplished a great feat: I read Pride and Prejudice, all the way to the end. It took me three months, but I pulled it off. For the first two months, I could only maybe read five pages at a time, because I had to read and reread paragraphs. The language of Jane Austen took much getting used to. I'd never heard of a male reading this book in its entirety, and finding some enjoyment. It really made me think about myself in my present and past relations with others. I can at least acknowledge my own faults more easily now, as Elizabeth and Darcy both confessed to each other their behavioral miscues.
I'm going to start Crime and Punishment soon. I'm going to read all of the older books first, so I don't have as hard a time trying to figure out exactly what is being said by the writers of 150 years ago.
I get cable TV next Monday, the beginning of my demise whilst in Korea.
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