Post your Xanga Weblogs here for all your friends to see!

(Just for your Mr. Joss)

Serious entry coming later.
oh and no, I'm not as sick of it all anymore (unless you're talking politics).

Well a little over a week ago I went to the hospital at Severance (an hour-ish away) to see a doctor and hopefully get some medicine for myself. The doctor confirmed my suspicions that I had a sinus infection and gave me an anti biotic and some Sudafed and an anti-histamine.

 

So I started myself on my medication, went shopping at Yongsan electronics market (by shopping I mean I priced what I wanted from the various vendors) and I only made it through three of the buildings (I think there’s 6? Each with multiple floors).

 

For the next two days I’m feeling ok, in fact I think I’m doing better. I’m a little sleepy and groggy from the medicine but none the worse for wear. Monday and Tuesday we have two sick kids in Griffin both of whom throw up at some point, so on I am extra careful around them. That evening I had some pasta, crackers and 1/4 of a ham steak. Now I’m skeptical of ham steaks in general, in fact they are more of an excuse for me to eat mustard without grossing people out, but I ate it anyway grimacing through some of it as not to waste food. I took my medicine and went to sleep.

 

A few hours later I am awake and bowing before the white throne (not to be confused with the Frozen Throne), and proceeding to expel everything from my insides (including part of my stomach I’m convinced). This proceeds for about 12 hours, with the half hour appointments to pay homage before the throne.

 

Needless to say I did not go into work on Wednesday, and I was very happy when I stopped paying homage to the white throne in the early afternoon. Sarah and Matt tried to find chicken noodle soup for me, but unfortunately this country has very different ideas about food for sick people. Needless to say there is no chicken noodle soup here, or ginger ale for that matter. (Praise the Lord there is Gatorade though). So Sarah (being Sarah) decided “Oh… well… making chicken noodle soup can’t be that hard, so I will make him some!” So she did (and it is some of the best soup I have ever had I might add). Brava Sarah! I must say that if you have to be in a foreign country with some people when you’re sick, Matt and Sarah are good choices.

 

Thursday (Thanksgiving) rolls around and after drifting in and out of sleep until about 1 PM I get out of bed and eat the soup, and finish off the saltine crackers (hurray Costco for saltines!) Log online, and decide well if I’m awake and alive enough to be online I can at least make an appearance at the thanksgiving dinner that our English worship service at church has been preparing.

 

So I go and help guide people from the door of the church to the place where we are eating. We had many new foreigners show up and all the teachers from school were there and asking if I’m alright and I get the chance to eat some of Thanksgiving dinner (though this is the second time I have been sick on Thanksgiving, and let me tell you it’s not fun not being able to eat as much as you want or everything you want). Also I don’t know how this always happens to the sick person at church functions, but I got recruited to put away tables and chairs after the dinner until one of the Koreans saw I was paler than a piece of paper and told me to “take a rest” (a phrase they love to use).

 

Friday I went into school and was back on the anti biotic. And most of Friday I was slightly nauseated. Fortunately Friday is a half day, so they are fairly easy.

 

Now here is where the debate rages. What was I sick with?

 

Theory 1: I contracted the deadliest version of whatever was floating around at the beginning of the week in the kids. (unlikely since several other teachers were sickish but no one came close to what I went through).

 

Theory 2: Food poisoning – The 1/4 of the ham steak that I ate gave me food poisoning. Very possible as this was not the best tasting stuff in the world, and that is the sickest I have ever been for a period of 12 hours. Regardless I was not a huge fan of Ham steaks before, and now if it is within my power I will not eat one for a very, very long time if ever again.

 

Theory 3: The anti biotic – I am not allergic to anything that I know of, but when I was back on the antibiotic on Monday I was feeling pretty bad, and Sarah talked to her mom (thanks Mrs. Brown) and she told Sarah that the particular stuff I was on can make people very sick, so I should stop taking it right away.

 

Theory 4: Some combination of the above.

 

I’m inclined to say that the 3^rd theory is the biggest contributor, but I think the other two weighed in, regardless I am back on my feet and feeling much better thought still sad about being sick on thanksgiving…again.

 

This weekend I’m going to get a good book that I can use to study Korean and something shiny and electronic… I think that will be a good thing

Well it has been a long time, and so I will probably post in segments. We will start with how life in the most general sense has been going. (Unfortunately I have not many pictures (I know I know shame on me).

Well, teaching is an interesting profession. Teaching little children makes that even more interesting, and teaching little kids that don’t speak my language makes it even more interesting.

I have a homeroom and fortunately it’s the older kids (6 years old). Their English is pretty darn good, for 6 year olds, which is really nice. I teach ages from 4-6 in the mornings and early afternoons, and getting the kids to listen to me is something of a challenge. Some of the kids pick it up quick and others drag their feet. (Just like normal people).

I also have to say that Griffin English House is a very interesting place. Koreans tend to have this uppity attitude about their ideas and opinions compared to foreigners ideas and opinions. (Kinda like how Americans are with foreigners) (and I would speculate further how most people are with foreigners for their country). The thing is the Koreans don’t show their uppity attitude in the way Americans do (loud and boisterous) Koreans will instead just do something without talking to the person that it is affecting, or informing them until after they needed to know about the change.

Anyway, I started out with a pretty light schedule I stayed busy but on some breaks I could relax a little. The director decided to add homework for the kids (a good idea it gets the parents involved reinforces it more, allows me to spend more of the half an hour I get teaching on teaching rather than workbook.

The downside is now I have to write al the assignments in their books and I have to check all their homework. Well that would be ok if I had more than 2 half hour breaks a day. As a result on Monday (when I teach all but one period) is a very hectic day.

There is one more upside though: The day goes by faster.

The afternoons are different. I have elementary age kids. And the higher the English level the more the kids know, meaning the easier it is to talk to them, and joke around with them (that and they are older so they tend to understand my style of humor more). That also means I can expect a whole lot more from them. 

It has been an interesting experience. Teaching is nothing like I would have expected and yet it is almost exactly like what I expected. The good thing is I’m starting to think and understand what kids want to a certain extent which is a very good thing. It has made some morning classes easier. (still have the whole listening to the foreign teacher problem).

Another good thing is we have some fantastic Korean teachers there. Several of whom are very fluent in English which makes the job of communicating so much easier. The Korean teachers are really, really cool.

So that’s a brief run down on the teaching position. Next post segment will be more about not school and maybe some pictures of my abode!