Just an update...

I've been a little slack in updating this regularly mainly because I'm not doing quite so much sightseeing as I did when I first arrived in Korea and have checked off a good number of touristy things around Seoul and Bucheon. I am very excited as I will be having my first visitor from back home soon as the lovely Lisa is coming to stay for a fortnight at the end of July. We're going to travel down to Busan to spend a few days by the beach, hopefully venture over to one of the islands near Incheon and spend some time in Seoul.

I was off work for 4 days with tonsillitis, but luckily the antibiotics cleared it up. Being ill in a country where the most people don't speak English was an experience I'd rather not go through again, but I was lucky that there is an information desk for foreigners and the nurse there helped me through the process. I had a belated birthday night out on Saturday. I met Robyn, Dara, Janice and Keith for pizza, then we went to WB Bar for cocktails before going to Double, a club near Bucheon station where we saw a Korean hip hop band called Supreme Team and watched bemused as the Koreans went mad for them!

I'm trying to get in a routine of keeping fit. I walk round the park near me a few times a week and have joined a softball team which meets up for the first time on Saturday. Let's hope it doesn't get too hot for a little while! We've had some glorious weather recently which has been a good excuse to stock up on some summer clothes. Most of the summer stuff I bought with me was holiday clothes, so I needed some skirts and sandals for work. I haven't had too much trouble finding shoes and clothes here, although a UK size 6 is the largest standard shoe size here! There aren't many decent clothes shops in Bucheon, although I've discovered a large Uniqlo concession in the GS Square Department Store! Apparently July and August are very hot and humid. I had a little taster at the weekend as it rained all day on Saturday and then got very warm and humid on Sunday. Thankfully it has been much fresher today. I have air con in my apartment and at school - I think its my favourite ever invention!

I'm still enjoying teaching and the majority of my students are great. The preschool students are continuing to pick up English at a quick rate. It amazes me how well some of them are able to communicate in English when 4 months ago, they could barely speak a word of English! Today, I had an open class when the parents sat in on a lesson. It was pretty stressful as some of the parents complain about anything. One girl's mother complained that her daughter wasn't getting as many stickers as her friend (the students are given sticker sheets which they can exchange for a gift when completed). This is the same mother who complained about art class a couple of months ago, so I'm sure she will have something to say about the open class! I think I had my revenge though as the students made flower trumpets in art class today which I allowed them to take home with them and they were very noisy!

I've not taken many photos recently, but I was walking around the Jongno area in Seoul the other week and thinking to myself that often Korea doesn't feel very Asian when I came across some little alleyways which felt much more Asian than all the towerblocks and shopping malls.

Sadly it seems that these little alleys nestled in amongst Seoul's high rises are becoming increasingly rare. Not far from here, the area of Pimatgol, a tangle of small streets, has recently been demolished as part of the 'urban renewal' process. It seems a shame that these little characterful areas are disappearing to be presumably replaced by more homogenous office blocks.

Sick

With all the media attention on English teachers and swine flu, it was perhaps inevitable that yours truly would end up getting sick. Not with swine flu, I hasten to add, but with my perennial tonsillitis. Last year, I ended up staying in hospital over my birthday due to quinsy (a complication arising from severe tonsillitis), so this year, I wanted to have a nice time to make up for last year. Sadly, it was not to be.

I woke up on Saturday with a bit of a sore throat which got worse as the day wore on. I met the girls at New Phillies to see Keith's play "Silly Cow" (very funny BTW) and then we headed over to Sinchon for some Mexican food and to hit some Hongdae bars. By the time we got to the restaurant, I was feeling distinctly worse and hopped on the bus back to Bucheon. The next day (my birthday), I had a fever, severe sore throat and was unable to swallow or talk.

One of my co-teachers took me to the hospital which is only a couple of blocks away from my apartment building. The Information for Foreigners desk was closed and the few staff we could find could not speak English. Eventually we stumbled into the Emergency Care section where we found an English speaking nurse who quickly arranged for me to be seen by a doctor. Within half an hour, I had received an injection of antibiotics, an injection of painkillers and a 3 day prescription of antibiotics and was told to call back in the week to see a doctor in the ENT clinic.

Today I went back to the hospital and found someone on the Information for Foreigners desk who took me to the ENT clinic. I saw a doctor who spoke excellent English who examined my tonsils and used some sort of sucking device to remove the "bacterial pools", yum! Another prescription of antibiotics and painkillers. Off to the pharmacy within 20 minutes. I don't know whether they just whisk foreigners through the system, but so far I've only had to wait about 5 minutes to see a doctor.

I'm not entirely sure how the health insurance system works. I have a health insurance card and a certain amount is deducted from my salary each month for health insurance, but I still have to pay a fee when I visit the doctor (it was a hefty 63,000 won (around £32) for visiting the Emergency Care unit on Sunday, but only 16,000 won (around £8) at the ENT clinic today). The doctor told me I could schedule a tonsillectomy while I am here which is tempting as the NHS seem reluctant to whip out my tonsils despite me getting ill so often, but it depends how much it would cost me and how long I would need to take off work (although I could always schedule it at the end of my contract).