When I first arrived in Korea, I was warned about how hot and humid it would get during the summer months. So far, we've had a few weeks of nice, sunny weather (hot, but not so hot that you have to spend every moment huddled under the aircon), mostly perfect summer days (the type we have in Britain about once a year). However, no-one warned me about monsoon season! For the last week or so, we have had torrential rain. Busan (which I am visiting next week) made international news earlier in the week when flooding caused one street to be blocked by various debris including several upside down cars (for a picture, check out the BBC website http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/8153739.stm).
Apparently monsoon season lasts a couple of weeks, then there is a brief respite of sun and clear skies (when all of Korea takes their summer holidays) before typhoon season starts in mid August! Still, the rains gave me the impetus I needed to properly sort out my new-ish apartment which is now tidy and gleaming in readiness for Lisa's arrival on Thursday.
Some school students in Bucheon have been diagnosed as suffering Swine Flu, so several of the public schools here have closed for summer a week early. We were a little hopeful last week that we may get an extra week off for vacation, but sadly money rules at a hagwon, so it looks doubtful.
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Saturday, 18 July 2009
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
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).
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).
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
Baseball and swine flu
On Saturday, I went to Incheon to see my first ever baseball match. The SK Wyverns (the local team) who had won the national championship for the past two years took on the Doosan Bears. South Korea won the gold medal for baseball in last year's Olympics, so this is obviously a country which takes baseball pretty seriously. Lots of the fans brandished two clacky balloon things in their team's colours which they clacked in unison. The home fans were the loudest, but unfortunately they lost 2-1.
SK Wyverns pitcher
A Doosan Bears batter
A short demonstration of the clacky balloons!
The Munhak Stadium was easy to get to from Bucheon (take the subway two stops to Bupyeong and then transfer to the Incheon subway until you reach the Munhak Sports Complex station). Once inside, you don't even have to leave your seat as a man walks round dispensing beer (I suspect that if they introduced this to the Millennium stadium, they would need one beer seller per row) and another couple selling hotdogs. In the interests of any blog readers, I decided to sample a couple of different hotdogs (ok, so I was peckish). The cheese dog was strangely sweet tasting (who adds sugar to a savoury snack?!), but the plain hotdog tasted pretty good.
Munhak Baseball Stadium 
Compared to sporting events in the UK, it was cheap to get in, an unreserved ticket was only 6,000 won (around £3.00). Although they should really have let us in for free as a whole row of foreigners provided plenty of visual entertainment between innings. Foreign teachers have hit the headlines over the past few days. A group of recently arrived teachers who attended orientation training together have been quarantined as one of their group was confirmed as having swine flu. This blog is an entertaining account of a rather unique situation written by one of the detainees. One of his posts made me laugh out loud where he records his attempt to contact the American embassy -
Me: “Hiya! I just thought the Embassy should be aware that 30+ U.S citizens have been quarantined right outside Seoul for suspicion of swine flu exposure.”
Operator: “Okay, well it’s a weekend, and we’re closed. Monday’s memorial day, so could you call back on tuesday?”
Me: “You…you’re serious?”
Operator: “Is it an emergency? Cause if it is we have someone we can call.”
Me: “Um…let’s see, there’s 30 americans in quarantine for swine flu exposure. Basically, we’re arrested. It’s totally cool, don’t worry—we’ll call on tuesday—”
Operator: “Okay, thanks for calling.”
Me: “No wait—”
*click*
Other Korean headlines include the news that North Korea "successfully" carried out a nuclear test and fired a number of short range missiles from its east coast this week and the suicide of former President Roh Moo-hyun following a bribery scandal.
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