Interesting Week

I feel like a lot of stuff has happened this last week. At first we got this bad news about our school, then tons of rumors were flying around, heather and I freaked out, then our Director talked with us and straightened things out and then an old English teacher came back to the school for a visit and I learned a lot from her.

So to re-cap from last week Heather and I thought we might have to leave our school because of illegal pension stuff. Then our Director told us that he would set us up with pension as long as we would stay and work for him. He was extremily nice and cooperative which made us feel better about everything. Then this Friday Ashley (a girl who used to work for our school, then went back home and is now back working for another school), and me and one of the Korean teachers went out for dinner. We got Thai food and talked about the school. It was so great to hear Ashley's perspective on things since she had already worked at the school for a year, and also good to hear Lena's take on things since she's a Korean teacher. After dinner I was feeling better about the whole situation and glad to have had the social stimulation of some other people. So all of that said, we have decided to keep our job and not shop around for other schools.

Friday night Heather stayed home because she was feeling sick. All week we had both been developing a cough and the sniffles. Saturday morning our Director and his wife came to pick us up and take us to the hospital for our medical check-up. In order to get our alien card we needed to pass a medical check-up. By then both Heather and I were feeling a bit sick, so hopefully that doesn't affect anything. The check up consisted of first a blood test (of which we were unaware would happen), then a pee test (of which I could not go, so I had to drink bottle after bottle of water until I could go...talk about embarrassing), then they checked our vision, our hearing and our blood pressure, and x-rayed our chests. It was all very interesting because everything was done in a different room or area, so we were walking from one station to the next. Luckily Ranni, our directors wife was with us to figure everything out for us. Afterwards she took us out for Vietnamese food. Mmmm. :)

After getting home around noon on Saturday, both Heather and I started to feel like crap. We decided that we should spend the rest of our rainy Saturday resting and getting better. By early evening I had developed a fever and was feeling much worse. I took some ibuprofen and that seemed to fix me....Until I work up at about 3:30am with the most horrible shivers and body aches. My temperature had shot up and I was miserable. I woke up early this morning to a temperature of around 102 and just felt completely horrible. I was able to sleep off and on until at 10am our doorbell rang. Heather answered it and it was our landlady. After lots of hand gestures and word guessing Heather came to the conclusion that the landlady wanted us to move out today and into the apartment downstairs. Both of us were feeling sick and had no idea how that was going to happen. So heather went downstairs to see if the English teacher down there had moved out yet, but there was no answer and the door was locked. We decided that we would just wait until Monday to speak with our Director about the whole issue.

After hanging around all morning Heather and I were starting to feel better and my temperature was going down. Shay, and English teacher living downstairs called us up and wanted to know if we wanted to go out with him. He was going to a grocery store about a 10 minute taxi ride away that was known for carrying American, or more western items. So we decided that it was time to leave our germ infested apartment and get some fresh air. After arriving in Jamsil Shay took us to see this underground mall. It was pretty incredible and almost over stimulated me. While still having a fever, seeing all the people, stores, stuff, food and fountains I was completely overwhelmed. After leaving there we went to the 'more western' grocery store, bought our items and then hopped a taxi home. On the way we noticed a procession or sorts and realized that it was the Olympic torch. We jumped out of the taxi and were able to see the processional of the Olympic torch being run through Seoul, Korea. Everyone was decked out in Chinese and Korean flags, drums were playing and excitement for the Olympics was in the air. It's times like these that I realize I am really living in South Korea. My heart is full and I feel alive...despite the lingering fever.