Medical Exam

Wednesday I went to my medical exam with one of my bosses, Mr Kim, who I found out goes by his first name, Danny. I met him at the school and we took a cab. It was in a hospital, and he filled out all my papers for me since they were all in Korean. First I had my chest X-ray, and they hurried me into a corner with a curtain and I had to take off my shirt and put on this robe thing, and then go into another room and hug this box while they took an X-ray of my chest. Then I had to put my clothes on, and Danny came over and they gave him my sheet and told me what floor to go to next. When I got to the next room the hurried me to take off my shoes and step on a scale that checked my height too, and they did my blood pressure, checked my eyes and ears, and checked to see if I was color blind. I’m not sure why they checked that, if I was color blind would they not let me stay in the country? Lastly they measured my bra size; again I have no idea why they do this… The woman asked my phone number, so I had to go get Danny who was just right in the waiting room, holding my purse. He got my next room and led me to where I had to give a blood and urine sample. The cup was a cardboard cup that you would drink coffee out of, but a little smaller. She handed it to me and pointed to the hallway where the bathroom was. The cup couldn’t have been very sterile; it was just in a pile in the office. I peed in the cup, and then had to walk through the waiting room carrying my pee through the waiting room, back into the office. Next she took a blood sample in a syringe, and I was a little nervous because on the table was one of those boxes that they put dirty needles, but it had blood all over it. She also didn’t wear gloves while she was doing this. She did wipe it with an alcohol pad before she started though. As soon as I was done I was whisked up to the dentist who looked in my mouth. I was nervous she might be surprised about what she saw in there, but she didn’t say anything about it! Then I was rushed into a room where they asked me about my shots, family history, and if I felt well today. After that, I was finished!!! The whole thing took maybe 30 minutes. Everyone was so efficient and I didn’t have to wait at any of the stations, it was like they were waiting for me when I got there! It was funny how Danny led me from floor to floor carrying my purse, which wasn’t a big deal since Asian men carry these bags that look like purses…

After the medical exam Danny took me to a traditional Korean lunch. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but we sat down and the brought over this little hotplate with a big pan on it, and the waitress put on this meat and mushrooms to be cooked, and walked away. Then they brought over about 10 side dishes. They included summer and winter Kimchi (winter Kimchi tastes like the ocean), something that tasted like egg whites, but it was actually beans, seaweed salad, a few different kinds of sauces, and some other stuff that I can’t remember. She also brought over a bowl of soup that was literally boiling when it came over, and a pot of rice for each of us. The soup was wicked hot (Temperature hot) but even after it cooled it was gross. It had squid and tofu in it. After the meat was cooked, Danny took a leaf of lettuce and put in some of the meat, and some of this red sauce, and wrapped it up and gave it to me to eat. It wasn’t spicy and was pretty good. After we were finished we got up, and the waitress came over and sat us down and told us we weren’t finished. She brought over these cups that she said was tea, and I was dreading it because I HATE tea and I would be forced to drink it, but it turned out to be some juice that Danny said was plum juice. It tasted a lot like apple cider. After a few sips we got up, Danny paid, and we took a cab back to school.
That night most of us were finished at 7, so we took the SLP bus home, and went to eat at a restaurant called Happiness. It is right next door to our building. It is more of a hole in the wall than a restaurant. There was only one table, and we were sitting at it. When you eat in Korea, the tables are set with a big cup of spoons and chopsticks and when you sit down you just grab your silverware. There is also a box of these little tissue/napkins that you use as a napkin, but they come in what looks like a tissue box and they are soooo small. Amanda asked if I wanted rice and pork or tofu soup, so I chose the rice and pork. This dish was so incredibly spicy!!! I could not believe how much it was burning my mouth. I was trying to not be a baby and just eat it, but my mouth was on fire! My nose was running, I was sweating, it was awful! It also came with some kind of broth, and I just ate that and a little bit of the rice that didn’t have sauce on it. I will never be ordering that again!!! While we were eating, I got a list of food from the people I work with that I may like that are not as spicy. I have a list of about 5 things that I should try, and I am excited to try them!
Yesterday at work one of the teachers threw up and had to go home sick, so I took over his class alone by myself. I wasn’t nearly as nervous because no one was watching me like the other two times I taught a class. I was lucky, because the lesson Adam had planned, was a lesson I already taught in one of the classes I’m going to be taking over, so I already had a lesson plan and had taught it, so I was feeling comfortable. The class had a few naughty students in it, but they weren’t too bad. When I started doing the lesson in the book, they all yelled together that they had already done that lesson! Luckily, right before I was leaving to teach, the teacher I sit next to in the office told me what she did at the end of that lesson because she had extra time. It was a “game” where the kids came up and finished the sentence: “I feel ________ because________________.” If they came up, I gave them a star (if they get a whole page of stars, they get $10 in SLP Bucks that they can use in the school store to buy pencils and backpacks and stuff). I had to take away two kids stars because they were being naughty. I would also go around and give stars to people who were paying attention, and not to the kids who were naughty. They take the stars pretty seriously. The I thought the class was over at 5:40, but it was actually over at 5:50, so I had them all ready to go and the bell never rang, so I just went through some flash cards with them until it was time to go. Overall it went alright. At lunch yesterday we went to this baguette shop, and I got a salad baguette which had lettuce, onion, banana, kiwi, apple and pineapple in it. It was pretty tasty.

I don’t think I have told you about garbage in Korea yet. It is a huge, messy pain in the ass! Firs of all you need to buy these special bags that I have only found at Family Mart. They are lime green, and the size of a bathroom garbage can, so that is what kind of trash I had to buy for my house! It is so small, and fills up so quickly! Then I have another cardboard box that has cardboard in it. That gets put in the lobby downstairs in a huge pile. In a separate bag goes the cans and bottles, and they are thrown loosely into these buckets that are outside the building and around the corner. That is where the green bags are put as well. You are not allowed to put food in the green bags, because that is supposed to go into the compost cans outside and around the corner. I do not do that because I didn’t know about it at first, and because I am afraid to open one of those nasty buckets!!! So technically you are supposed to have four buckets of trash in your apartment, but I only have three. Did I mention my apartment is the size of a shoe box? The garbage area takes up so much room, and looks so messy!!!

I walked home for the first time by myself from work last night! There are a few turns along the walk to and from school, and it isn’t like I can write down ‘take a left on 7th street, or take a right on Washington Street’ because all of the signs are in Korean. Also, I cant really tell the difference between any of the stores because they all look exactly alike, and I can’t read the names on the signs! I made little land marks in my head, and it worked! One of the landmarks is at a bus stop, and the reason I know I am walking the right way, it because at this bus stop there is this little building that comes to probably my chin, and there is always a man in there on a little stool polishing shoes. The building is the size of a toll booth, it is really small, but it’s also really short, and he can not stand up in it! I don’t know why they didn’t just make it a few inches taller so that he could stand in it…. But he is there every morning polishing shoes!
Here is my address:

#1005, Dongyang Tresbelle Sky Officetel,
1479-8, Gayang2-Dong,
Gangseo-Gu, Seoul, Korea