The title pretty much sums up what happened to me….I got the H1N1 flu.
This is similar to how I contracted the flu
A couple of months ago, there was mass hysteria about the flu and EVERYONE in Korea was freaking out about it. Since then, people have forgotten about it and most kids have the first round of the vaccine. Soooooo, if I would have gotten the flu then…it would have had some perks like not working for about a week or so…BUUUUUUUTTTTTT since I got it about 2 weeks ago, my director said I can just work since all the kids have the vaccine. DAMN IT! Just my luck.
The health care system here is quite amazing. I went to the doctor 4 times. He speaks pretty good English. All 4 times over the course of 5 days I had a fever. I ended up getting prescribed medicine for 15 days and 5 days prescription of TamiFlu (the TamiFlu was free for some reason). For the visits to the doctor and the medicine my final bill came to around $13 US. Pretty sweet if you ask me.
The medicine the doctor prescribes comes in little packs of 5 – 8 pills. What are these pills? Hell if I know. Do they work? For the most part, yes they do and they are so cheap I don’t care anyway.
How was Swine Flu one might ask? I felt pretty bad for a few days, but I never thought I was going to die. I have woken up with hangovers far worse. I was able to work while being sick and not murder any children….so that is good. It was as bad as the normal flu or a really bad cold. I never feared for my life….
I am all better now, but I am sure with 250 dirty little kids around my 5 days out of the week, me killing myself slowly with Soju and time-traveling all over Korea I will be sick a few more times before I leave. At least I know it won’t cost me to much money!
Tags: cheap korean medicine, h1n1 flu, how I felt, influenze, korea doctor, korea medical system, South Korea, South Korea ESL, swine flu, TamiFlu south korea, teaching esl
Mmmmmm….puppy for dinner!!! No I am kidding, although you can grab a meal of DOG meat soup in Korea…but I haven’t done that YET!
Getting to the dog cafe..
I went to a meet-up with other people from meetup.com. The meet-up was at a dog cafe. This dog cafe was at the Jangsan stop on Line 2 subway in Busan. Quite a few people made it to the meet-up on Sunday, although I didn’t interact with many of them. I was deathly hungover from the previous night. My bus to Haeundae took 2 fucking hours because of construction and traffic!!! It at least gave me a chance to chill out and catch up on a few podcasts.
After my bus FINALLY arrived, I had to walk to the subway station for a short subway ride (2 stops) to get to Jangsan. Now, I have a bus/subway pass on my cell phone (which will be discussed in a later post), so it makes the subway quicker since I don’t have to buy a ticket. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: busan south korea activity, busan subway, dog cafe busan, ESL South Korea, fun in korea, jangsan busan korea, jangsan stop, puppy cafe busan
Just a little video I put together from Monkey Mountain….nothing special.
Tags: endangered monkey, Kaohsiung Monkey Mountain, Kaohsiung Taiwan activities, Macaque Monkey, monkey mountain Taiwan, monkey mountin, taiwan, video monkey mountain
This is just going to be a post of what one of my students wrote. I asked my highest level class to write me an essay about ANYTHING they wanted. Posted below is what one of my students wrote. I didn’t change/correct anything in any way. This is what my student had to say:
“I don’t like Korean educational system. All of students in Korea is not a human, expressly, high school students. They are just a robot that have to study. All of high school student go to school at 8am and finish the school at 10p.m. It’s over 12 a.m when they come back home, because they have to go academy or library after school, it’s crazy! Students can’t be happy in this society!!! It must change. Study hard is good for us, but study by force is not good for us.”
I think she pretty much sums up why all Korean students hate their lives and why Korea’s suicide rate is so high among teenage kids.
I swear, I might take all of this one student’s writings and make a book out of them. She is very opinionated, smart and isn’t afraid to express herself….I don’t think she is actually Korean. She is 16 and has to study/be in school for an average of 10 hours a day, EVERYday…even Sunday her and her brother have to study. It sounds like hell.
Tags: esl student, korean student opinion, South Korea ESL, south korea hagwon, south korea suicide rate
Taiwan is a fantastic country. The people are nice, they speak a good amount of English, the strip clubs are out of this world, the food is delicious and the weather in winter is lovely. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Korea, but once I am done in Korea and travel a good bit, I could see me living/working in Taiwan…raining terror on little Taiwanese children.
Motorbikes/scooters/mopeds…whatever
Whatever you want to call them….they are EVERYWHERE! I haven’t been to any SE Asia countries, so I am sure it isn’t as crazy as Vietnam or anything, but there are a shit ton compared to Korea. 
Taiwan is definitely a motorbike country. They have special street markers for only the motorbikes because there are so many. Just like in Korea, the traffic laws are suggestions and not really “laws”.
Taiwan vs Korea ESL
I love scooters, so this is a definite positive for living in Taiwan. You get to pick (I guess you HAVE to) your own apartment because the schools do not provide you with one, but you Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: night markets taiwan, South Korea ESL, taiwan, taiwan beer, Taiwan food, taiwan motorbikes, taiwan strip clubs, taiwan temples, taiwan travel, taiwan vs korea esl, Taiwan weird food