Teaching kindergarten without a voice is a nightmare

This past week I've been sick with some kind of flu, probably the initiation sickness that all teachers get when arriving in South Korea. At the start of last week I woke up and ended up throwing up all morning, having an extremely sore throat, runny nose, and fever. I hadn't been able to sleep in two nights as a result. I was online and my friend, Christina, advised me to go to the hospital. I'm used to living in a culture where you don't go to the hospital unless you're dying or something, as it's so expensive and many times unnecessary, but here in Korea things are different. The people go to the hospital for everything, and it's incredibly cheap. You know your in a different culture when you're walking down the street and there are two men limping along in front of you wearing hospital gowns, bandages, and crutches (just noticed the one guy isn't acting so normal, either), or when you're in the grocery store and there's a woman pushing not only her grocery cart, but an IV stand as well, along side her. I've seen this a lot since getting here- people just take their IVs, needle, bag, stand and all, and walk out on the street or go shopping. My co-worker/friend, Paula, likes to say it's sort of a fashion statement here.

Anyway, I took my friend's advice, called up my co-worker, Dave, and asked him to show me where the hospital is. He took me there, asked for an English-speaking receptionist, and then went back home. I thought I'd be fine, seeing as there was an English speaker, but as soon as Dave left they ushered me into another room where a NON-English-speaking doctor was waiting, and left me there. I sat there wondering how I was going to communicate to him what was wrong, and then became terrified thinking, "what if they treat me for something I don't have, or give me a shot or something?" The doctor started asking me all kinds of questions in Korean, and I just kept nodding yes to everything and then pointing to my throat (that's the short version, anyway. I'll save you the detailed hand motions and confusion that I should be used to by now). He did some tests to check me out, typed something into the computer and then sent me back out. I found the English-speaker, and he told me my doctor's bill is 14,000 won (about $14) and printed out the paper the doctor had sent over, which turned out to be my prescription. He then pointed me in the direction of the pharmacy and sent me to get my medicine. I walked to the pharmacy, showed them my prescription, and then waited until they came back out with two bottles of liquid and a string of packaged pills. The pharmacist then went about trying to explain to me what I should do with the medicine (another round of confusing hand motions and words I didn't understand) and I just kept nodding and hoping I'd be able to figure it out on my own. This is all guesswork, but I think one was a cough syrup, one was a minty liquid for gargling (I'd bet it was just mouthwash), and then the pills were antibiotics that I guessed I was supposed to take three times a day, according to other teachers who had been sick. That bill came out to 11,000 won ($11).

The next day my voice was coming and going, and I could barely squeak out words. Nevertheless, I had to go in and teach kindergarten, which requires me to read, sing, and dance. I tried my best to do all of this with a little help from cds, and when my voice failed me completely, I gave the kids a page to color, from the lesson. Later that day, when I went in for my afternoon classes, my boss called me in and said he had received a complaint about my teaching from the kindergarten director (who wasn't even there!). She had written him a letter saying that it is not good for the kids to just color, and that the teacher needs to be more interactive with them. I was pretty mad and attempted to tell/show him (my attempt was proof enough) why I was not able to sing to the kids for the ENTIRE class time. He started laughing and said he would explain to her my situation and that he understands but since it's business, they probably wouldn't care. He told me to just have my kids do writing exercises for my afternoon classes so I wouldn't have to talk, even though I knew that would be impossible since my kids need to hear me yell before they will do anything productive. I asked him what I should do about kindergarten the next morning if my voice was still gone, and he told me to ask my co-worker, Dave, to take over for me. Dave hated that, of course, and tried to get the class cancelled, but these Koreans are crazy and can't cancel one kindergarten class, even if the teacher is sick. Dave ended up taking it over for me and then the rest of the day kept saying that he felt like he was getting a sore throat, too (I'm convinced this was just his way of getting out of another day of kindergarten). My boss let me leave my afternoon classes early that day, and pulled me aside to tell me to call Dave again in the morning, because he wouldn't say no to me. After I left the building, I got a text form the boss which said "if you call Dave, don't tell him about me." The thing you have to understand here is that my boss and Dave have a very interesting relationship. My boss really values Dave as a teacher, so he will do anything to keep Dave happy and not upset him. Dave knows this but will still do anything Mr. Lee asks him to do, he'll just complain as he does it. Anyway, the next day came and I was feeling a little better so I decided to avoid any Dave/Mr. Lee drama and take the classes myself. I'm still coughing but at least I can yell at my kids again :).