Depressing....

Woke up to this lovely article in the New York Times about student suicide in Korea. It seems to be rampant. It was brought up in one of my classes and everyone knew someone or knew of someone that had committed suicide. The oldest kids I teach are in 8th grade. It is very messed up and it doesn't really seem like there is a lot being done (though I could just not be well informed). One of my students said that they were given a card with a number to call if they wanted to talk to anyone but their parents would be notified if they called the number which seems pretty counterproductive.

3 Months of Real Life is Waaaaay Too Long

So we are coming up on three months living and teaching in Korea! We finish our term next week and the following Monday will have a whole new set of classes and students and hopefully will be able to correct all of the mistakes we made with our first classes. The time here has gone really fast but more due to the fact that I feel like I am constantly working than the fact that I am constantly having fun. Not to say that there hasn't been lots of fun. I spent Saturday (after a stupid morning of having to work) drinking sangria and beating people at hearts and eating and it was lovely. But mostly I work. Getting out at ten makes the day seem so much longer, I would really prefer a more standard schedule but I do enjoy my hot yoga in the mornings.
It is pretty overwhelming to think that only three months have gone by though and that we will continue to work non-stop until we leave. So nine more months to go. Not that I am counting or anything. I am just not used to a seemingly endless work schedule. While Busan is a great city it doesn't quite have the fun concerts and outside eating that most places in the US have and there seems to be a bit of a lack of exciting things to look forward to. To try and remedy that I have just ordered the Korea Lonely Planet- one would think that it would have occurred to me to bring this key item but no, I needed to fit all my shoes in the suitcase. Anyway, I am hoping with the arrival of this book Danielle and I will begin planning a few more outings or simply a little more sight seeing around Busan. I am also excited for the coming summer. Its been wonderfully warm the last couple of days and will probably continue to heat up until I never leave my apartment because I can't really handle heat and humidity. Until then I plan on making use of our roof which, though not as exciting as 2 Sutton Place South does have some nice greenery and benches. I spent about 30 mins up there on Sunday and got sunburned. It was awesome. Soon it will be beach weather and then everything will be wonderful.
I feel guilty that I have done relatively little in the three months that I have been here but I try to remind myself that if I was living and working full time in the US I would probably be sitting on my ass 90% of the time too. But since I am not in the US that excuse doesn't quite fly. I am only planning on being here a year and I definitely want to take advantage of that. But I tell myself that that doesn't mean that I can't spend a Sunday here and there sitting on my sofa all day eating and watching TV.
Besides work seeming eternal things are going well, summer is on its way and my mom has promised to send me a care package with New Yorkers (but I definitely miss you all)!

World DJ Fest

So last weekends adventure to Seoul was quite successful and quite tiring. We left Busan at 10 and got to Seoul about 2.5 hours later. After a quick lunch of some delicious mexican we began our subway journey out to the festival. It took about an hour and the train was pretty crowded so we had to stand for most of the time. Next we had a 15 min walk to the festival. We had been concerned about being cold as we were not camping so we had brought a fair amount of clothing with us which was super heavy and annoying to carry and were regretting this at first but after the sun went down we were definitely glad to have lots of warm clothes. The festival was great, probably the best people watching ever- the Koreans really go all out. Music was pretty good though of course we didn't know any of the groups. It was definitely hard to stay up all night after a long day of traveling and we ended up taking a "nap" in the back of one of the music tents with about 100 other people while the music was still blasting. At around 3 am we decided to head back to the subway as we were cold and uncomfortable. At the subway we had to wait until about 6 for the trains to start and then ride the train cram full of smell and dirty people for an hour. When we got back to Seoul station we were able to get an earlier train and made it back to our apartments by noon. It was definitely exhausting but really nice to get out of Busan for a weekend and be around some live music!

Hopped up on Ma Pillz

So this is the nifty way that Koreans package their drugs. It also seems that whatever steroid I was prescribed has a good dash of speed in it so not only have I been super hopped up all day but I also just had a widely irrational mood swing when the stupid new firefox that I downloaded kept pissing me off. In other news I think I have found the secret to make me an extremely enthusiastic teacher.

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner!

Considerately labeled in English

Three days supply

Just Bought the Best Drugs Ever....the Kind that Make it So I Can Breath!

So I just had my first Korean doctor experience. After about two weeks of being sick and the last couple of days of having a horrible cough and the worst asthma that I have had in an extremely long time my mother finally convinced me that it was not normal and not to be tolerated and that I should go to the doctor. I was pretty resistant as I feel that in general you will just get better with time and that going to the doctor is really not worth it. I have also spent my life being called a pussy for my breathing issue by my brothers so I have learned to just deal with not being able to breath. Anyway Monday and Tuesday were horrible. When I wasn't at work I would try to sit as still as possible and breath very slowly and very shallowly because the minute I tried to take any kind of real breath I would go into spasms of coughing and weezing which would just require more breath beginning a vicious cycle that would result in me coughing so hard that I felt that I might throw up. I'm sure it has been really pleasant for my students to witness these coughing fits for the entire 3 hours of class. Luckily they were all extremely polite and didn't look too freaked out. When I woke up this morning I felt much better and since it was raining was tempted not to go to the doctor since I was already getting better. But I decided I would rather be able to breath easily and set out in the rain.
When I arrived at the clinic there was the standard look of terror on the faces of the nurses when they realized that they would have to speak to me. Eventually the figured out how to spell my name (quite a challenge to spell in Korean it turns out) and I got to see a doctor who had fairly good English. Anyway I explained to him that I couldn't breath and I needed a prescription for prednisone. He did not seem convinced no matter what I said until he whipped out his stethoscope and took a listen to my lungs. He informed me that I was weezing (a brilliant diagnosis) and that not only did I need prednisone but I also needed a bronchial dialator and some other drug. In addition I would need to have a session with my good friend the nebulizer. For those of you not in the know I spent a large part of my youth breathing medicine through a nebulizer. I felt right at home. I also could hear Peter mocking me for having to do something so dorky as breath medicine through a tube connected to a huge machine that made lots of noise. After my session I was sent to the pharmacy where I picked up my drugs (a whopping $10 for 4 pills three times a day for three days).
It was quite a successful trip, I only wish that I had gone about three days ago. I am so used to not being able to completely breath that it doesn't really occur to me that I shouldn't have to struggle to breath to the point of not wanting to move for fear of needing to take a deep breath. Of course it takes my mother who had to spend years going to doctors appointments and giving me chest PT (something I really could have used over these past few days) and worry about me to be able to tell just from talking to me over skype that I couldn't breath and needed to go to a doctor.

I've been washing my closes with fabric softener for the last 2.5 months

So it turns out that my deadly "illness" was in fact caused my the Yellow Dust sweeping in from the Gobi desert and picking up all of China's pollution and then logging itself in my throat and lungs all night while I sleep with my window wide open. It started with a soar throat and progressed to a hacking coach and for the past three days I have sounded like a 90 year old smoker with a pack a day habit. Anyway, it seems to be clearing up now. I am also the only person I have encountered with such a severe reaction (both Koreans and foreigners) but at least I can blame it on years of a severe respiratory disease so I don't feel so bad (if you don't know that I am refering to asthma you FAIL).
Now that my lungs and throat seem to be healing it seemed the perfect time for a quick 24 hour getaway with Danielle to Seoul. We will be attending the final night (of two) of the World DJ Fest. It pretty much seems like a rave but without drugs since they don't have those here (should be interesting to see as I have heard that drugs are pretty key components to raves). Danielle and I opted not to get camping as we figured that since the music doesn't end till about 6 am we should just stay up all night. I figure a night in some bracing cold air along with some shouting and drinking would do my throat wonders. Anyway I am looking forward to our trip as it will be a nice break from work.
In other news (besides the fact that I have been washing my closes in fabric softener- they are very soft and smell very good much not the cleanest) one of the worst part of teaching in a small classroom for 6 hours a day is that it turns out kids kinda stink. I don't notice it until I leave my room and then come back but it is always hot and smelly (and this is everybody's rooms not just mine). Summer should be really pleasant. A highlight of work though is that I get to write on a white board all the time and I am getting quite good at it. I was always so impressed by teachers that could write really well on white boards.