Conjunctivitis, Maybe?

No blog yesterday, sorry folks! Not much of interest happened at work, besides getting a box from my mom, and having a girl's night dinner with Michelle after work. When I got back home, I was so tired I was actually IN BED by 11:30. I read until midnight then couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.



This morning when I woke up, my left eye (which has been having a film on it every morning, but I attribute that to my contacts), was a little irritated. A bit crusty (sorry if that's TMI). I didn't think anything of it until I got up to take a shower. When I looked in the mirror, my eye was pink. Yep, folks... looks like only 3 weeks into working with the little monsters and they've already infected me. I wasn't totally sold that it was pink eye, but both my mom and Michael agreed when they saw a photo of the eye. I took out my contacts and took a nap before work, since 8 hours the night before wasn't enough. ;)

When I got to work, I was worried that A) my coworkers would be afraid or grossed out by me, B) my boss would send me home and I would get in trouble for taking a sick day and C) that it would get worse (wasn't itching, but knock on wood!). I went straight to Jackie Teacher and showed her my eye. I was a little surprised that she reacted not like "OH NO one of my teachers has a contageous infection of her eye!" It was more like "Hm... what the hell is wrong with your eye, woman?" I wasn't sure she even knew what it was. I showed Michelle Teacher, who was sitting right next to where we were talking.

The conversation was a bit confusing, since it happened between me, Jackie Teacher, Michelle, and all the other Korean teachers as well. I think they were trying to figure out if there was a doctor I could go to in the building. (Side note: although I probably should go to a doctor for this specific issue, I have noticed that Koreans go to the doctor for everything). Michelle suggested I go to the "chemist" downstairs and see if he has any eyedrops. I agreed and she accompanied me to provide invaluable translation services.

We got to the chemist (drugstore) and Michelle explained to the man (I assume that's what she did, since he seemed to understand). She asked if it was itchy and I said "No, not yet..." He went around the corner and came back with a small box. I inspected it, and it has packaging similar to a prescription (a word you can't pronounce with small italicized words beneath it). It had a little asterisk that said *conjunctivitis,* so I asked did I need a prescription? She said no, I could buy it. I asked the price, and was told it was 3,000W (around $3). Wow! Prescription medicine, without a prescription or insurance, for $3. I love Korea!!

I headed back up to the 4th floor where our school is, and settled in to my daily routine. Grade papers, prepare my daily lesson plan, get together any extra materials for classes, go over powerpoints needed for the classes, and used my 20 extra minutes of spare time to do some research for vacation next weekend! It's Korean Thanksgiving (Chuseok) and Tab and I have plans to do a little traveling in Korea.

My classes were okay. My first class with the devil's children was okay. So far, I've had Phoebe Teacher with me every day, and while she doesn't help much by way of discipline, she does the grading for me which is helpful. At the end of class, one of my students, Julie, came up to me and said "I am your love" which I took to mean something like "I love you" hahaha! She is a good kid, easily distracted, but sweet and does try. I gave her a hug and said "yeah, Julie, love you too." Who knows what she actually meant, but she was smiling and it was sweet.

The rest of the classes passed without much of note. Almost all the classes have a test next week, so we are preparing for that. And in each class, I made the kids use hand sanitizer before leaving class. Haha! I refuse to start the pink eye epidemic. I was very proud of my 2SAP class, since Rachel aced her re-take of her Word Quiz.

I've realized that there are quite a few students that are bright, but they can't concentrate on reading assignments. If I talk the questions through with them, they get the right answer almost every time. But, they get very lost during tests, quizzes, even daily assignments. It's sad because while America is definitely over-medicated on ADD drugs, Koreans see it as a sign of weakness or inferiority to be diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. Some kids genuinely need it. Many just need stricter parents, or a better study environment, but I can't really help that.

I asked Jackie Teacher about my bed (still broken on one side) and she said that she still doesn't know if the director will be able to get me a new mattress tomorrow (Saturday). She said probably yes, but she couldn't confirm with him because he didn't come to work today. I am paranoid that if I leave to go hiking, and they replace the bed, that they will take my foam mattress topper. I guess before I leave tomorrow, I will strip my bed for them and pray they do replace it...

Tonight is a chill night. Off work at 8pm, I came home and made pasta and chicken with zucchini. For dessert, I treated myself to a cup of ice cream from the Baskin Robbins around the block. I could only eat about half, but it was good! I am going to clean my apartment tomorrow before the hike, and probably go through some storage I never bothered to clean out when I moved in. I guess that's about all to tell tonight... I hope this weekend is relaxing and fun :)