First Bad Cold...

Foreign teachers sometimes get upset (I hear) because sick days don't quite work the same way here (like... you can take one if you get hit by a taxi, but maybe not if you're so stuffed up you can't breathe. You're expected to show up all the same since there's no one really to sub for you). Well, I'm so stuffed up right now that I'm pretty much entirely breathing through my mouth. I didn't actually try to ask off from work, because from what I've read, it just isn't done by Korean teachers, even if I DO have sick days written into my contract. Have to get permission from the principal or something. I'll save those days for the slim or moderate chance that I become rather more ill.

I'm going to look at the positive aspect of having to come to work: I have all kinds of sympathy from teachers, little gifts of peppermint tea, and then a student who was in the class I taught right before lunch just brought me a hot can of coffee to help soothe my throat! Aww... :) And then he asked me questions about pronouncing some unusual words from the student English newspaper. What a good student. There seems to be a small medical center or school nurse's room or something, and several teachers said I can get cold medicine there or just rest there for a while after my classes. Maybe I'll take Tina up on her offer to show me how to get there later.

Just two more classes to teach today and then I'm going to give myself some rest this evening. The only thing I really have to work on is to start writing/finish thinking through the lesson plan for the teacher classes I have for the first time tomorrow. I did make some comfort food for dinner last night: homemade chicken and rice soup with some vegetables in it for flavor and color. It was delicious, and there was enough left over for a quick and easy meal tonight too. Nothing like chicken soup when you're not feeling well.

Plus, I found Korean "throat candy," which seem sort of like cough drops. I've seen two flavors so far, fruity (pink candy) and herbal (dark brown). The former is better in my opinion. ...Not that I can taste much of anything right now.