What a strange year.

A little over nine months ago, I thought I knew exactly where I was going to be today. I was going to be in North Carolina teaching my own class (hopefully). My boyfriend would find a job someplace and we would be living together for the first time ever. In 2 days, we would be celebrating our 7 year anniversary. Life would be everything I expected and hoped for.

Needless to say, I am not in North Carolina. I have 8 classes of students and I only teach them English. I live in a huge apartment by myself and hang out with friends instead of boyfriends. I even have a fake boyfriend at work to stop the Koreans from matchmaking. Life is not what I expected, but it is still what I hoped for. Every morning I get up and am excited to see what the day brings. My students make me laugh every day, and even though I am not teaching in the way I would back in the US, I still feel like a teacher. I don't have a boyfriend or a wedding in the foreseeable future, but I have made a lot of great new friends. I can't say I am dissatisfied with the way things turned out. In fact, I think life is going pretty great right now.

On another note, I am sick for the first time in SoKo. I woke up the other morning and was coughing and a little congested. The next day I had no voice and felt like death. The doctors visit my director took me on was so different from at home. I went into the open office, sat in a chair. The doctor asked if I had a fever and a cough and if I had any other symptoms. Then, he looked in my mouth, up my nose, listened to my heart and lungs, and swabbed my throat with something that tasted like black licorice. He told me I had a common cold and laryngitis, which I had already self-diagnosed myself as having. Then he made me breath in this weird green smoke that tasted like plastic. I think it was to rehydrate my throat. Anyway, the doctor gave my director a prescription and sent us on our way. Not only did the visit take about 5 minutes, but it cost about 3,000 won (under $3.00 US)!!! And the prescriptions (4 of them) cost a total of 6,500 won (about $6.00 US)!!! Now, I didn't feel like the doctor really knew me or cared whether I lived or died, but for those prices, who can complain!?!?! If I had a real life-or-death situation, then I would care, but a common cold does not require coddling.

Oh, and the prescriptions I got (remember there were 4), come in little bags. There is one for each time I should take the medicine. I also have been taking a bunch of other Korean drugs to get me through teaching. Here is a picture for your viewing pleasure!