So I finally sucked it up and went to an ENT specialist after my last class. It was a slight hassle because I forgot to bring my passport (i.e., foreigner ID number) and they didn't accept my health insurance card; but at least another English teacher was there for essential translations and moral support. Otherwise, my experience with the Korean health care system was nothing but pleasant. I was called in to see the actual doctor (not a nurse or medical practitioner) in a matter of minutes and he did a thorough examination of my ENT, with the finest care. He also happened to speak an incredible amount of English, for which I was certainly thankful for. Yeaaa, I wanted to give the doctor a big ol' hug.
Turns out I have a moderately severe case of bronchitis. Apparently, the cold turned into a sinus infection, which then dropped into my bronchial chords, likely due to exposure to some virus. So now I'm on 4 different medications, which are really strong and making me exhausted. Hopefully that means that they're working. But the whole experience was SO CHEAP! Even WITHOUT insurance, the doctor's visit cost a mere $14 and all the prescription meds cost me a whopping $10. Seriously, America surely has something to learn from the Korean health care system. This experience solidified my belief that it's possible for a public health care system to provide high quality services at affordable prices that all citizens can afford. I simply cannot imagine a better arrangement.
Anyway, I plan to spend the entire weekend resting at home. I'll go back to the doctor on Monday afternoon and hopefully by then, there with be some improvement. Assuming I take all my medications and get sufficient rest, the doctor says I should be all better in a week. Let's hope so... But let's get back to all the exciting things that happened last week. So Momma and Gramma arrived safely in Korea late Thursday night (Sept 29th) and stayed in Seoul at my great-aunt's house. Monday, October 3rd was Gaecheonjeol ("The Day the Heavens Opened Up"), also known as National Foundation Day. This holiday commemorates the day that Dangun Wanggeum founded Gojoseon, the first state of the Korean nation, on the 3rd day of the 10th lunar month in 2333 BC. Since I had off from school, they came to visit me in Daejeon and meet my host family!
October 3rd marks exactly 3 months since I've arrived in Korea. But it definitely seems much longer than that when you're dealing with a lot of new experiences, culture shock, and missing loved ones back home. It was SO wonderful to see my Momma and Gramma. They arrived around 11am, with a big suitcase filled with my winter clothes and lots of hugs. Immediately we started catching up and I showed them pictures of my time in Korea, thus far. Seriously, I have the best family in the world!
Since it was a national holiday, my entire host family was home and eager to meet my real family. Everyone got along so well and we stuffed our faces full of the delicious feast that my host mother prepared. After we had sufficient time to digest, I gave my Momma and Gramma the official tour of the city. I showed them my neighborhood and the walk to school, stopping by City Hall and the Galleria Department Store along the way. All in all, it was an awesome day. Below is a photo of my Gramma and I at City Hall. Unfortunately, that is the only picture I have of this special day. While I regret that I didn't capture this day in photos, it's surely one that I won't soon forget.
My Momma and Gramma spent the night in Daejeon and came to visit my school the next day. I was so excited for them to see my school and watch me teach. Being that it was the week before midterm exams, I rightfully anticipated that my students would be distracted and comatose. So I wanted to come up with a fun way to help them review the 5729 vocabulary words that they are required to know. Therefore, I decided to teach a lesson called Vocabulary Olympics, with 3 different events. First, I broke the class up into 4 teams and had them choose which country they wanted to represent. The class that my family observed chose obvious ones like USA, Korea, France, and England. But some of my other classes thought it'd be amusing to choose obscure countries like Uzbekistan and Myanmar, or funny ones like North Korea and Kenya (the name of the Fulbright teacher before me).
The first event was a simple matching game. Countries would take turns sending players to flip one green card (Korean word) and one red card (English word). If the words matched, then the country received one point. The second event was game of Pictionary
It turned out to be a super hilarious lesson. Especially entertaining were all the funny drawings during the second event and all the innovative ways that students tried to explain the words during the third event. For example, one student choose the word "regular." When an explanation of "not special, normal" failed to work, the student took a creative route. She cleverly said, "This is a size of pizza." Almost immediately, her entire team shouted the correct answer, REGULAR! All the students, my family, and I started laughing uncontrollably. XD
I truly believe that learning should be enjoyable. My students work incredibly hard and for many of them, my class is their only "fun" period of the school week. As a foreigner and native English speaker, I feel that my role is to make students excited about learning English and become more confident in their speaking abilities. Vocabulary Olympics may not be the most academically rigorous lesson. But I guarantee that every student had fun and because of it, they will be able to recall the meaning of a difficult vocabulary word by associating it with a memorable drawing or funny explanation. At the very least, this lesson helped diffuse the enormous cloud of tension and pre-exam jitters in the air. As far as I'm concerned, this is the definition of success.
My Momma and Gramma had a great time watching me teach. I swear, I should bring guests to my class every day. As soon as my students saw special visitors in the room, they turned into little angels who were well-behaved, stayed awake, and were eager to participate. It's clear that my family is so proud of me and all that I'm doing in Korea this year. That makes me believe that all my hard work and endless hours of preparation are completely worthwhile.
After my class, they had to leave to visit my Gramma's friend who lives around the Daejeon area. While it was sad to see them go, I'm so pleased that they got to visit my stomping grounds and see me in action as "Danielle Teacher." Stay tuned for more adventures with the family in Busan and Seoul!
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