So it's technically day 4 but I didnt get in untril nearly midnight yesterday and thought bed would be a better idea. I am currently eating a fried egg sandwich and drinking diet coke. Not the most nutritious healthy lunch but Ive been dying for one since last night.
Yesterday I was picked up (late) by Mr silent from the airport. Bless his heart. He'd obviously been lumbered with the new girl despite not speaking a word of English. First job was to go to the doctors to make sure I didnt have the dreaded swine flu. I think I concerned them because I had a temperature so I was asked repeatedly whether I had any 'nasal symptoms' or a cough. I dont have a cough but I definately have 'nasal symptoms' I didnt tell them this naturally. I didnt fancy being locked in my room for a week. They then took a swab from my throat which didnt come back with anything so I reckon its just a sinus infection.
After the joy that was the doctors we went via the school to the hospital to have another health check so I could get a ID card. The school is literally 5 minutes from where I live. Its very modern and bigger than I expected, but then Im not sure what I expected really. I was introduced in passing to quite a few people, shook lots of hands and went off to the hospital. It was about a 15 minute drive so I got to see a little more of the city. I saw the mountains properly for the first time. Its very pretty here and a little like being in Wales, minus the sea. We also passed a big catholic church (not something youd expect to see in Korea really) and an airplane turned into a restaurant. Speaking of churches, quite a number of people are christian here. There was even a teenager in the doctors who was wearing a hoodie that said 'Jesus loves even me' whether he knew what it said or not was a different matter.
Back to the hospital...We got there and I had to fill in a very bizarre form in bad English. They were basically trying to establish whether I was a drug addict or depressed I think. It even asked me whether I had lost my 'joy de vivre' so they decided to put French on a form in badly worded English. It made me laugh out loud which was probably quite rude, oh well. Once we had established I was neither mad or a drug addict I was moved upstairs to give wee and blood. My possible favourite language barrier moment so far is when nice Mr Silent man had to try and gesture to me to pee in the cup. He was slightly embarrassed bless his cotton socks. Luckily I did need to go so pee retrieved it was time to give blood. The doctor had trouble finding a vein so I spent about 10 minutes being prodded and having my arm slappes by an old Korean man. If that is not noteworthy I dont know what is!
So, perhaps more importantly, I went to work. I met lots and lots of Americans but they were all very sweet to me. Once I'd got back from the hospital it was their lunch time so I was adopted into their little clan and off we went. I was asked around 50 times whether or not it was cold in Britian and why I wanted to come to Korea. They were all really friendly and spoke English though which was all I was really bothered about. We went into what they called 'the orange place' which was literally a place to eat that was Orange and they called it this because they couldnt pronounce the name. I had my first Korean food in 'the orange place' I started small and simple and copied one of the other teachers who was having 'cheesey om rice' which is exactly as it sounds. An omlette filled with rice in a tomatoey based sauce with cheese on. Regardless of what it was it was very nice. We also had some side orders which involved Kimchi and some very odd looking grey eggs. They were very nice though. After that we went back to class and I was given a schedule of what I would be doing this week. I am basically sitting in on lots of other peoples lessons, making notes and filling in forms about it. The standard of the teaching and the standard of the pupils English seems to vary quite a bit.
