Shut.Down.Everything

"President Madagascar! There's a man coughing in Brazil!"
"SHUT.DOWN.EVERYTHING"

Well, the past few weeks have gone by in a blur. Aaron had caught a cold, which means that inevitably, it was passed on to me. I lasted 4 days before I succumbed. I was sick for around 2 weeks, with the last week consisting only of constant coughing. I ended up taking 3 days off from work as I had not been sleeping well due my cold and from evil mosquitoes. Neither Aaron nor I caught the H1N1 flu as we did not even have a fever, but the cold left us both feeling exhausted and weak. It was definitely not a fun time for us as neither of us had the energy to clean, make dinner, or even go outside.
Braving the outdoors the Saturday after I caught my cold, Aaron and I decided to go volunteer at the animal shelter. Aaron decided to sleep in longer, so I went at the usual time. However, it was still too early for me to get out of bed and I ended up feeling worse afterwards. It was back to bed for me for the rest of the weekend.

The H1N1 hype is increasing and when I was sick, many of my teachers asked me to go to the hospital. Apparently the hospital is the same as a clinic in Canada. However, after my experiences with doctors in Canada, more specifically, in Nova Scotia, I stayed at home to nurse my cold. I am sure it would not have made any difference anyway. As Aaron and I work at rural schools, there are less students getting the flu than if we had worked in Daegu. None of my students have had the flu and only 3 of Aaron's students from Goryeong middle school were out with the flu last week. Last week, the Korean government had been deciding whether or not to close all the schools for two weeks, but as of today, only a few schools in Seoul have been closed. I highly doubt there will be any school closures in my area. However, the problem is that teachers come in from Daegu to teach in the country, so their children go to the schools in Daegu and transferrence occurs from there.

Surprisingly, even with the H1N1 warnings and the cancellations of so many school festivals and fieldtrips, Ugok middle school went to Gyeongju for a fieldtrip last Friday. I'm glad I had the opportunity to attend and was extremely excited as Aaron and I haven't traveled much since we got here. We visited Bulguksa, a famous temple (I'll post pictures when I remember). We also went to a writing center that was opened by a famous novelist and a poet, a Buddhist statue in a cave, and a music box museum. The fall scenery was amazing in the mountains and there is a lot of old temples and shrines in Gyeongju as it was the capital of the Shilla Dynasty.

November brings about a new month and also a new school schedule for me and Aaron. He has taken over my position at Gaejin middle school while I have been moved to Dasan Middle school on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I'm a bit disappointed as I really enjoy working at Gaejin Elementary and now my time there has been dropped down to one day. Today is my first day at Dasan Middle school. I am not really sure what to think yet. It's going to be really cold in the winter because I need to take a bus to Dasan, then wait for the school bus to come pick up the students at the bus terminal.

Next week, Aaron and I will be going to Seoul to visit my friend Scarlett whom I met in Nova Scotia. We're going to all go to a friend's wedding on Saturday, then Aaron and I need to go look for some winter clothing that may fit us (more especially him). The sizes we have seen in Daegu are ridiculously small.

It is almost time for winter vacation, so Aaron and I are planning to go to Hokkaido... not sure how we will go about it yet....