Sick

Hello again,

              It's 6am on a Monday morning here in Korea, and i've been up all night, sick. Fever, runny nose, the works. If you know me very well from back home, you know that typically, my immune system just goes to town on anything that comes its way. Normally, I'll get sick once, maybe twice a year. I was really sick in January, but that was the first time I had had more than a cold since the beginning of college. I have now been in Korea nine weeks, and this is probably the fourth or fifth time that i've been fairly sick. What i'm pretty sure of is the fact that my co-scholars from abroad are, in some part, experiencing the same thing. It could be adapting to the new environment, yes, or maybe the stress of living abroad, sure, but I really don't think so. In reality, what causes this, especially for the unprepared foreigner, is the attitude towards sickness. People here are sick way more often that people back home, fact. Sick days do not exist, for teachers or students. If you are able to move, in any way, you must show up. This work ethic is amazing for productivity and competition, yes. However, the counter-effect is that you have 3rd graders coughing up a lung, or two, in the middle of class, and within three or four days the entire class is miserable.

               To help matters along, it is not customary to cover you mouth when you sneeze or cough. This one suprised me because you'll see people walking around with masks and gloves on (meaning they are the one's that are sick, usually), and they will uncover their mask, sneeze openly, and then put the mask back on. On friday, a 5th grader, while looking over my computer at something, sneezed on me. For me, if I just unloaded on someone, I would be beyond embarrassed, and I would apologize frantically. But, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and not even an apology was needed.

               I also think that the culture, to some extent, has aspects that help the transferring of sickness. Korea is a peninsula, a small peninsula at that. There are about fifty million people in an area the size of Indiana. This means that people naturally live close together. Apartment buildings are the overwhelming majority of housing, even for the most well off members of society. Also, being a communal culture, everything is shared. At meals, you all take from the plates, soups, etc, regardless of current health status. And just because you are sick doesn't mean you can't talk in very close proximity to someone, i've noticed this on many occassions, personally. This is all oppossed to the American cultural idea of, "This is my space, don't mess with it. Don't touch my food, don't look through my wallet everytime it's sitting around, etc..." Neither culture is better than the other, just different. In fact, many people consider the american ideas to be very individualistic and not based enough on the bettering of the community. Whatever. Like I said, neither way is better, but I get sick here, a lot. 

               While i'm on the topic, let me discuss something that I have yet to get accustomed to in any way. In Gwangyang, there is a hospital, a large hospital, with hearts all around its name. We foreigners affectionately refer to this building as the "love hospital".  It's just a normal hosptial. Anyway, look down at the picture posted below. Being near this hospital, I see this all of the time. In all of Korea, you can never be forced to stay in bed while in the hosptial. In fact, regardless of if you are released or not, you have free reign over, well, the world. The first time I saw this, in Seoul, I thought, "O geez, this guy must be mental. Someone must be out searching frantically for him." However, it is not uncommon to see someone covered in bandages, carrying their IV, sitting outside of the hosptial, smoking a cigarette. Or, while eating dinner, noticing a family eating with one person at the table that has a cart full of machines, oxygen, IVs, the whole getup. If I am one day in the hosptial in Korea, I'm sure i'll enjoy being able to go out to the bar with my friends just after surgery, but until then, i'll still look twice every time I see it.