Hilary Meets the Land of the Morning Calm

It is time I write a post about the swine flu frenzy here. In fact, part of the reason I have been able to catch up on my blog is because my school has closed its doors, from Wednesday until next Monday in reaction to the swine flu epidemic.



Since I arrived here in Korea, I noticed that people were much more concerned about the swine flu (or the oink as some expats call it) than back home. My first day teaching, every single kindergartner was wearing a face mask. I had been in Korea over a week and a half and was clearly in good health, but I think some of their mothers thought it best to use some caution with the newly arrived foreigner. Antibacterial lotion is used as often as soap, and the slightest cough or scratchy throat is tightly monitored.

When I began my job and my responsibilities were described to me, it was also explained that new headquarters policy required foreign teachers to notify their school if they were planning on taking an international trip. This is because upon return we will required to sit in quarantine for a week after our trip, with paid deducted, in order to prove that we didn't contract the swine flu from abroad. As the flu has become more prevalent in our area, they have also required all staff members to take their temperatures in the morning upon arriving to school and at night before leaving in order to monitor our temperatures.

To my knowledge, several of my students and coworkers were diagnosed with H1N1, but they have pulled through just fine. I fell ill myself on Monday (probably from the aftermath of a cold rainy and sleep-deprived Halloween). Monday I was very low on energy, felt achy and had the chills all day (part of that was due to the fact it was 32F outside and nobody was turning the heat on in the building, in fact many windows were kept wide open!). Tuesday I was congested with a runny nose, and had a fever of 38C (100.4) when I walked into work, though energy-wise I didn't feel that bad. Surprisingly they let me work (perhaps because we were already short and they didn't have anyone who could replace me. In the evening before my last class, my boss had me check my temperature and it was up to 38.2C (100.7) and she asked me to go to the hospital. I convinced her to let me go home and sleep it off, and she relented. My fever did get higher that night, just over 102 at its highest, but by the time I woke up in morning I felt much better. As I hung around in bed my temperature continued to lower until it was at 36.7 (98.1), my normal temperature, and there it stayed.

My boss called to check up on me later in the morning and she agreed I didn't need to go to the hospital. I am glad she agreed on this: the H1N1 test is 200,000W (close to $200) and is only reimbursed by insurance if you test positive. Its night time now, and looks like I'm in the clear. Did I have the oink? We'll never know for sure, but if I did, it should be down right ashamed of itself!