The Korean Chemist

I have been feeling a cold coming on since this morning. Probably because late yesterday afternoon I walked with a student from Kyungsung past Gwangalli and on to Shinsaegae in Centum City. It only took just over an hour to walk there but it was pretty cold and a bit windy walking on the coast. I have definitely picked something up.

Coincidentally, today in class the topic for level 4 was health care. I was given some interesting advice as to how I should cure my early symptoms of the cold. The most interesting one, and one of the more traditional treatments is to have a shot of soju with chopped red chilli in it. Needless to say, when I finished work, I just headed to the local chemist.

I had one of the ladies at work write down my symptoms on a piece of paper so I could just give it to the pharmacist. So when I walked in she just gave me two packets of tablets. I am just going to pump them in so I don't get any worse. it;s amazingly cheap here - I only paid 2,000 won for one package of tablets and 2,500 won for the second package. If I am taking the dosage correctly that's a whole course for 4,500 won - about AU$4.00!!! That's unheard of in Australia.


I can't afford to get sick here. There is no such thing as taking a day off. Expecially in an adult language institute. It's not like in Australia where they can just call a casual in. Here, it means that another teacher at the institute has to cover your class. But unlike at home, we don't have 'free periods' and people teach all different languages. Having said that, I have covered for one woman with a class when she had an accident falling down a flight of stairs. Technically, in my contract I have 10 sick days but I really don't want to have to use them. Besides that, this is an important weekend for me. I am attending a friends' wedding tomorrow at Centum City and catching up with friends on Saturday night and also on Sunday so I don't want to be laid up in bed.