Wednesday, November 11, 2009

swine flu hits korea. hard.

The swine flu, affectionately referred to as the new flu in Korea so as not to hurt pork sales, is taking off. From what I understand it's already hit the states hard, and now equally so here. Almost every teacher I know has had classes cancelled or school closed. [Please keep your fingers crossed for me!] Some teachers get full weeks off, some get time off unpaid, some have to go in half days, some have to go in one day. I'm hoping for a paid week off. Good luck, right?

Here are my school's current precautions:

1. Students must wear their masks at all times. I was told (after I asked of course, they don't tell us anything) that this is the case throughout the winter. Probably until April. Let me tell you it's a bit difficult having an English class in which the children speak and present when they have something over their mouths. Some of them are shy enough to speak up as it is, much less with a piece of cloth covering their voices..ugh.

2. Children must wash their hands after every class. This is disgusting because I constantly have little wet hands all over everything. Let's stick to the spray!

3. Every child must bring in their own colored pencils, scissors, pencils, erasers and glue. There will be no sharing of any kind.

That's it so far but I'm curious to see how far they will take it before shutting her down. Already a few kids have been out for weeks because of "car accidents" and many a brother and sister are in the hospital (they don't go to the doctor here, it's always the hospital). So hopefully there will be a minor breakout and we'll shutdown. How selfish am I?

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In nicer news the wine buffet was awesome. We had 8 girls show up and we have decided to make it a monthly girl appreciation night. 3 kinds of red, 3 whites, champagne, raspberry magkali and all the kimchi you can eat. Heaven.

Tonight is movie night at Susan's. After our challenge at the wine buffet (you gotta see how much wine it's possible to drink in 3 hours when it's unlimited!) we decided we need a quiet night in and I don't feel like sitting in my apartment drinking wine by myself. So we're going to make salads, have hummus and cheese, drink wine, and watch a scary movie. Tomorrow it's off the base!

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Rando note:
Many of you are probably wondering why I update this so frequently and am on facebook so often. I am finished with class on T/T at 3. They make me sit here until 6 to "lesson plan." This usually takes me all of an hour, and that's if I'm going all out. So play on the internet I will!

1 comment:

  1. today i havent had a full class. there are between 1 and 3 kids missing from each room! shut it down. shut it down.

    ReplyDelete