Inside a Korean clinic

Monday our director finally took me to the hospital to get the medical checkup required for immigration. It's a bit strange being prodded by people who don't speak your language. I just needed a chest xray, blood draw and urine sample. It took all of 15 minutes. We walked right in and were seen right away and it was all really fast.
A few odd things...
For the urine sample we were given a paper cup and told to go to the bathroom in the hallway by the elevator. No plastic cup with lid. No printed label. No little shelf/door to put the sample in. We had to carry it back through the waiting room as is. They gave us a lid when we brought it back, which was a bit strange, but oh well. No one seemed to give it a second glance.
For the blood draw I was really nervous. I have a serious aversion to being poked with needles. So as soon as I put my hand down and she started slapping my elbow I turned away. They had to pretty much force my hand to unclench when they were done because I didn't understand when they said I could let go. My director laughed at me and said, how will you ever have a baby? I told her I try not to think about such things.

Also that day we got our apartment fitted for curtains. Finally. It will be nice to have a little privacy in my room! We didn't bother getting them in the living room because they are really expensive. It will still cost a lot but I think it's worth it. 125,000 for each bedroom. Small price to pay to be able to walk around in your skivvies if the mood strikes.

So today I discovered that I am apparently coming down with my first Korean illness. Just seems to be a cold, I hope. Started with a sore throat yesterday and cough today. That's pretty much all it is actually. But that's not real good for someone who has to speak all day. I went to the pharmacy after work with Hannah to get some cough drops but the pharmacist handed me a box of pills instead and told me to take 2 with every meal. I really have no idea what they are. Some kind of cough suppresant I guess. It's a bit disconcerting to take pills which I can't identify, but it's not like I bought them on the street. I took some tonight and found myself really tired before going to TKD...but of course I went anyway. However I suspect these pills are NOT non-drowsy, so not sure about how it will go taking them tomorrow. But I'm going to go for it anyway. Normally when I get a cold I just ride it out and it's fine, no meds or anything. But i figure with the unfamiliar Asian strains of whatever's out there, I should go ahead and use the meds since my body may not know how to fight it on it's own. Luckily it's apparently really easy to get cold medicine anywhere! The pharmacist I saw spoke excellent English so i"ll have to keep that in mind. Plus now that I'm getting my alien registration card I will be able to go to the doctor if I need to. For super cheap. Gotta love non-American healthcare systems!

So now for the daily taekwondo update. Feel free to cease reading here if you are tired of hearing about it. Fair warning.

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Last night I had been practicing a phrase I could ask my instructor..what did you eat for dinner? But when it came time to ask it I got really nervous so looked at my phone to read it...but since it was in hangul i read really slowly and got even more embarrassed, and Hannah said basically I f'd it up.
So tonight I practiced again. Only this time the phrase was, 'when will we eat together?' So Hannah was changing and I went up to him, and said, Sabanim, 언제 저녝 가치 먹어요? And it worked!
He understood! So they answered me (they were both there) and said Thursday. And we talked about what we should eat. And I asked him how to say 'Thursday' in Korean and the older one told me but I 'struggled' with it, and looked at him and he helped me get it right.
So Hannah came out and I told her in Korean, Mo-ah-il! Mogda...konchigah...? And they helped me clarify.
So then they suggested actually maybe we should go AFTER class to a restaurant nearby? And of course we emphatically agreed that this was a better option.
So Thursday night after our hellish class with the kids, we will go out to dinner with the 2 masters! Yay! That is, if we can walk.

So damnit, this cold better not be worse by then. No way I'm missing this.
;)