I really want to just soak in a tub.  My kingdom for a tub.  Last time I was a little sick, (this is the THIRD TIME since coming to Korea, and I’ve only been here a little over three months) Y told me to go to the jim jil bang.  I guess that’s what sick people do.  Great.  What a perfect place to pass germs around, a public bath…Anyway, I can’t afford a jim jil bang right now.

I’ve been just sweating buckets, and I must wash my sheets and clothing.  Not looking forward to that, (and grossly, I haven’t washed my sheets yet) because the washing machine wrings the hell out of everything, and that means ironing the sheets.  I would just buy some new ones if I had the 40,000 won it costs.  Maybe I can send them to the cleaners instead.

The medication the nurse gave me doesn’t do shit, and I just took the last ones.  Fortunately, I still have the mysterious “water pills” Mi Young gave me my third day in Korea.  Those seemed to reduce the fever a little.

So last night I set my alarm as usual, only I slept through the alarm.  A half hour after classes already had started, I call Y and she asks if I can make it in and I tell her I don’t think so.  Then I email her wondering if I am in trouble, calling so late, and she says no, everyone is just concerned.

A few minutes later I get a text message, “hope to see you soon.”  And then another, and another, and another, and then, “hope to see you soon and that you recover from your illness.”  Got about a dozen of these from the students.  Y says the students asked for my number, but I’ve got a sneaky suspicion she gave it to them as an English texting assignment.  That’s just the kind of thoughtful thing she would do.

A couple hours ago I got a text from my co-teacher.  It diplomatically said she was sorry I was sick, and could I let her know next time.  I didn’t have her phone number;  misplaced it since she gave it to me on a little slip of paper long before I had a phone.  Well, we’ll see if I get counseled on this when I return to school tomorrow.

Monday there was quite the buzz in the office, since the Hankyoreh21 had an advertisement in the daily newspaper with the cover on it, and some blurb about my story.  So everyone is duly impressed and sorry for me at the same time.  Now that the issue is out, and they will all be reading it, I wonder what they’ll think after they read the details.  I wonder what the details are, since I can’t read Korean. I’m not sure if it’s about me, or if it’s my own words that were published.  It’s a 12 page spread about international adoption, and my portion is 3 1/2 pages.  I will go check if it’s on-line, and then maybe I can get a machine translation.

Though I should be studying Korean, as I have class tomorrow.  But actually, I think more sleep is in order…

ADDED:

It IS available on-line if you’re a paying member, but since I’m a foreigner I can’t access anything Korean on-line.  Maybe I’ll pay my tutor to translate it for me.