As I wait for Greys Anatomy to Load....

Horray for the weekend!

H1N1 panic is back in style. This time, though, it seems like people have a real reason for it. At least one of my students flat out told me "Oh, I was gone last week because I had swine flu." Yesterday we were forced to wear masks during passing time in class. It was kind of like an impromptu Halloween costume. I'm so nervous that my kids are going to get me sick. Kids always get you sick. On Thursday, my 3:30 class had one kid in it--out of nine or ten.

Honestly if they are going to close the schools, they should do it now. It won't be good because we won't get paid for the time that we aren't working, but I would welcome the vacation--and then I wouldn't feel so guilty if I ended up getting sick too.

Right now I'm feeling nervous about a lot of logistical things that I need to figure out. My alien card and passport are still being handled by the immigration office. That also means that I don't have health insurance yet, but it is officially out of my (and my bosses') hands. I have seen, here, though, that even if you don't have insurance, health care is not as exorbitantly expensive as it is in the states. If I did get sick, it wouldn't put me out too far to get treated, and I'm sure I could work something out post-treatment for pay back.

I had a pretty bad day on Friday. I just don't know what happened. I wasn't feeling the vibe, and I was just.. out of it. Achey, tired, and be-masked. No energy to get the kids going. (Actually, they didn't make us wear the mask while we were teaching. Just when we were walking around in the hallways.)

The kids from the other hagwons were also mysteriously absent in the hallway on Friday. The only other kids I saw were the ones from the Taekwondo hagwon. Actually, funny story about the Taekwondo Hagwon... one of the teachers is about my age, and bows to me EVERY time he sees me. It always makes me feel good, when I'm not having a good day. Like, "my kids might think I'm an idiot and hate my guts, and have no respect for me, but at least this random taekwondo master respects me and what I do." I mean, he must respect what I do, because he doesn't know anything about me other than what I do, and he really appears to bow out of genuine respect. It's weird, but quite comforting.

Maybe this is why, in the states, we have MEA weekend. The teachers have to plan and everything, but it's a good excuse to kick the kids out of the school during the sickest months of the year--get them to play, recover, and not get the teachers sick. Then again, when teachers get sick in the USA, they have substitutes.