Healthcare in South Korea

Since it's our last week in Korea, I've been going through all bills and receipts that I've collected the past two years.  Yes, I am "one of those people" - I save bills for at least one year.  While going through everything, I came across all of our medical receipts.  In the past two years, we've (I, really) managed to rack up quite a few!

You might think, "So what?  Big deal!"  You're right.  If I were back home, there is no way I would share this information with you.  However, I want to share with you just how awesome the Korean healthcare system is.

As you can see in the picture, one or both of us went to a doctor or the hospital at least 25 times.  When I calculated the total cost, it only came up to 1,607,380 Won (~$1,600.00).  I added in 200,000 Won for the various health checks we were required to get and 300,000 Won for Zach's wisdom teeth removal.  That's a total of 2,100,000 Won (~$2,000.00).

What's more impressive is what the costs included:

• a trip (or two) to the E.R.
• 10 sessions of laser hair removal
• a tubal ligation where I had to spend the night in the hospital 
• a vasectomy
• and countless infections

What's not included is the medication.  However, each time we got medicine, the average cost was about 5,000 Won.

I guess the moral of the story is that if you're going to get sick, the best place to do it is probably South Korea!

Election Day in Busan

Today is a local election day which means we don't have school!  Candidates trying to get their names out there is very similar to candidates in the U.S.  Banners, posters, and advertisements of all kinds are everywhere.  However, it lasts only a couple of weeks instead of months and months.

A stack of flyers that were in our mailbox last week.

A stack of flyers that were in our mailbox last week.

Posters on the bridge outside of my school.

Posters on the bridge outside of my school.

And these have been going really strong for at least the past two weeks:

Well, happy election day, Busan!

Tubal Ligation in Busan, South Korea

If you are reading this and are family or friends, yes, I recently had a tubal ligation.  (I haven't told everyone I know.  Sorry if you are finding out this way.)  However, this post isn't about my decision to have the procedure.  This is to help others who are interested in getting this done while in Korea, specifically Busan.  While I was doing research prior to getting the procedure done, I couldn't find anything.  I hope this helps if you are wanting one but don't know how to go about doing it.

I went to a gynecologist, Dr. Shin's Women's Clinic located near Lotte Department Store in Seomyeon.  She was a great doctor and spoke pretty decent English.  Her phone number is 051-803-5551 if you want to make an appointment.  However, she tried to talk me out of having the procedure.  Thinking that I'm too young is a common reason people didn't want me to have it done.

So, I contacted Suyoung Lee (이수영) at Smart Hospital in Bujeon, Busan.  Suyoung Lee works in the International Department at the hospital and has been so much help to me.  Her e-mail is seinsy@naver.com.  If you have any problems, you can just send her an e-mail and she will get back to you as soon as she can.  The hospital website is www.smarthos.com.  However, she said that Smart Hospital does not perform tubal ligations so she referred me to Ellium Women's Hospital.

To contact Ellium Women's Hospital in Jangsan, Busan, you can call 82-51-933-0239-0230.  You will probably speak to Olga.  Or, you can do what I did and fill out the information on their website, http://www.elliumintl.com/en/kontakty/, and someone will call you back fairly quickly.  I made an appointment for a Saturday morning to talk with the doctor.  To get there, take the Green Line, Line 2 to Jangsan (the last stop) and you can take either Exit 11 or 13.  Go up to the 10th floor.

My husband went with me to talk to the doctor.  The doctor spoke pretty good English.  We were put to ease talking to him.  We scheduled my tubal for May 3rd.  That was a long weekend as Monday and Tuesday were national holidays.  I wanted to have a longer time to recover before going back to work.  He was kind enough to agree to do the surgery on a Saturday.  I was surprised to find that I would have to spend one night in the hospital.

I highly recommend that you bring your partner or a really good friend with you on the day of your surgery.  For some reason, they had my husband sign all of my paperwork.  I was completely knocked out and they performed a laparoscopy.  Everything went well.

When the anesthesia wore off, they took me to my hospital room.  I was not given a call button in my room.  That is why it is a good idea to have someone there with you.  You will need to tell the nurses when the IV bag is empty.  I wasn't checked on as much as I would have been if I were in the States.  Also, bring your own water bottle or cup.  You can't drink for probably 8 hours after the surgery, but once you can, they will not provide it for you.  Once you are allowed to eat, they will bring you food, however, they will not give you eating utensils.  Also bring along slippers to walk around in.  My husband left in the evening so that he could sleep at home.  He could have slept in my room, but it would have been fairly uncomfortable for him.  He came back in the morning before I was discharged.

I had my surgery on a Saturday and I have to go back to the hospital on Wednesday for the doctor to be able to change my bandages.  However, my "bandages" are band aids.  So, I'm not really sure why I have to go back.  I also have to go back this coming Saturday to get my stitches out.  I was told that I cannot shower until my stitches are not.  That just will not work for me, so I put gauze over my stitches and use tape to make it "waterproof".

My total bill was 750,000 Won.  I even got a private room.  Oh, I did pay almost 75,000 Won when went to talk to the doctor the first time because they did blood work and an EKG.

I was given three days worth of pain medication and antibiotics.  I've taken extra Acetaminophen only a couple of times.

I hope this has been helpful for anyone in Busan who is interested in getting a tubal ligation but doesn't know how to go about doing it.  If you have any specific questions, you can always leave a comment and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

One of the Best Inventions

THIS has got to be one of the best (or at least pretty great) inventions of all time.  What is it?!  It's a bell.  What's so great about a bell, you say?  If you want more water at a restaurant, just press it and the server will come.  If you want to order your food, just press it and the server will come.  If you want your bill, just press it and the server will come.  I think you get the idea.

Many, many restaurants in Korea have bells just like this.  Servers will leave you alone until you press this bell.  At first, I felt pretty rude pressing it.  Now, I hate when restaurants don't have it.  Some bells are on the wall and some are directly on the table.  When you press the bell, your table number shows up on a small box on one of the restaurant walls.  (It's similar to a restaurant giving you a number to wait to be seated.)  When your number shows up on the box, a server comes over.  Otherwise they leave you alone.  It's a perfect system in my point of view!

First World Problems - Choosing What Socks to Wear

I know many of you are waiting for posts about our recent trip to Thailand.  I am working on those and should have them posted in the next couple of days.  In the meantime, I have another topic I want to tell you about - socks!

That's right!  Socks.  Along every major pedestrian walkway, there seems to be one or more vendors for socks.  These socks are super fun, super cheap (~$1.00/pair), and super comfy.  Zach and I both have quite a few pairs and will probably buy more.  One of the stresses of my life includes picking out which fun socks I will wear for the day.  :)

Ordering Food at HomePlus

Here is another video about everyday life in Busan, South Korea.  As I've said in my previous post, we eat out more than we cook at home.  Here is another example of ordering food.  This time, it's in the food court of HomePlus.  HomePlus is a grocery store similar to Walmart.

Ordering McDonald's for Delivery

As part of my new idea to write about our everyday lives, we made a short video about ordering McDonald's for delivery here in Korea.  Lately, we have been ordering McDonald's at least twice per month - we eat out more than we cook.  We're not proud of that fact, but it's just how it is.  So, this is a perfect example of our daily life in Korea.

                                               

Daily Life in Busan, South Korea

A friend of mine mentioned in an e-mail that I haven't written in a while.  It's true.  I felt like I didn't have anything interesting to write about.  However, her e-mail got me thinking.  Though I live a normal life such as going to work, hanging out with friends, occasionally going to the gym, etc., it's still different enough because I am living in another country.  So, I have decided that I am occasionally going to post about the most basic things in our lives like grocery shopping, getting on the metro, ordering food, etc.  So, be on the lookout!  :)

Christmas 2013 in Pictures

Merry Christmas!  메리 크리스마스!

2013 was the strangest, least Christmas-like Christmas we've had together.  Neither one of us really got in the mood.  It was the first time in probably five or six years that I didn't send out Christmas cards.  We did have three friends come to our apartment on Christmas Eve to celebrate with snacks, drinks, and games.  We also had an impromptu lunch with two friends on Christmas Day.  Both events were really nice, but it just didn't seem like Christmas.  What's really shocking to me is the fact that I only took four pictures.  So, I will share those pictures with you.  Enjoy!  They are pretty random, but it fully describes our Christmas.  Haha!

Christmas socks I bought to get us in the Christmas mood.

I tried to get a better picture of our socks....

Waiting to meet our friends for lunch.  People across the street were giving free hugs so I got a Christmas hug.

After lunch, we went to a cupcake cafe.

Dancing to K-POP Every Wednesday

Everyday, the students get a 20 minute break between 10:30-10:50.  Usually they just go outside to play.  However, for the past two Wednesdays, all of the students in school have gone outside and loud music is blared over the loud speakers.  Two weeks ago they did the following dance:

From left to right: 1st grade-6th grade

I asked one of the teachers why they were dancing.  She told me that they actually performed this dance last semester but that they didn't take enough pictures so they were just doing it for the pictures.  Haha!

Last week they did the following dance:

From left to right: 1st grade-6th grade

I don't know why they were doing this dance.  I really like watching the younger kids trying to do the dances because they actually tried.  They may not remember all of the moves, but they sure tried!  The older kids could care less.

Dancing Police

My school is across the street from a police station so it didn't seem strange to me when a bunch of police officers invaded our playground the other day.  I was sitting in my 5th grade after school class teaching the idiom "piece of cake" when a girl in my class started laughing and squealing.  In a limited number of words, she tried to explain to me that the police officers where trying to do a dance cover of a really popular Korean song/music video, Crayon Pop's "Bar Bar Bar".  (I had to do some research to figure all of this out.)  Below is the original music video.

Apparently, it's been really popular for police officers to do dance covers of this song.  Below is one of the most watched dance covers.

Here are some pictures and a very short video of the police officers practicing at my school.

Want to see more dance covers?  Click here.

Problems in Paradise

No, this is not a post about marital problems. Ha!

For the most part, I love living in Korea!  It truly is an easy life.  Yes, there is the language barrier that can be frustrating at times, but it's not always an issue.  I don't have much work to do even while I'm at work.  My housing is paid for.  I get to save a lot of money.  I get to travel to other countries (soon!).  However, there is one specific thing about Korean life that I cannot stand.  It's the education system.  When I was working in middle school, my eyes weren't open to the way the system works.  I never saw my co-teachers in action.  I taught the whole class by myself.  I tried my best at all times to teach them as much English as possible.  It's way different in elementary school - at least in my school.

Here's how a typical class runs (3rd-6th grade):
1.  I greet the class and ask them how they are, what is the date, and how is the weather.
2.  My co-teacher "teaches" for 20-25 minutes.
3.  I "teach" for 15 minutes.

The way my co-teacher teaches is he has everyone get out their dialogue sheets.  These sheets have English, Korean cheats for the English words (phonetics of the word written in Korean), and the Korean meaning.  He says a word or phrase and the students repeat after him.  Why is that not my job?  The kids are repeating bad English when they repeat after him.  He then has them self-study the words and phrases.  Then, he says the Korean word/phrase and they say the English equivalent.  If they get it wrong, he bops them over the head with a toy hammer that makes a squeak sound.  That's all he does for 20-25 minutes.

Then it's my turn.  My job is to play the CD that goes along with the book.  We spend about five classes on one lesson.  If I am able to finish the book before those five classes, I am able to create my own material and games to do in the class.  I think this is fairly typical in most classes with a bit of variation depending on the teacher.

Corporal punishment is technically not allowed in the classrooms anymore, but my co-teacher definitely still uses it.  He hits kids on the head with a small stick, hits them with the toy hammer, etc.  He also has them stand in the back of class with their arms straight out in front of them.  The kids that get this type of punishment are usually the ones who don't do their homework.  However, not all kids have homework.  If a student answers a question in class, they are exempt from homework.  The kids that don't answer questions are usually the ones who are struggling in the class or have learning disabilities, etc.  So, the kids who struggle are required to do homework that they don't understand.  When they don't do it, they have to stand in the back of class and suffer while class continues.  While they are in the back of class, they don't have their books in front of them, they can't answer or ask questions, etc.  It's such a vicious circle!

I've even been told to ignore students.  The students that I'm supposed to ignore are the ones with learning disabilities or the students who act out or don't try.  I definitely do some ignoring - ignoring my co-teacher, that is.  Instead of ignoring students, I think we need to give them attention.  I agree that I shouldn't focus all of my time and energy on one or two students, but I am definitely not going to ignore them!  I had an "I told you so moment" with my co-teacher this week.  One of the students he told me to ignore, I definitely didn't.  I helped him find the right page to be on and even gave him a pencil when he couldn't find his.  The next time I had him in class, he volunteered to answer two questions and when I pointed at him to answer, he got them correct!  I am just finishing my 6th week here and not once has he raised his hand to answer before.  I just wanted to stick out my tongue to my co-teacher and say I TOLD YOU SO!

I know that not all schools and/or co-teachers are the same as mine, but there are some basic similarities.  I know there's not much I can do about it except be the best teacher I can be for 15 minutes every class.  I just feel sorry for the students who are lagging behind because they are probably not going to have a chance to ever catch up.  It just makes me sad how we are failing these students.

Other than these issues at school, all is well!

Beer Marts

My friends and I just recently (in the past couple of months) discovered one of the greatest things about Korea.  They are called beer marts.  They are basically convenience stores that have bar seating.  You walk in and grab as many drinks and snacks as you like and pay for it at the counter, just like at a convenience store.  Then you take your goodies and sit down at a table or booth with your friends and enjoy your night.  The prices are the same as in the convenience stores.  If you buy popcorn, they pop it for you and bring it to you when it's finished.  It's really one of the neatest things around.  Just take a look for yourself!  (Sorry, I didn't get any pictures of the seating area, but just picture any bar that you've ever been in.)

Getting Our Teaching Certificates

The title says it all.  Zach and I are going back to school to get our teaching certificates.  We got e-mails this week saying that we are in: "Congratulations!  You have been accepted into the October 2013 TeacherReady®cohort."   We are going through TeacherReady which is a 9-month online certification program out of Florida.

About 3 weeks ago, some friends of ours (J & K) brought to our attention that they had applied for the program which starts the first week of October.  They mentioned that we could start in the February intake if we wanted.  We discussed it that night and decided that if we could get into the October intake, we would go for it.

You might be wondering why we are doing this.  Neither of us really had any intention of becoming teachers.  After being abroad and seeing what opportunities are open to us, we decided that getting teaching certificates was our best bet.  For a few months now, Zach and I have been planning with J & K to teach in the Middle East starting sometime in the Fall of 2014.  Having teaching certificates opens up many more jobs for us and pay would be a lot better.  We also talked about getting jobs with the DOD (Department of Defense) teaching abroad.  We would be employed by the U.S. government, working oversees.

I know for many friends and family, this is hard to news to hear.  I've already had several questions about being abroad:
1.  Are you EVER coming home?
2.  Don't you like us?
3.  What's wrong with the U.S.A.?

Short answer?  We love what we're doing and want to do it for as long as we can.

So it starts.  Classes begin on September 30th!  Wish us luck.

If you want more information about the program, click on the TeacherReady link above or visit their Facebook page.

Supper Club: BACON!

This month, it was our turn to host Supper Club.  I am so happy with our choice for a theme that I just have to share it with all of you.  Our theme was......BACON!

The appetizer was mini BLTs.  Danny and Eun Mi did a really wonderful job with these!

Josh and Kalie did the salad which was just delicious.  It was so much more than just a salad with bacon bits.

Zach and I made a cream pasta with....you guess it!  BACON!

For dessert, Jordan and Ferrin made caramel- and chocolate-covered apples with bacon sprinkled on top.  It definitely hit the spot!

There is always a specialty drink and this time was no exception.  In keeping with the theme, Zach and I served bacon infused vodka and mixed it with apple juice.  Since we are not going to find bacon vodka in Busan, we made it ourselves!  We fried up some bacon until it was pretty crispy and soaked it in vodka for a few days.  Then we drained it using coffee filters.  It was quite the experience but I don't know if we will be making it again.  It was ok, but I don't think I'll be craving it any time soon.

I love Supper Club and cannot wait to see what next month has in store for us!

Elementary School Is SO Different From Middle School

It's been a while since my last post.  Sorry about that!  Well, I have officially moved from middle school to elementary school.  I was terrified about the move.  In hagwon I taught elementary kids, but that was almost 3 years ago and it's completely different than public school.  I had heard some horror stories from friends who taught elementary school and was pretty nervous about going.  But, I am starting my 3rd week and can honestly say that I love it!  Below, I will give you an idea of what my week is like.  Please remember that this is MY experience in elementary school.  Each school is different; therefore, each elementary school experience is different.

3rd & 4th Grade
I have two 3rd grade classes and two 4th grade classes and I only see them once each week for 40 minutes.  At the beginning of each class, I greet the kids and ask them about what day it is and how the weather is.  My co-teacher and I check any homework they may have.  I then stand in the back of the classroom for 20-30 minutes while they practice key words and dialogue from the chapter with my co-teacher.  I am supposed to correct any speaking mistakes and make sure they are on the correct page in the book.  I get the last 10-15 minutes to do activities from the book or activities that I come up with.  My 3rd graders are still pretty excited about learning English and usually participate really well.  Getting my 4th graders to participate, or god forbid raise their hands, is like pulling teeth!  But, I think they are warming up to me.

5th & 6th Grade
I have two 5th grade classes and three 6th grade classes.  I see them twice each week for 40 minutes each.   [At the beginning of each class, I greet the kids and ask them about what day it is and how the weather is.  My co-teacher and I check any homework they may have.  I then stand in the back of the classroom for 20-30 minutes while they practice key words and dialogue from the chapter with my co-teacher.  I am supposed to correct any speaking mistakes and make sure they are on the correct page in the book.  I get the last 10-15 minutes to do activities from the book or activities that I come up with.]  Sound familiar??  Haha!  My 5th graders aren't too bad about participating.  My co-teacher gives me candy to bribe them to answer.  It works pretty well.  One of my 6th grade classes is full of trouble makers and students who don't want to study.  The other two 6th grade classes are really great about participating which is a little unusual from what I hear from my friends.

5th Grade & 6th Grade After School Classes
On Mondays, I have two 5th grade after school classes and on Tuesday I have two 6th grade after school classes.  They are called after school classes but they run from about 2:30 pm-4:00 pm.  During the first period, we learn a new idiom and draw a picture of it and write the definition in our idiom books.  Then, we spend about 10-15 minutes in the BEPA book.  The best thing I can relate it to is an I-STEP prep.  Whatever time is left over in that period and the next, we do a lesson.  These lessons are supplementary to their classroom lessons but I have a lot more flexibility and can go beyond the book.

2nd Grade
I have one 2nd grade class once per week for 40 minutes.  This class is totally up to me.  It was suggested that I go over some key vocabulary, read a story and ask questions about the story, do worksheet or coloring sheets, and then review the ABCs.  My idea has been to have the theme be around the book that I'm reading that day.  I've had one class and that seemed to go over really well!

Kindergarten
I have two kindergarten classes.  I see each of them once per week for 30 minutes.  I have one class of 5 and 6 year-olds and one class of 7 year-olds.  I was absolutely terrified to teach these classes.  I had no idea what I was going to do with them.  However, I was told to just play with them.  I was also told that the kids in my school were mostly lower-level students.  So, in kindergarten, some of them can't even understand when the teachers speak to them in Korean.  This past week, I taught them for the first time.  I taught them 'stop' and 'go'.  Then, we went outside and played Red Light, Green Light.  They absolutely wore me out!  But, I am no longer scared of the class.  They are a ton of fun and playing with them will be easy!

Adult Classes
I have one adult class at 3:00 pm every Friday and it lasts for 40 minutes.  The adults who attend are teachers and staff from my school.  As with the kindergarten classes, I was terrified to teach this class.  This past Friday was the first class and it wasn't too bad.  Forty minutes actually goes by fairly fast.  I had eight students show up last Friday (this number will constantly fluctuate according to how busy they are).  The four women want to discuss practical English and the four men want to discuss news and things that are happening around the world.  I hope I can find a nice balance.

In total, I have 22 teaching hours per week.  Each 40 minute or 30 minute class counts as 1 hour.  The rest of the 18 "hours" is mine to plan for the classes.  I only have one co-teacher in elementary school compared to the five I had in middle school.

Once I feel a little more comfortable in school, I will have to take some pictures.  These kids are so cute!

Video of New Apartment in Busan

Here is the video of our new apartment.  To see how we went about getting our apartment, click here.

My Favorite Street Food

My favorite street food is called Hoddeok.  You can read about it here.  But basically, it's a pancake with something sweet inside with any combination of brown sugar, honey, and cinnamon.  It's a popular street food in the winter because it's prepared hot right in front of you.  For me, not eating hoddeok in summer because it's hot is like saying I don't eat ice cream in winter because it cold.  Yeah, right!  At my favorite place to get hoddeok, it only costs 900 Won (~$0.90).  What a great snack - delicious and cheap!  Below is a quick 30 sec video of a street vendor making hoddeok.

Oh Happy Day!

Right after lunch, before 5th period started, a familiar voice came over the intercom.  The voice sounds a little something like this since I can't speak Korean.  (*see video)

The speaker didn't get to finish talking before screams of pure joy rang out in the halls.  Kids started to run down the halls giving each other high-fives.  It was chaos!  I thought school had been let out for the day.  (I could only be so lucky!)

I asked my co-teacher what all the fuss was about.  She told me that the air con (air conditioner) for the school had been turned on.  That's right!  It's July 9th and the air conditioner is being turned on for the first time this year.

"Has it been cool weather in Busan?" you might ask.  Hell no!  It's been HOT!!!  I can handle the temperature; it's the humidity I can't stand.  For those of you using Fahrenheit, it's been in the low to mid 80's.  That's 26-29 Celsius.  But, it's extremely sticky.  The classrooms get so hot during the day, especially if there is no wind.

And, though the classrooms may have the air conditioner on, my office does not have air conditioner.  So, I am stuck with the windows open and the fan on high.  Oh well.  I can do this!  Only 8 more days left in the semester.