Medical Attention

Our school got a bad run of eye infections. I don't know exactly what it was, only that dozens of students had pink-red eyes and had to sit in the back of the classroom to avoid contaminating others. The word on the street was that the going rate for rubbing an infected classmate's eyes was 500 Won per rub, plus an additional 500 Won bonus if you actually got sick. The school had to change its policy so that sick students were quarantined rather than sent home to curb the purposeful spreading of disease. Personally I thought 500 Won was a little cheap (about 50 cents). On the other hand, if you pay three different kids to rub their eyes (to increase your exposure), do you have to pay ALL of them the bonus if you get sick, since it'd be pretty hard to prove which was the "lucky" rub? I was wondering.

In other news, I hurt my knee a month ago while running for exercise. It still hasn't healed completely, and I was worried about it but avoiding the doctor, as usual. So Dong-Yun convinced me to go to acupuncture with her instead. I agreed since I've never done acupuncture and I was curious. Today was my second trip. So far there's been no noticeable change in my knee, but I did get to experience some traditional Korean healing. Plus some kind of electro-therapy.

I managed to snap a photo, too. Surprisingly, despite my childhood fear of needles, the pins didn't really bother me. They hurt just a little bit going in, but after that, it just feels a little prickly, but not painful. Both times the treatment included receiving some kind of electric pulse therapy (which did hurt) and an ice pack. We're going back on Wednesday. Dong-Yun, meanwhile, is in for a slipped disk. I guess it could be worse.

"Camping"

I forgot to post about this. At the end of the summer vacation, Mrs. Yu asked if I wanted to go "camping" with her church group. I like those people, so I was glad to say yes! I wasn't sure what to expect, and indeed, I didn't hear anything more about it until the day of the trip. So I threw a few extra things in my bag just in case I needed them. One of them was a swimsuit. Good thing I did! On the other hand, it wasn't what you or I would usually term "camping."

Basically, we stayed at a lodge in a small village resort spot. The whole area of the countryside was full of resorts, hotels, and swimming spots. The rivers were full of people playing and swimming. I spent much of the trip (including the car rides) with the Ha family, one of the members of the church group, and one I like very much. Their middle-school-aged daughter, Sun-Yoon, speaks good English and is exceptionally friendly, smart, and cute. She informed me that the rivers were full of Korean children and fathers, and that Korean mothers were all camped on the shore, hiding in the shade of the tents. She went on to teasingly explain that her mother, like all Korean mothers, was afraid of any water that was more than ankle-deep.

The resort was near a famous mountain spring which remains frozen all summer long, despite the heat. We hiked up to see it, although there was no ice at the moment, only blasts of cold air coming from under the rock. The weekend was a great one, with good weather, and the location was beautiful. Click on the cut for some photos!