Jen Defies Korean Logic

Yesterday I was out sick because I had an extreme cough and a very sore throat.  The doctor told me I had a ‘mass’ on my left vocal chord.  His English was very good, but I still think the word ‘mass’ kind of means something a little more serious in English than he seemed to think it did.  Also ‘vocal chords’ may have been lost in translation as well, because I've had throat problems before but never did they involve my vocal chords, more likely my tonsils.  Anyway, his advice was not to strain my voice for about a week and to take these two medications he prescribed me.  No follow-up scheduled, so my thinking is that the ‘mass’ isn’t anything to get too worked up about.

Then today when I came into work, my head teacher told me to “take it easy” this week (that’s one of those phrases Koreans really love to use, along with “take a rest”), and that also maybe I should dress warmer.  It’s sunny, in the mid-50’s, and I am wearing my thermal long-johns under regular leggings (not tights, but thick leggings), 2 pairs of socks and suede knee-high boots, a long-sleeved shirt, a thick, long cardigan, and my winter coat, which stays on ALL day at school.  This should be perfectly acceptable (in fact, I’d be sweating indoors most other places) for a day with weather like today, except for the fact that even with the heaters running, a lot of classrooms and all the hallways have the windows open.  Some might say it is counterintuitive to run the heat while simultaneously letting the cold in, but that doesn’t take into account the Korean obsession with “changing the air” in a building.  “Changing the air” means letting fresh air circulate throughout the building, in order to keep people from getting sick.  And everyone (students included) wears their huge winter coat the entire day, while taking off their shoes and wearing slippers indoors (I, however, stopped doing this last semester – it’s just too damn cold to only wear socks). 

Newsflash: perhaps it’s not the ‘unchanged’ air making kids sick, but the freezing temperatures they are forced to endure all day every day, even though our classrooms are indoors and equipped with heaters.  Which is what I told my head teacher, in a much more polite way, when she suggested I dress warmer.  What do they want me to wear, a parka and a ski mask?  Actually, yes, that’s probably exactly what they want me to do.