There's nothing better

than getting a terrible cold, complete with little chills, 2 days before your 40th birthday. Good times all the way. What make sit EVEN BETTER is I also got my period today. Yee ha!

I've had a cough for about 5 days, and coughs just won't let go until I throw doctor-prescribed meds at it. Today, Anna the head teacher was a dear and came with me to see the Asian medicine doctor on the floor below the school. At this point, I only had a cough that kept me up on Tuesday night (so it was primed to get worse today). I shocked Anna when I told her that I'd had acupuncture before, that you can get it quite easily in the US, which was the doc's recommendation. He left some needles in while resting a smoking little ring of herbs or something on my stomach-- like a car cigarette lighter, but it takes about 15 minute before you feel a little warmth, at which point I summoned him back. He gave me a packet of something I have to drink EVERY BIT OF, leaving none behind, 3 times a day. He suggested taking it like a shot, though it tastes just fine.  It was not long after that the cough morphed into a terrible sore throat, some chills, a bit of aching, and left my voice a raspy, croaking whisper (which I blamed on 2 of my favorite students, who giggled when I told them they had done this to me).

Luckily the pharmacies here are even less useful than in the US-- everything over the counter is herbal and or/totally ineffective, plus they have nothing for helping you sleep. Because besides the cold, I've had insomnia for a week, and even some melatonin hasn't been helping. I'm going to take 1 of the last pills I have here with some wine, in the hopes it'll help me get a LITTLE better tomorrow. I'm also going to volunteer to be shoved around to the appropriate non-English-speaking doctors that are just down the street, thanks to the symptoms I have written in Korean from one of the teachers, plus plenty of charades and showing them what exactly we're all up against. Nathalie told me when she went to a doctor he gave her a pill that had her coughing up massive amounts of unpleasantness.

Would be interesting if the herbs were just that good and have started pushing me through the worsening before it gets better part, though I know that's not likely what we have here.

Nothing, though, will stop me from my birthday celebration, which will be: cocktails at a lovely little cocktail place, followed by dinner in another lovely European restaurant with 13 or so of my friends (including Nathalie, whose birthday is the day after mine), followed by more drinks at a nearby pub (though I plan on keeping it WAYYYY down. Really. No joke) with everyone ALL dressed up, which the Brits in the group naturally took to, because I was definitely born in the wrong country, and even with Brexit I'd rather have that mess to deal with than Dictator Cheeto.

I'd love for all of you reading and the hordes who DON'T read it to come, but it's rather too far. Hopefully the pics won't feature a very wan guest of honor.

Ok, time for some bone broth, mysterious powder, and trying my damnedest to fail at sleeping well tonight anyway.

Quiz time!

You have a 10-year-old boy named Arnold. He is likely dyslexic, and has had some English education, placing in at about level 1-4. There is a 1-4 class with students aged 8, and a 2-5 level class aged 10. Where does he go?

You have a 12 year-old-boy, Dan, who speaks absolutely no English, doesn’t know the alphabet, so should be in a Phonics class. The Phonics 1 (0-1) class is all 6 year-olds. There are 2 classes with 12 year-olds; they are in levels 4-6 and 5-8 respectively. Where does he go?

Your answer, of course, is both boys go into the class that matches their AGE, NOT their level. So, Dan goes into the 4-6 class. With Arnold, you have TWO things to do: ignore and deny the dyslexia, and of course put him in level 2-5 with his peers.

When the native teacher asks if you understand but you didn’t, say yes to the teacher. The 8 times she asks the class if they understand and have questions, as a class just sit there and stare, or nod finally when she asks a few more times, saying, “Yes, I understand.” Then, go home and tell your parents in Korean that you don’t know how to say you don’t understand, when your class is currently writing sentences about hobbies, things you and your individual family members enjoy doing together, so that your parents can call the school and tell the owner that your child doesn’t understand… and doesn’t know how to say they don’t understand or know the English word. Most students don’t remember, apparently, most of the words that they learned in 0-1, nor that putting “no” in front of “understand,” a word you JUST USED, conveys just that meaning. Do not look at the teacher quizzically to convey confusion, or use any words at all to say anything.

In Asia, each year of age means anyone younger has to defer to you. So a whole classroom must now defer completely to the one older student, or the young student can never participate at all, because they must defer to everyone else. It’s likely that the older kid’s parents will scream at the school that their child isn’t stupid, so they shouldn’t be in a class with kids even 2 years younger.

Make sure, as well, that all kids move up a level regardless of their understanding and mastery of the current level, because otherwise their parents will probably get mad and pull them from your school. Many Korean parents, who don’t speak a word of English, believe that simply being in a classroom with someone speaking to them in English for a couple hours/day will give them native fluency in about 6 months to a year. Any slower progress, and the parents get upset because the teachers are bad. Make the native English teacher teach a writing class with high beginners who have never learned the different tenses nor how to make a sentence.  

It is happening. It is finally happening.

Kpop is playing, and I feel even better about Korea than I already did. Who knows? Maybe one day I'll even love it!

This shouldn't be taken to mean I don't like Korea, not by a long shot. It's just that I know I couldn't live here indefinitely as so many can and do.

The only other thought I have is that, while I'm only 2 countries into this teaching abroad thing, I've made at least one friend in each that I just couldn't do without.

Wow guys. Shortest blog post EVAH!

So, you mean, I forgot the most important part?

I think somehow you all knew, but here's how going full-paleo, instead of just soy-,dairy-, and wheat-free.

Here's the pic I posted in December, despairing that I'd have to give up working out, since that seemed to coincide with my breakouts getting worse:

And here is how my skin looks after ditching rice and oatmeal, the only two grains I was eating regularly:

Of course, I realize now that the above was daylight, and this was at night with only the apartment light, but it's still a significant change.

Very unpleasant surprise... or is it?

It’s Saturday. I spent the whole day shopping on very little food. It was freezing, & I was intent on finding the Olive Young beauty supply store because it carries the natural salt deodorant I use. I wandered with 2 heavy bags of groceries for around an hour, unable to find it. I hated giving up, but there was no way I was going to find it, so I went home. I got home & I was really hungry. & really tired. I wanted something sweet, something quick. I am unspeakably tired of prepping and cooking. I still had some gluten-free chocolate cereal from before I went paleo, so I decided fuck it, I’d eat the damned cereal, then it wouldn’t be wasted, & I would get what I want without having to bake as well.  It doesn't have wheat, the large-looming enemy of all. Fast forward about 2 hours, & I was throwing up. JUST A LITTLE, not a full-on emptying the stomach, but there we are. I can’t imagine that my body was reacting THAT strongly to grains after just two weeks off of it, but then there’s my period too.

Usually I get slight cramps a week or so before. I remembered thinking on Friday that this is around the time I should be getting it, but no cramps yet. Saturday afternoon is when I got it. Day one, likewise, is the worst in the way of cramps, but there were NONE. Not a one… until 4 or so hours after the cereal, when they literally came back with a vengeance, as did a much heavier flow. Lesson learned? My body just REAALY likes paleo. I thought it was just sugar that made the cramps & PMS symptoms worse, but I’ve been eating chocolate every night after work. Which leaves me with the other grains that were gone until the cereal.

Soo, between it likely helping my rosacea, prescribed for the Hashimoto’s, & giving me a miraculously easier-to-take period, paleo is definitely going to be here to stay in my diet.