Sick of Being Sick

I should have brought more cold medicine. At least, I think it's a cold. Maybe I'm allergic to the mold in the building, like a couple other girls are, but I've never been allergic to anything. Either way, I feel a bit better today than I did yesterday, although I feel worse now than I did in the morning (maybe it's something in the air at night that's making me have a hard time breathing). It's no fun being sick; I felt extremely homesick and irritable yesterday. Now I'm just trying to take it in stride and have fun. Being miserable isn't going to make it go away quicker.

Either way, people here have been so nice about it. I've been sneezing, coughing, and blowing my nose constantly, but so many people have offered me medicine, vitamins, cough drops, or even just pleasant conversation.

The past two days have been teaching orientations, which are informative for me and boring for you. Well, boring for me, as well.

On Wednesday, a Korean woman came in to teach us how to sing traditional Korean songs and use the janggu, a traditional drum. We learned how to sing Arirang, a song about a woman scorned by her lover. Unfortunately, I grossly misinterpreted the English lyrics the woman put up. "This is not a children's song," she said, and everyone laughed. Somehow I felt this must mean that the lover's feet had hurt because he was exhausted through other forms of exercise. Maybe it's just me; judge for yourself:

Arirang, Arirang, Arariyo...
Crossing over Arirang Pass.
My lover who abandoned me here
Will not walk even four kilometers before his feet hurt

The other great thing about this woman was her fantastic bling.

I'm so excited to get to Damyang and start camp (and be out in civilization again). Wando is beautiful, but with the rain, the quarantine, the lack of businesses, the mountains, and my current cold, it's incredibly isolating. Part of me doesn't really feel as if I'm in Korea, the culture is so far away right now. I don't feel any of the sadness, loneliness, or homesickness I felt so acutely in Japan, but I so far I haven't felt that amazing high that comes with connecting with someone very different from you or making a foreign place home. I'm hoping that changes soon. And if not, there's always my trip back to Nagoya.