Koreans and the Swine Flu

In the whole time that I have been here, I have not felt a feeling of complete non-understanding as this whole situation with the Swine Flu. So here is this flu that is being passed around that no one has any immunity to because it is a brand new flu. It sounds a little scary when you hear that. Yet, if you read articles from the CDC and WHO, then you know that this was just a mass scare that although could have been bad- wasn't.When I first got to Korea, I was quarantined for 2 weeks. Ok, that could probably be understood. The Swine Flu was in the US and a quarantine was probably a good idea. 2 weeks was a little extreme, but if it made the parents feel safer then so be it. After this period, it seemed that the fear sort of dropped. At least until about three weeks ago. I, not understanding the Korean news and being out of school, had no idea the Swine Flu had hit Korea. I found it odd that every time I went on the Korean Air Base in the past three weeks, that the Koreans (wearing their masks) all took my temperature. I just figured it was a new policy and let it go. 1 week and a half ago I went out to lunch with Yunny who told me that the Swine Flu had hit Korea and 2 people had died from it. Well that explained the Koreans taking my temperature. I find this such an odd thing that they are so scared of this. Maybe it is the scientist in me but the Swine Flu is just a type of the flu. The people that died from the swine flu, would have probably died from a regular flu. "The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted that although this was a very serious virus, cases worldwide were usually mild, and most hospitalizations and deaths had been of persons that also had underlying conditions such as asthma, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, or a weakened immune system". Maybe it was just their time. Apparently I am a minority in this thinking here though. Yesterday I started back to school. As I am walking in the school, some of the teachers took my temperature with their masks and gloves on it. They were taking everyone's temperature before they were allowed in the school. Then they cancelled our school sports day set for a month from now from fear of the swine flu. I asked why because I could not grasp this idea. They told me because the families of the students would be up here and could pass on the Swine Flu. I told them back "If the families had it, then the kids would get it at home and pass it on." Like I said, apparently I am a minority in my thinking. So today I come to school and now they are more organized at the temperature taking. The only thing is that when they took my temperature, there was no cleaning of the ear cover or changing of the plastic. Completely unsanitary. I told Yunny that if a child did have the swine flu and they took his temperature and then took another child's, then they just passed the flu on. I am not so concerned with the swine flu as I am with ear infections. There are tons of bacteria that live in the ear. Yuck. I told them that I am bringing my own disinfectant tomorrow before they stick anything else in my ear. More kids have on masks today. The funny thing with the kids wearing masks, as I observed yesterday, is that they take it off in the classrooms. It's like their parents told them to wear it and they wore it just long enough to appease them. It's very amusing. I learned today that if any more cases of the swine flu hit Korea, then they are closing all the schools. Good grief. I mean how long can they do that? The flu in the US stays around for months. Are they going to keep the schools closed for months? The Korean's are very serious about this. I read a blog yesterday about a Hogwon teacher (Private Academies) that caught the Swine flu in Seoul. The doctor put him on a regiment of medicine and told him to check back in a week. His temperature was gone after the week. The school was not satisfied and said that he needed to stay home longer. He said fine, but I should still get paid because this is your choice for me to stay home. The administration threatened to fire him and five hours later they called him and did fire him. They stated the reasons that parents were threatening to pull their kids out if he came back. Ok, completely unfair and unnecessary. First, if the doctor cleared him then that should have been enough. Second, since he has had the flu already, he is the least likely to get it again. The children's parent's are more likely to give their kids the flu then this teacher at this point. The point of this is just to explain the seriousness that the Korean's are taking this. These are the same people that believe that fans can cause death by hypothermia, so I guess the Swine flu is a bigger deal than that! In their defense, there are millions of people squeezed very tightly together here. If there was to be a mass epidemic in one of the countries of the pandemic, it would probally be here. It is a good thing that the swine flu was not as severe as first thought. I just hope this whole scare will be over soon.

Kimchi

Kimchi. Ahh Kimchi- it's either a complete love or a complete hate. Kimchi is a staple dish here in Korea. Korean's eat kimchi with almost every meal and I really mean almost every one.. It is a taste that you learn to crave. I had never had kimchi before I came here but I was warned about it. Most kimchi is made from cabbage but that is not all. Kimchi is also commonly made with cucumbers, radishs, or turnips. Not to mention all the types of kimchi that I have eaten that I really don't know what vegetable was used in there. My warnings included "it is rotted cabbage (false)"," they bury it for months or years (true)", "it is way to spicy (false-well it is spicy though)". Kimchi is a very spicy food. It should be- the main ingredient is red pepper. There are so many different recipes for kimchi that I will not even go into. Common ingredients are sea salt, onion, garlic, anchovy, and brine. Alot of work goes into the making of kimchi. There is a kimchi making demonstration in Seoul that I have not made it to yet, but I will. Apperantly, it is popular for the women to get together and make kimchi. Here is the kicker with kimchi- the fermentation. Kimchi has to ferment for at least three days, preferablly a month or so, and it is best within 2-3 years. Ok, so they do bury the kimchi for up to three years. THey have special pots that it is buried in. Kind of crazy when you think about it. But is it really? Our ancestors used to hang meat up for long periods of time. That sounds crazy now, but it was the norm back then. Kimchi has been around for over 3,000 years. That is along time for a recipe to stay around. The magazine Health named kimchi in its list of top five "World's Healthiest Foods" for being rich in vitamins, aiding digestion, and even possibly reducing cancer growth. They must be doing something right then! There is a belief here that kimchi prevents Koreans from getting certain diseases including the flu. There are videos on youtube about the Kimchi warrier. I showed my class one on the kimchi warrier fighting off the swine flu. Is it true? Maybe. There haven't been any cases of the swine flu here. It could be just careful prevention, but who is to rule out kimchi?

I found this information on a kimchi website, "One study conducted by Seoul National University claimed that chickens infected with the H5N1 virus, also called avian flu, recovered after eating food containing the same bacteria found in kimchi. However, the veracity of these results has been questioned due to the very small sample size of only a handful of chickens and the fact that no subsequent research supported the claims. During the 2003 SARS outbreak in Asia, many people even believed that kimchi could protect against infection, although there was no scientific evidence to support this belief. However, in May 2009, the Korea Food Research Institute, Korea’s state food research organization, said they had conducted a larger study on 200 chickens, which supported the efficacy of kimchi in fighting off avian flu.

So we don't really know either way. We do know that it is healthy though and therefore I will continue eating it. My first taste has turned into a love of a food that I did not know anything about. Kimchi will probally be the thing I miss most when I head home! The true benefits of Kimchi may remain a mystery to me but the taste sure doesn't!

Things I will apreciate more

I have come to really appreciate the small things since I have been in Korea. There are so many things that are different or things that Korea does not have that the United States does. The first thing is pickles. Anybody that knows me know that my favorite food is pickles and I would probally die without them. Korean pickles are not real pickles. They taste like bread aand butter pickles and I do not like those. Thank Goodness for the base. When I finally got a pickle, it was so wonderful that iI will never not appreciate pickles again. This goes for popsicles-well flavor ice too. Korea popsicles are real fruit popsicles- there is no biting them and getting a bite of ice- just a bite of a frozen smushy fruit. I think the biggest thing that i will appreciate when I get home is the bathtub. Since my whiole bathroom is the shower and all I have is the shower head, I do not have a bath tub. I miss laying in hot water reading a book with bubbles in the bathtub and a wine glass at my side. Ahh... Another thing is the dryer. I absolutley hate hanging my clothes up and waiting two days for them to dry. Not fun. I am an American. I like instant gratification. I do not have the patience to wait on the clothes to dry!! I miss my oven. I do not have an oven so nothing can be baked, or roasted. I can not make desserts or casseroles. My biggest thing is how do i cook thanksgiving dinner for my husband without an oven? My wonderful best friend Bree suggested a fryer. I can just see me out on the Sidewalk cooking a turkey for thanksgiving. I'm sure the Korean's will get a kick out of that one!! LOL. I miss television. I have become so dependent on ovguide, project free tv, and all the other free tv internet streams. The idea of watchiung tv unpixilated is proposterous!!! I can not wait. COrey and I have joked that we will not leave the couch and the tv for a week straight when we get home. Driving is a big thing I miss. To just get in your car, crank up the tunes, and drive. At least Corey has a car here. The smell of gasoline when he was filling up gave me such a warm feeling of home. It's wierd how smells can trigger memories

So although I am really enjoying Korea, there are definatly things I miss. So tonight watch tv, make brownies, dry your clothes, go for a drive and think of me!!

Korean Yoga

So I have been taking a yoga class for about a month here now. Yoga in Korea is different than the Yoga I was taught in America. Maybe I was taught wrong or maybe it is just different, who knows. Anyways, so my yoga class is at the gym within walking distance from my class. I go three times a week and my Korean co-teacher takes it with me. I haven't got to go in a week since I have been sick so I am looking forward to today's class. The breathing was a difference to me in yoga. I was taught that in Yoga, you are supposed to sound like Yoda when you breathe. Yet I made the noise while breathing and my teacher tolkd me not to. My teacher can speak a little bit of English luckily. In class he uses no english so most of the time I look over at my neighbor or he comes and places my body in the positions that he wants me to be in. All the people in my class are older than me- two of them look to be at least 60 or 70 years old. The oldest lady in there is probally the most flexible. Everytime I look at her, her legs are over her head or she is doing something that my body completley refuses to do. I don't know any American's her age that can do what she can do. Or any people my own age for that matter! Yoga here is just as soothing as at home. The positions are different and there is no mantra or namastae (if I spelled that right) as there is at home. The word that gets said often is mescal. I don't know what it really means but I have figured out if he says mescal, it is time to switch positions! The people in my class can not understand me so every once in awhile the teacher will ask me the new Korean words I have learned. Last time I replied- Pay go paw (which means I'm hungry) and the whole class laughed at me. To them I am just the little foreigner (weiggoogan) that is attempting to do Korean yoga with them. The more I have gone to class the more flexible I have gotten and the less that the teacher has to put me in a body position. I think that the repetiveness of the words allows me to figure out what position I should be in next. Anyways, the class is a lot of fun and I am very glad that I have been able to experience an Asian yoga class.