Korean Doctor Visit

Ok, as most of you know I have been sick this week. I was terrified to go to a Korean Docctor after reading stories on the internet and to get to the army base, I have to get on two trains. Who wants to get on two trains when they are sick? Not me, so I convinced myself that I would get better in a day or two. The Korean teachers were worried about me, so on the first day of my cold I was handed a package of chinese herbs and a black bottle of some unidentified liquid. I was told to take a sip of the liquid and then pour the herbs in my mouth and swallow. Oh my gosh- it was the worst. The herbs were not the worst part it was the horrible black liquid. It was thick like syrup and super bitter. They told me it would heal me and suprisingly that day I felt better. The next morning was another story. I made it through another day of classes and they offered to take me to the doctor and I refused. Day 3 of my cold, I woke up with the worst sore throat. I had no voice and the cough progressed. On this day I asked my Korean co-teacher if she would take me to the doctor. She agreed and said that we would go after classes were over. I struggled through the day but made it. We left the school and we showed up to the Ears, Nose, and Throat doctor. We walked right in and ther ladies at the counter asked for my alien card. The next 5 minutes I stared into space as my co-teacher and the ladies talked about me. I was brought immediatley into the doctors room. The doctor's room consisted of a chair (similar to the dentist), his desk, computer, and a video camera. Luckily he spoke some english so I was not completley in the dark about what was going on. He did the normal check (when you tell a doctor that you have a cold) but then he put a video camera in my mouth that took a picture of my throat. Way cool. He diagnosed rhinovirus and pharengytis- go figure. The problem was the next part when he asked my drug allergies. As I said codine probally six times, all I got was blank stares. The coteacher and him could not understand codine. Not a good thing when he is about to prescribe cough syrup! He typed in my prescriptions and sent me to the counter where the lady asked me for 2,500 won- equivelent to around 2.50 for us. I was amazed. I had been expecting a huge bill. The next step of my doctor's visit was walking next door to the pharmacy to pick up my pills. My pills were in what reminded me of lollipops all in a row in their plastic. Two pills in each connected plastic bag. I had no idea what the pills were. I also recieved what looked like free shampoo samples but it was my cough syrup. ( I later looked up what the cough syrup was on the internet because it had a name on it- It is a homeopathic remedy made of ivy tea leaves.) The pharmacy lady said 2,500 wons- again just 2.50. I just went to the doctor for 5 dollars, prescriptions and all! This is universal healthcare at its finest. I have read that the USA does not want universal coverage because Canada has such long waits for visits. If we modeled it after Korea, then there would not be any wait time! Just something to think about. After we left my co-teacher told me that her mother used to make her joop when she was sick, so she wanted to get me some. We went to a traditional Korean porriage(umm..not sure if that is spelled right) resteraunt to get joop. Joop is this rice based soup that turned out was actually really good. It is equivlent to our chicken noodle soup. So this was my Korean doctor visit- very different than America, but in a good way. I did miss my medicine in bottles with labels, but it seemed to do the trick on getting me better.