I was teaching one of my middle school classes last week while thinking about the possible perhaps pandemic and I realized that were the virus to come here then I am deady dead dead. Six of my seven students were sick and zero of any of them raised their hand to cover their mouths as they coughed, and they coughed incessantly. My class was a cough-fest. This is coupled with the FACT that no one in Korea except me, (and perhaps you if you're reading this,...but NO ONE ELSE) washes their hands EVER. I'll say it again. Swine flu come here? We're scu-rewed.
Sad thing, too - even though you can't catch the pig flu from eating pig, it seems people aren't taking any chances. I stopped by my local last week and my friend, the bartender/owner told me how dangerous it was to eat pork. "No," I told her, "It's fine. You cannot become infected from eating pork." Just then a news report came on the bar's big screen and we watched it together. As it concluded she said, "No. Deji gogi NO." Apparently the news wasn't quelling anyones's fear. My friend's restaurant is suffering. Sucks.
But they've changed the name "swine flu" (known here as S.I.) to H1N1. So now they're considering banning H's and N's, just to keep everyone safe. I'm correcting homework like " t
I jest.
Each month or so I have each of my classes practice some reading. I hope none of the parents will complain that I picked a prophetic poem for two of my lower level classes well before anyone had ever heard of H1N1 -
I think, ACHOO!, I have the flu.
I'm sneezing, and ACHOO! ACHOO!
I'm not sure what, ACHOO!, to do.
You say, ACHOO!, don't sneeze on you?
ACHOO! Whoops. Now you've got it too.
I think this concludes my thoughts on swine flu, except to reiterate that if it comes here - like, in my stupid sleepy little town - I'm screwed. Otherwise, carry on - and wash your hands.
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