do-over PLEASE!!!!

If relationships are defined by quality time, my toilet and I would be lovers.

Today was a terrible day.

I woke up this morning feeling nauseous and dizzy. I figured it had something to do with the night before and all screaming I did and the exhausting boredom of teaching the history of HIV/AIDS to a bunch of middle schoolers. That's definitely enough to cause some sort of ache.

So I forced myself through a hot shower, through some water, through some coffee, through some crackers...and my body just continued to shut down. I felt like I wanted to die. I wanted my mom.

Afternoon came and I called the school, dreading their reaction to my news. "I'm sorry. I'm sick. I'm vomiting every 15 minutes. I'm not in a condition to teach."

Desperate, they begged me. "Please get better...I hope you get better before classes." As if I have some sort of healing powers of my own. God??? Do you hear this?? Start your magic.

A few hours later my boss knocked on my apartment door. Oh no. "WTF?" is what I said.

But to my surprise, my boss was tender and caring. She took one look at me and realized I wasn't lying. I was sick. She rubbed my back, walked me across the street to the clinic, took care of all my papers, did her best at translating, and she even had the honor of sitting with me while I puked up a storm. Her kindness was the next best thing to having my mother nearby.

Korean medicine is different than what I'm used to. And I'm not exactly used to American medicine anyway. Normally I'd drug myself with something from the bathroom cabinet and sleep things off. The whole experience today was quite awkward. It was even more awkward when I had to drop my pants for them to give me a shot in my butt cheek. I bet my boss never expected to see that side of me!
I spent 3 1/2 hours lying down with an IV stuck into me. From what I understand, my Korean BBQ meal last night didn't quite agree with me. And from all my time making out with the toilet, I was dehydrated. Oh nice.

So now I'm home. Various people covered my classes for me. To them I am so grateful. It's no easy task to teach an unknown class at the last minute. But I guess love can do lots of things that are hard.