I hate being sick

I've been sick for two weeks now. Stuffy nose, coughing, mild fever. For two weeks. I'm sick of it (pardon the pun). This morning I woke up at 6:30 with a earache that felt not unlike someone pushing an icepick into my brain. I downed some aspirin and made my way down to the doctor who I was assured was great and spoke English.

Both counts turned out to be true, thankfully. She gave me a cursory inspection and told me that (tada!) I have a cold. She said my ear looked fine but would prescribe a few days worth of antibiotics just to be safe. And to top it off, she gave me a shot in the ass. In Kyrgyzstan it was really common to take injections instead of pills and I think I was told by a doctor that it really doesn't work any better or faster if you inject the medicine. Regardless, the doc here gave me a shot. It was kinda strange, I've never had a shot in the butt that I can remember. The nurse who gave it to me spoke no English so it was accomplished by awkward hand gestures. She also slapped me a few times which weirded me out. "Is this some sort of holistic thing?" I wondered. I discovered she was just distracting me from the shot since she told me I was done before I felt anything. So I got slapped on the ass by a nurse and should be better in a few days.

And all for the grand total of $20 including meds. Korea certainly has the medical system figured out. I can't imagine how much more a visit to the doctor, an injection and a filled prescription would cost back home. It's all part of the delightful, "everything is so much cheaper here" phenomena.

Take haircuts for example. I got my haircut last weekend for 5,000 won ($5). It's not a great cut (like Kerrie would give back home) but it'll do. How is it so cheap? Well, parts of it I found are do it yourself. After it was cut I was asked if I wanted a shampoo and I said yes. I was led to a back room, shown a sink, soap and some towels and then left to fend for myself. It took me a few minutes to figure out that I was supposed to wash my own hair. Not that I'm opposed to that it's just that washing your hair in a tiny sink isn't exactly easy. I made a mess of it and ended up soaking my hoodie but it was funny more than anything. It's those weird little differences that make being here so much fun.