Light at the end of the tunnel...

Good news! Since the spread of swine flu is so fast (over 1,000 Koreans are infected every day) they finally realized that there was nothing they could do about it and they changed the law 2 days ago. It is no longer required to quarantine anyone with swine flu. They are just stocking up on tamiflu and goin' with it I guess. We finish with our tamiflu tomorrow and then we don't even need a test to make sure we're negative. Our second camp is a go and will most likely be the middle school group. No worries if anyone else gets sick, they will just refrain from teaching and in the kids case they will just be sent home as if it were any other illness. Yay! Since the other camp was not scheduled for another week the Koreans are going to take us on a 3 day cultural tour and then we'll get a chance to meet with our Korean co-teachers to prepare for the camp. I am really happy I decided to stay. We still get to go on a tour of Jeju island and Seoul at the end as well.
Today was really hot and sunny so a few of us got our swimsuits on and hiked down the stream to see if we could find a place deep enough to swim. The water felt really good, it was cold and clean. It actually looked a lot like an Oregon stream. We hiked downstream to a small waterfall that you could sit behind. It was scary going in the first time because the water was coming so fast but you just had to sit down and close your eyes and suddenly it was right in front of my face. Shannon scared us really bad again, she slipped and fell down head first....but got right back up again and is fine apparently. I am still not going to let her fall asleep just in case. I think I got some sun today, my face feels warm.
Susan, my roommate, gets to leave and is very happy about it. She was cheerful and fun again which was nice, but I will miss her a lot. Christine comes back from the hospital tomorrow afternoon, I am really excited to see her! My other room mate Aly decided to stay which also makes me really happy.
So I am really happy I decided to stay. Now that all the stress of not ever getting out of quarantine is gone it's actually pretty fun here. Everyone is pretty much friends now and this really is a beautiful place. After dinner a whole bunch of us hula hooped for a really long time. It pretty much made my day :) The Korean way to say hula hoop is "hula hoopoo"
k, Love you all lots! Now you can sleep well and not worry about me, things are good here in SK.

I hope this doesn't come back to bite me in the ass...

Alright, so last night we had to decide for sure whether or not to stay or go and I decided to stay. I think it would be sad to get all the way here and never see anything. The Koreans really don't want us to leave with such a bad impression of their country and are doing their best to make us comfortable. Right now there are 2 possibilities...we should know the final decision this afternoon. 1) Go on a cultural tour of the country for a week and fly home early 2) camp will continue as planned, we will pick up where we left off and only teach 1 camp and then do the same cultural tours as previously planned (temple stay and tour of Jeju island and Seoul).
I decided this after talking to Christine who, even after the worst possible experience here wants to stay and teach. She is totally gung-ho and after some thought I decided it would be pretty lame for ME to be the one to go home after all that. SO more info to come about what I'm doing and when I'm coming home. She is coming back to Wando tomorrow afternoon with all the other swine flu-ees! Yay! They have been in the hospital in a clean room, the doctors even wear their little space suit things when they go in their room!
Our head teacher Kristen made the point that next time we're in an interview and they ask us how we cope in difficult situations...
Anyway, things are fine and I miss and love you all!

In the crazy house

So we're up to 8 confirmed cases of the swine. I am still feeling good, only 3 more days of meds to go and then I can get out of here. I think I'd like to see the country a bit but I am so afraid of being re-quarantined that I think I will do my best to escape the group and go off on my own for a while. I'd still like to see if I can get an earlier flight out of here. We find out in a couple days if they decide to still continue with the second camp (I can't believe anyone still wants to teach).
It really does feel like being in a mental hospital...we get our meds served to us twice, morning and night. 3 healthy meals at 8, 12:30 and 6. We have planned "activities" and classes during the day and the only things we can do are use the computer or get outside and do healthy things like hiking or team sports.
I am so thankful that I have an awesome room mate Susan (Su-Chen) who is fun to talk to and downloads funny movies on her computer :) I am also going to see if Shannon will escape with me and travel around the country so I don't have to go alone...I hope I can get ahold of Christine and see if she will come too! They are doing well but still don't have internet access. Much love to all!

RELIEF

I DON'T HAVE SWINE FLU! 5 DAYS AND I'M OUTTA HERE!

Still waiting...

Thanks for all the emails. I am doing fine. We still haven't gotten the test results back from the swab test yesterday, I guess they sorta dropped the ball but they should be here by tonight. I had a dream last night that the results came back and I was the only one positive. Scary! I already mentioned to a few people that I have been around swine flu (I only told them so they wouldn't worry too much about it--it's not really that bad after all) so one guy decided that it was all my fault and I have been carrying it around and infected everyone. sigh. I really am fine though. My roommate has stopped freaking out so much so that is nice. I have mostly just stayed in my room today and slept. It is getting much more difficult to use the computer because there are very few of them now that people are willing to share (too many germs apparently).Christine's test results came back for the more accurate swine flu test and she is positive. Weird because she was only feeling sick for a few hours. So she will stay in the hospital until she tests negative. I do have some good news! They brought us all tamaflu (an antiviral that helps our immune systems to fight off viruses). We started taking it last night and we have to take it twice a day (they are assuming we all have it and are being treated thus, for prevention you take it once a day for 10 days). So that means that after 5 days of tamaflu we are ALL going to get a swab test and those of us that test negative are going to be allowed to leave! If we're not negative we'll have to stay in quarantine but I am assuming we will be taken to the hospital and no longer be stuck in this icky building.
Some people decided not to take the tamaflu (we miss you Aly!). They are being quarantined to the 4th floor and are to have no contact with the rest of us. They have to be swabbed after 7 days and their quarantine will restart if anyone gets sick during that time. Hopefully they all stay healthy and can leave after a week...
I am having a bit of a dilemma with what to do after quarantine. I think I might change my mind about it several times. The Koreans are still considering doing the second camp (it wasn't set to start until the 7th anyway) so there may be that option...that would probably be the only way that I could get the 4 credits I came for. We are being given the option to come home as soon as possible but we don't even know how long that would take since it isn't always the easiest thing to find last minute flights for everyone.
My fear is that if I stay with the group there is a chance that someone else will get swine flu and this whole nightmare will start over again. So my thrid option I was thinking about was to see if it is possible to leave the group and see Korea a bit on my own for a week or something and still fly home early. I keep flip flopping back and forth. All I know is I want out of here and to get away from the group. It would suck to go through all this and not get any credits though also. I don't know.
Today the Koreans supplied us with a fridge and a whole convenience store's amount of snacks! We have chocolate and crackers and all sorts of yummy snacks! It made my whole day. Plus they are doing their best to cook us food we like. 2 people here are massage therapists and are giving us chair massages later tonight! So at least I've got that goin' for me.
Alright, I will get on the computer as much as I can but it might not be every day anymore. Love and hugs! Can't wait to be home!

Swine '09

So we have 2 more "confirmed" cases of swine flu. There are a lot more people getting tested today, I demanded a test. The sooner I can get it and get out of here the better...alright so they just swabbed my throat. I should know by tonight what the test results are. The preliminary test isn't very accurate. Apparently it can give a false positive but not a false negative. So if I do test positive they will do a more accurate test to see if I really have it. I am hoping that if I have to go to the hospital once I test negative I can demand to be send home instead of sent back to this shithole.

Quarantine forever

Well, I guess I'm stuck here for another week. Things are fine, I don't want to make anyone overly concerned. While everything about this situation totally blows. I am safe and sound and Christine will be as well. She is feeling fine and has been taken to a hospital where she will have access to internet and phone and also her international insurance will cover a second opinion, there will also be English speaking doctors there. They are doing a more accurate version of the swine flu test now (the one that takes 24 hrs) and I will know the results tomorrow. Sorry if I freaked anyone out with my last email. This experience has truly tested my abilities to withstand high amounts of stress so maybe I will come back a much more calm and patient person...Wearing the masks is awkward and I feel like some people are taking them waaay too seriously. Oh, we also have a case worker at the US embassy helping us out as much as they can.

We went on a really amazing hike up to a view point. To get there we had to rock climb a little (there was already a rope there for us). It looked like we were on one of the highest peaks on the whole island. We could see everything. There are so many tiny islands all over and the rice paddies were like big quilt patches. On the way back our friend Shannon went ahead of us on the wrong trail. We thought we lost her, just when we thought this whole experience couldn't get any worse...just as we began organizing a search party we heard she had come back! It was the best news all day!
The Koreans are trying to make us as comfortable as possible under the circumstances. They are getting us internet in our rooms and dryers (our clothes are not really drying due to the large amounts of rain and humidity). They even made us french fries for dinner. We are organizing things to do...there is actually a bonfire outside right now. We're having "Wandolympics" on Tuesday, we had a talent show last night and now we're organizing nightly movies. I think though that if I have the option to go home after quaratine I will take it. I have had about all I can take at this point and I really truly just want to come home. I am hoping this is one of those experiences that I can look back on someday and laugh. I am making some really good friends doing this so I guess I have that to be thankful for as well. Thanks for all your thoughts and emails, please keep them coming as I don't have a whole lot else to do!