When Allergies Attack

Hello all! I hope everyone is doing better than me, which isn't saying much.

The week started out in a way that I now can see was going to be indicative of the week to come. My throat had been a bit sore since Saturday evening, and on Monday I was hoping for some good soup at lunch. Unfortunately we had seaweed soup, but we had ice cream so I was like "eh this is fine."

Plot twist: it wasn't fine.

On Tuesday my throat condition worsened, I felt some pressure in my ears, and late in the afternoon I felt feverish, so on the way home I stopped at the ear, nose, throat doctor right near my apartment. I got some meds for a double ear infection and tonsilitis, and applauded myself for being an adult and taking care of things.

If only that had been the case.

Wednesday morning I started to notice some itchy red blotches forming on my body, especially my legs.

You can see them a little here.

 I thought nothing much of it, but on my walk to school EVERYTHING was so itchy. And when I walked into my office, So Jung immediately noticed and was like OMG ARE YOU OKAY WHAT IS ON YOUR LEGS

Definitely not just dry skin or a big bite.

We called the ENT to see if he had given me any sulfa medicine, since I'm allergic, but he assured me he didn't as it is in my file. He explained the medicines and my coteacher called the Mokdong hospital. If I wanted to see the allergist, I had to get the paperwork from the ENT, or go to the general physician and get a checkup and recommendation, then go to the allergist.


I took off of work asap and went to the hospital, where upon seeing my symptoms the nurse recommended the dermatologist (if I had to see the general doctor and the allergist I might not have time to see a new ENT, and since I was in the midst of a reaction the allergist can't do much since we couldn't 100% determine the cause) so I went there. Upon research with her, it appears I may have developed an allergy to Amoxil, in the amoxicillin family. She gave me allergy meds with the assurance that it was 70% sure it was a drug reaction. If not, it would get much worse. Yikes.


I saw an ear doctor and discovered I have some hearing loss in both my ears due to whatever infection is happening. Then I saw the throat doctor who game me medicine for the ear infections and for the pharyngitis he diagnosed. I was told all the times I came before I should have seen the ENT, not the general doctor, but they aren't always there and also to me they seemed to do nothing different than the general doctor. We even had an x-ray of my sinuses done and my throat wasn't red last time I went, so I don't think I was wrong I think something else came up.

I was also given 2 weeks of medicine and told to come back for a checkup. Also, if it;s not healed, I have to consider surgery for my ears and/or my tonsils. Send some good vibes for it to get better.

Thursday brought almost agonizing itching on my longest day of classes, so I am not sure how I powered through.

Seems worse to me... Very bad on my ankles I almost clawed them off.

Every day after school I just went to sleep, so this time Tina came over both to help take care of me and my loneliness, and to see what was going on. It's hard to show in pictures and words just how bad it was.

But I'll try.

Sorry it's kind of gross. 

Thursday evening. 

Again, really bad on my ankles.

I wasn't convinced I was getting better, so I decided to ask my coteacher to call again on Friday to see if I had to go in again.

Skyping my parents has been rough because they're worried but so far away. There's really nothing to be done. 

Mom made me feel better with some motivation to look forward to coming home:

Cannot wait to see these big lovebugs.

Don't worry, I'm fine now. And despite having at least 3 hospital visits this month, things seem to be looking up. 

Friday brought slightly less itching, but my rash was turning more purple, which had both me and So Jung concerned.

Looks worse? Feels better???

So Jung called the hospital and confirmed that it did look worse but that's how it heals, and it was actually getting better.

I must again take the time to thank whatever powers that be exist in this universe for giving me So Jung as my coteacher because she was really sick this week too and she took such good care of me just as a unni would for their little sister. 

So Jung had an ear infection too and when she went for an IV the nurse was like "this is weird," which is one of the things Koreans say quickly as they are quite reactionary people. "Does your arm usually turn this red when there's an IV?" So Jung said no and began to think of all the ways she could die now. Then her arm stiffened up and her wrist turned green, so she requested that the IV be removed so she didn't have to amputated her arm. When getting blood drawn, the nurse was like "that's weird," which So Jung and I agree is in the top 3 things you don't want your nurse to say while she's sticking a needle in your arm, "normal people this much blood comes out and for you it's this (indicating much less) so it will be hard to do the test." Very concerned at this point, So Jung says she will come back tomorrow to see the doctor. That was also an adventure, as to test her equilibrium the doctor put blackout goggles with cameras on her and shook her head a lot. In conclusion she too has an ear infection causing vertigo, so she was not in a good condition this week either. 

So Jung and I promised to meet each other healthier on Monday. 

Friday after school I was going to meet with Grace and Tina to see Mozart! I was glad to be feeling better despite my legs being like purple, so I left school optimistic. 

I did have an incident on the subway. Here copied from my facebook:

"Nothing like starting my weekend with a drunk old guy following me in the subway station and onto the train while yelling things at me like "WHERE ARE YOU FROM" over and over til I pull out my headphones and answer. Had to employ the classic "wait til the doors are about to close and dart off before he can follow" technique."

I had been waiting for the train and saw someone walk by slowly and glanced to see a man drinking out of a black plastic bag. He was staring at me a lot then yelled HELLO repeatedly, which I ignored but got the attention of everyone else. When the train arrived I waited for him to get on one car and darted to another and moved quite far in, sitting between two people rather than leaving an empty seat near me.

As we stopped at each stop, he moved into my car and moved closer in seats. The woman next to me got up to check the map, leaving her bag on the seat. He moved her bag and sat next to me, and began yelling questions at me about where I was from and if I was a student. I lasted perhape 2 stops, taking out my headphones to give a terse answer to shut him up as all the people on the subway stared.

Finally, Tina advised me to just get off, and as it seemed he was on for the long haul I did just that. I waited until the doors were about to close and quickly grabbed my bag and darted off so he had no time to react and follow me. I headed to the exit and watched the train leave before returning to the platform.


I don't tell this story to alarm anyone, but it's a very real thing I've had to deal with more times than I care to admit. I am certainly looking forward to not being so obviously different, since they don't act like it to other Koreans. Sigh. I made it, but it really makes me feel violated and disgusted when that stuff happens.


Finally we made it to Gwanghwamun and got dinner and chatted before the show. It's always nice to hang with Grace, and we all love musicals.


I didn't know much about Mozart. It's a German musical and has never been in English. Tina saw it before, but this time we went specifically because Cho Kyuhyun from Super Junior (Aka my first kpop bias) was Mozart. I have since moved on to other biases in SuJu (My Donghae~) and other groups besides SuJu (Beast being my ultimate group), but Kyuhyun is my first love~

My loves~

Cheap seats!

I had to pee for like all of the first act, which is 75 min. It was tough but I know this theatre is picky about letting you back in. Also the only song I really knew from the show was the finale of the act. 

But the show went really fast! It's mostly songs, and though a lot of them are introspective (why doesn't my dad love me, why is my son so arrogant, why do I have to do these things, blah blah) I was so into the music. The rotating stage was not as cool as Dracula, but it made me feel things all the same. The music reminded me of Jesus Christ Superstar, and also reminded me of the parts I like from like every other musical. It was awesome!

Here's Kyuhyun's amazing song from Mozart. His voice is no joke, It even has English subs~

After, we took pics with the cool things set up.

If you put props, we will use them.

In the show, the inner child genius of Mozart uses his blood to make masterpieces. 

Tina and I are quite dramatic

The Koreans watching kept being like "omg so cute! So fun! They're so creative!" Because Tina and I are cool with making fools of ourselves. 

I got that bitch back by stabbing her in the back.

 After taking pics, we went outside to the stage door. This is where we had met Park Eun Seok, Dracula, but we knew Kyuhyun was really famous so it would be a bit crazier.

Crazy it was. People were lined up from the door to his manager's car, and as soon as he came out it was a frenzy of phones and cameras and people shoving each other to get close. His manager was in front of him pushing fans out of the way, and when he got to the car people surrounded it. It was insane and honestly we all felt kind of disgusted.

Also this is the kind of picture you get when Kyuhyun, tired after a 3 hour show, is trying to rush to his car to avoid crazy fans:

I didn't take this, obviously. 

 Seriously? Come on. Calm down. Let him live.


We went home and tried to relax, but we had had such a good time that we were up quite late.

Tina and I rested until we headed out late in the afternoon to Wink taphouse to see some Korean Indie bands. They're trying to bring Korean Indie culture to foreigners, apparently. We thought it sounded like a chill night, so we went.

They seemed pretty similar to mainstream Korean music to me, but I like the second band a lot. They did some covers of American songs. And they were adorable and said things like "I can't language" and I love those little phrases, plus I thought it was cool of them to come out and do lots of English and Korean songs.

The Corona

Not the beer though

Tina got the Wink dog

Sunday we went shopping for some makeup in Sinchon and saw these cute kids performing TWICE and SISTAR songs we know

Cute kids~

Then we went to dance class! I'm still far from 100% so I got really worn out, but I did much better than last week anyway.

This week it was IOI - Dream Girls, IOI is the group formed from that show Produce 101 that I watched, and the song is cute.

If you want to see the dance better

And here's meeeeeeeeeeeee.

It was pretty fun but I am so tired haha. 

Tina, Shannon, and I busted out our AOA-Apink skirts. Tina and Shannon killed it too!

I hope this week is less sick than the last few have been... We don't have too much time left teaching, which is really nice. Hopefully things go smoothly!

Love you all!

Game of Thrones finale tomorrow :(   What will I do with my life???

Stay well~