and the winner is...

me!  apparently i am a big winner around here because i have been able to claim a day and a half of the sick days that were allotted to me in my contract this year.  i have a cold.  just your regular run-of-the-mill blowing of the nose every ten minutes and coughing up some gnarly tasting phlegm every few hours.  nothing too life threatening or severe, im sure in fact that many of you back in the states have had these same symptoms this winter season and marched on right through work along with your other cold suffering collegues.  its nothing, right?  just what you expect from winter and how you deal with it.  but it shouldnt surprise you by now to learn that this is soooooo not the way that it is dealt with here.

i came to work on wednesday feeling a bit under the weather as i said.  though i knew that i was not super sick i thought seeing a doctor wouldnt hurt and its super super cheap to do so here, so what the hell, right?  i walked into the main office of the high school and asked my favorite lady on the whole island for a bit of help.  immediately she asked what she could do for me and i simply asked if maybe she could make me an appointment to see the doctor.  whoa...she jumped into action whipping open her filing cabinet and retrieved a mask for me instructing me to put it on while dialing the hospital number with her other hand.  as she waited for the phone to ring she asked the principal if it was okay if she took to the hospital and she granted her the priveldge no problem.  get the sick girl out of here was really the idea.  so moments later i was whisked three blocks away in tanaka-san's little car to the hospital and ushed into a private room with a nurse ready with her thermometer and japanese translation book.  i was asked lots of questions and answered them with broken broken japanese as i could.  the doctor arrived shortly after and asked a few more questions (she speaks okay english, okay) and stuck a dipstick deep into my nose to test me for the dreaded infruenza!!!!, which i knew i didnt have but wanted them to know so i obliged to their test.  it came back negative but at the end of the visit i walked out of the hospital with FOUR different medications and strict instructions to rest and not come back to work.  tanaka-san had been on the phone as asked permission for me to take the rest of the day off and the next and my pricipal okayed this as well.  nice. 
now i have enjoyed a few days at home sleeping off this cold and catching up on the latest american movies and just being able to relax and enjoy in japan for awhile.  when i returned today i knew though that i would need to mask up for the fear was in all of my collegues eyes that i was still infected and might spread the nastiness to them.  my supervisor passed me a sheet handed down to him from my principal and vice principal that was granting me a day and a half of sick leave.  he told me that i was very lucky that they were giving me the sick days and not taking them out of my nenkyuu or days off for the year.  he then told me that he has NEVER been granted a sick day.  jeez, jeez, jeez, whoa, whoa, whoa! 
there is just a certain work ethic that runs deep in this country.  though they are scared to death of being sick, they usually work through it and mask up so that no one will be in danger (this makes me laugh out loud) of catching it.  every collegue that i work with who has been sick this year will show up and perform whatever is necessary to get done for the day and THEN go home and feel better.  they might take another day of nenkyuu if they are really feeling bad, but most times they show up the next morning ready to get back at it.  these people live to work it seems and it makes me feel so bad most days knowing that i am the last to arrive in the mornings (or close to the last) and the first to leave every afternoon.  i work with teachers who leave for school when i get up in the morning and dont return until after i have eaten dinner and been relaxing for hours.  it is really so weird but i am learning that it is just their way. 
so today i tell you i am the big winner around here.  seriously.  i got the magic sick days that no one else seems to be able to use, but i know that they all have.  being gaijin here has its good points sometimes.  *cough, cough*

be well back home, spring is around the corner!
big hugs and warm love to you all,
beth