Swine flu paranoia

There seems to be some concern here about swine flu. When I first said I was planning to go to Japan for my 10 day holiday in August I was told I would have to return 7 days early to allow for time for quarantine. That didn't go down so well - and I decided to ignore it and see how it panned out. There is another English teacher at school who has been there 3 years and he had planned his holiday in Greece - and he goes and returns before me so I figured I would see how they responded to him. Interestingly he didn't seem to get the same hassles...

Then I was told the holiday was approved, then I was told the Board of Education didn't want teachers or students to go overseas.....after the first time I stopped panic-ing (how do you spell that word?) and just thought I might lie about it all.

Finally last week I managed to get a better understanding - it turned out there had been a World Choir champs held here the previous week and a bunch of Indonesians had come in with H1N1 and were in quarantine and the choir champs cancelled and everyone else sent home.

By Thursday they were back to saying I should return a week early - all with no offer of compensation for airfares already paid for or alternate holiday times. And by Friday I was told I could have my whole 10 days in Japan and then the subsequent week I would stay away from school for quarantine...fine by me.

So it will be interesting to see what the next 3 weeks brings and how many more times they change the story...but I'd decided I'd probably go anyway and if necessary just wear a mask when I returned.

The Koreans have this thing about most foods they eat being beneficial to health - so I said that with all the kimchi I was eating (it boosts the immune system) I would be safe from Swine Flu anyway.