My Doctor Makes Housecalls

Maybe it's because I teach his son during the week, but I just got the kindest phone call ever - from my doctor!!

You might remember when I first moved to Korea that I found this really nice English-speaking Dr., Dr. Gwak, who chatted with me about kids, and child psychology, and ADHD during my first visit to see him. Then the next time I saw him (about my sore hip/leg!) he asked me if I'd consider teaching his son. Well, I said 'yes,' and for the past month I've been making the hour commute into the city to his place to teach his lovely 10-year old son, Vio.

Viot is quite wonderful, particularly for a 10-year old boy! He's interested in English and speaks it quite easily. He loves science, and of course is then easy to entertain, even during our 2 1/2 hour Saturday lessons - all in English!

I went to see Dr. Gwak on Friday after leaving school with the very baddy-badness of food poisoning, and he was of course very concerned, and very helpful. He didn't let me pay for the consultation (we usually pay about $12 per visit, which the school reimburses us for), and he texted me about a hundred times through the weekend to check in on me.

Okay, so at 100 I'm of course exaggerating, but he texted a lot, including (in typical Korean fashion) a list 4 messages long of different diagnostic possibilities and potential symptoms to watch for that ranged from the banal to the most terrifying!). He asked about dizziness, what kind of dizziness, a schwack of other symptoms and starte ranging a bit on the paranoid side by the time the weekend was coming to a close.

Then today came, Monday evening after a long day of work and yoga and the doctor's number popped up on my cell phone. He told me Viot and the rest of the family had been concerned about me, and that Viot had asked his dad to call me and make sure that I had recovered well from the Friday badness. My little 10-year old boy (make that 8 1/2 in North American age) was worried about me... aww...

How sweet is this kid, and his dad???  Mind you, I'm glad we live far enough apart that he's not comfortable showing up on my doorstep, because I have this feeling that they juuuuuuust might!!


P.S.  Mom, I am fully recovered from whatever it was that was trying to get grips on me... back to normal, healthy and happy and addicted to hot yoga, so don't worry!!  :)