For once, I have school and don't want it to be canceled

(Warning: this post contains "Wikipedism.")

"Snow day." "Teachers' strike." "School shooting threat." Every kid dreams to hear these words. (Okay, maybe not the last one, but it did happen to me once back in Canada.) Why? Because that means one thing -- school is canceled!

My brand-new alarm clock radio (which also has an iPod dock... I love it!) awoke me yesterday. It was tuned to TBS eFM, one of the two English-language radio stations here in Seoul, and the morning news was on. The newscaster informed me that the South Korean government officials were meeting this week to discuss whether to raise the H1N1 alert level to "red" -- the highest possible level.

Sure. Okay. Even though I was a bit concerned, I didn't think too much of it. And then this morning, they repeated this information but said that the meeting has been pushed up to THIS MORNING (as opposed to tomorrow, as originally planned). If they decided to raise the level, it could mean nation-wide school closures. Okay, now this was serious business, even though I knew that students were scheduled to get vaccinated on November 20.

Apparently this country has been nearing 10,000 H1N1 infections per day, which led to this sudden urgency. As it turned out, the alert level was indeed raised to "red," which means schools and other public institutions and places may close. While I don't know if anything will happen at this point, it feels like school closures are imminent. For example, since September, my school had been checking everyone's temperatures before entering the school. Today, that didn't happen for some reason. It was as if they were expecting something to happen soon.

While students are probably praying for a "swine flu holiday," I really hope we don't get one. For the holidays, I have a vacation planned and I think if school was canceled, we might have to sacrifice some of the winter holidays to make up for the canceled classes. (The vacation is very important because it also doubles as an "ID card run" -- I need to apply in person for an ID card in that vacation spot because I was born there. This is the first real chance I've had to apply for it.) Also, the senior grades' final exams are next week, which complicates things.

But as I said, it feels like a closure is imminent. After work today, I stocked up on essentials such as extremely nutritious food. My monthly grocery budget has gone down the drain, but if the H1N1 danger is really getting worse this rapidly in this country, I might as well prepare myself to stay inside as much as possible until this thing blows over.

On the plus side, if this swine flu thing doesn't materialize but Kim Jong Il decides to invade instead, I now have decent survival materials.