The Three-Month (B)itch

Well, good to see my (well, not just my...everyone else in Korea seems to think the same thing) theory of 3 month craziness is sound. Rena, a recent transplant to Ilsan, just north of Seoul (but not too north), has hit the wall.

As for me, my nutty time was about 2 months in. As you know, I came to Korea in October of 2002 and lived with my in-laws (and wife and son) for 6 months before getting my own place in Yeouido. Not that being with them made it any worse...if anything it helped me adjust a lot better. I was always getting tutelage from my wife and her parents on how things in Korea are different from the West (and basically everywhere else in the world). I was working from 6:30AM (after a 1 hour commute) until about 9 or 10PM (plus about 30-45 minutes to get home) for about a month and a half before it happened. I got food-poisoning from some rancid meat or something (I have now learned to stop eating if something seems weird...which is hard to determine in Korea as most things taste off even when they're alright). I was basically puking et al for a couple of days and could do no more than lay in bed and dream of Campbell's Chunky Soup (New England Clam Chowder edition, please). But, being the helpful gal she is, my mother-in-law thought some traditional Korean foods and remedies (one handful of pills looked suspiciously like rabbit droppings) but I would have nothing to do with them. How can you eat Korean food when (i) you're a newly-planted Westerner and (ii) it was Korean food that got me that way?! Eventually, my wife went out to the foreigner market in a nearby mall (they have special stores there for non-Korean/import food) and got a few cans of my favorite.

Without that, and having my wife and her family looking after me, I don't know what might have happened. I've heard of ESL teachers losing it in Korea...a friend of mine's brother, actually, was one. The story is he just went wacko and ended up handcuffed by the police after running down the street naked as a jay-bird screaming gibberish. At least my position (in a financial) firm guaranteed my place in the firm and my monthly pay as well as pretty good hours...I pity teachers who have bad managers in small companies that work them hard and then renege on their pay. That is total crap.

Well, now that I have this position in Canada I better get to work at it...otherwise I may be back in Korea! (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)