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indiglo123
Joined: 25 Nov 2003
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 Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2003 11:33 am Post subject: Horror story |
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Well, do I have a horror story for you. Imagine this.
I remember my first Christmas in Korea and it will be one I will tell my grandchildren. I arrived in Korea in late September and started a job in a little country town with a pop. of 70,000 people. Small by Korean standards. I was fresh out of uni. and really didn't know what I was getting myself into. Being the only foreigner in the town it was like living on another planet. As time passed I became more famaliar with my surrounding and started to enjoy the place. I had met a few foreigners in in Taegu just before Christmas.
Here goes,
Woke up on December 19, in a cold sweat, started vomiting, feeling dizzy. What the HELL. My birthday was in 2 days!! It was on a weekend so I figured I had a bad case of the flu. Yeah right!
Woke up the next morning and I felt like I had drank 3 bottle of soju. Had a rash on my chest, and was vomiting everwhere. I managed to find my bosses number and called her to tell her I was really sick.
Went to the hospital, (in a small town, wheew) and I found out that I had contracted the measels from one of my punk students. Got admitted to the hospital. Luckily I got the private room, errr except for the old man dying in the corner (shared with one other person) I spent 7 days of HELL in that damn hospital.
Missed my birthday, Christmas, and all the parties I was supposed to go to with my new found friends. I had no phone to call home and talk to my parents, friends or anyone for that matter. I was served Kimchi soup and rice every day for every meal (Although I like Kimchi now) DAMN. Had an old ajuma giving me extra helpings of Kimchi on the side( hush hush  ) Couldn't order food because I spoke no Korean. Although my boss paid for everything, she only visited twice. It was the lowest point ever in my life.
I ended up watching OCN until I could not watch no more. No books, no computer, no nothing. CRAP CRAP CRAP.
Although the nurses were hot, and I was hoping for a sponge bath, it never happened. Man that was crappy!
A week later, all my friends were like, "Where were you?" But to end a bad story, I ended up going to Seoul for New Years and gettign shit faced with my buddies! It was awesome after it was all over.
So for anyone here missing home, put yourself in my shoes. Be thankful you have friends around you and try to make the best of it. It could be a LOT WORSE!!! 
If anyone can top this story I would love to hear about it. |
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Eazy_E
Joined: 30 Oct 2003
Location: British Columbia, Canada
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| Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2003 8:28 pm Post subject: Re: Horror story |
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| indiglo123 wrote: |
Well, do I have a horror story for you. Imagine this.
I remember my first Christmas in Korea and it will be one I will tell my grandchildren. I arrived in Korea in late September and started a job in a little country town with a pop. of 70,000 people. Small by Korean standards. I was fresh out of uni. and really didn't know what I was getting myself into. Being the only foreigner in the town it was like living on another planet. As time passed I became more famaliar with my surrounding and started to enjoy the place. I had met a few foreigners in in Taegu just before Christmas.
Here goes,
Woke up on December 19, in a cold sweat, started vomiting, feeling dizzy. What the HELL. My birthday was in 2 days!! It was on a weekend so I figured I had a bad case of the flu. Yeah right!
Woke up the next morning and I felt like I had drank 3 bottle of soju. Had a rash on my chest, and was vomiting everwhere. I managed to find my bosses number and called her to tell her I was really sick.
Went to the hospital, (in a small town, wheew) and I found out that I had contracted the measels from one of my punk students. Got admitted to the hospital. Luckily I got the private room, errr except for the old man dying in the corner (shared with one other person) I spent 7 days of HELL in that damn hospital.
Missed my birthday, Christmas, and all the parties I was supposed to go to with my new found friends. I had no phone to call home and talk to my parents, friends or anyone for that matter. I was served Kimchi soup and rice every day for every meal (Although I like Kimchi now) DAMN. Had an old ajuma giving me extra helpings of Kimchi on the side( hush hush ) Couldn't order food because I spoke no Korean. Although my boss paid for everything, she only visited twice. It was the lowest point ever in my life.
I ended up watching OCN until I could not watch no more. No books, no computer, no nothing. CRAP CRAP CRAP.
Although the nurses were hot, and I was hoping for a sponge bath, it never happened. Man that was crappy!
A week later, all my friends were like, "Where were you?" But to end a bad story, I ended up going to Seoul for New Years and gettign *beep* faced with my buddies! It was awesome after it was all over.
So for anyone here missing home, put yourself in my shoes. Be thankful you have friends around you and try to make the best of it. It could be a LOT WORSE!!!
If anyone can top this story I would love to hear about it. |
But now that it's all over and done with, isn't it worthwhile just to have the story to tell to people?
BTW, you made me feel a lot better. |
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Eazy_E
Joined: 30 Oct 2003
Location: British Columbia, Canada
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| Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2003 8:31 pm Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
My first Christmas dinner away from home was eating a chicken sandwich alone at Hardee's in Taiwan. How pathetic. A real recipe for feeling sorry for myself.
I made up my mind not to do that again. The next Christmas (here) was spent in a Buddhist temple. Went up after work on Christmas Eve and spent the night and Christmas Day there. It was a cool experience I will always remember.
Another year when I knew a few people, we organized a gift exchange with a W10,000 limit and a group dinner. One year we did a progressive dinner (going from home to home and eating one dish at each place). I know one group organized an all-day pool tournament at a bar.
PS: Lots of places have turkey legs for sale. Did you know that you can boil the leg, put the meat in dressing you can cook on your gas range and make decent gravy from the water you boiled the leg in? |
Thanks for the ideas... especially about the turkey leg. Something about the way you described it makes me laugh. It's pretty ingenious. I might actually try to pull that one off. My family sent me a lot of my Christmas comfort food in a care package. And doing the pool thing is definitely going to happen. It's all us foreigners can do to keep ourselves sane.... |
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Derrek
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sat Dec 06, 2003 10:41 pm Post subject: Re: Horror story |
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| indiglo123 wrote: |
Well, do I have a horror story for you. Imagine this.
I remember my first Christmas in Korea and it will be one I will tell my grandchildren. I arrived in Korea in late September and started a job in a little country town with a pop. of 70,000 people. Small by Korean standards. I was fresh out of uni. and really didn't know what I was getting myself into. Being the only foreigner in the town it was like living on another planet. As time passed I became more famaliar with my surrounding and started to enjoy the place. I had met a few foreigners in in Taegu just before Christmas.
Here goes,
Woke up on December 19, in a cold sweat, started vomiting, feeling dizzy. What the HELL. My birthday was in 2 days!! It was on a weekend so I figured I had a bad case of the flu. Yeah right!
Woke up the next morning and I felt like I had drank 3 bottle of soju. Had a rash on my chest, and was vomiting everwhere. I managed to find my bosses number and called her to tell her I was really sick.
Went to the hospital, (in a small town, wheew) and I found out that I had contracted the measels from one of my punk students. Got admitted to the hospital. Luckily I got the private room, errr except for the old man dying in the corner (shared with one other person) I spent 7 days of HELL in that damn hospital.
Missed my birthday, Christmas, and all the parties I was supposed to go to with my new found friends. I had no phone to call home and talk to my parents, friends or anyone for that matter. I was served Kimchi soup and rice every day for every meal (Although I like Kimchi now) DAMN. Had an old ajuma giving me extra helpings of Kimchi on the side( hush hush ) Couldn't order food because I spoke no Korean. Although my boss paid for everything, she only visited twice. It was the lowest point ever in my life.
I ended up watching OCN until I could not watch no more. No books, no computer, no nothing. CRAP CRAP CRAP.
Although the nurses were hot, and I was hoping for a sponge bath, it never happened. Man that was crappy!
A week later, all my friends were like, "Where were you?" But to end a bad story, I ended up going to Seoul for New Years and gettign *beep* faced with my buddies! It was awesome after it was all over.
So for anyone here missing home, put yourself in my shoes. Be thankful you have friends around you and try to make the best of it. It could be a LOT WORSE!!!
If anyone can top this story I would love to hear about it. |
You went though all of that just so you could spend your Christmas with some hot nurses?
You are more man than I. |
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Blue Flower
Joined: 23 Feb 2003
Location: The realisation that I only have to endure two more weeks in this filthy, perverted, nasty place!
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| Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2003 3:40 am Post subject: |
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I must admit, that as christmas is getting closer, I am getting more and more homesick, by the day. Last year was my first christmas away from home, but I was still in NZ, just on another island, and spent it with a good friend of mines family, so it was a nice family christmas - just not my fam. Unfortunately though, on christmas eve, we got into the champagne, and sitting on the grass in the sun, and drinking bubbly, doesn't make for a sober girl. So i ring up my folks, and start crying, for about an hour on the phone to them. Am not doing that this year!
Am going to have a nice lunch with some great friends, and watch Lord of the Rings. To get the NZ feel. will be a nice day. I hope it snows, as this is my first cold christmas. |
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just because
Joined: 01 Aug 2003
Location: Changwon - 4964
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| Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2003 5:04 am Post subject: |
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First christmas i slept all day as on Christamas Eve i drank myself silly.
NICE |
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the_beaver
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2003 5:10 am Post subject: |
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| '94 was the last time I was home for Christmas. But, as I'm a bah-humbug type, and with the proportional decrease in presents brought about by advent of my neice and nephew back in the 80's, it doesn't bother me much. |
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