Never Get Sick Away from Home

Okay this is my second crack at this story. Initially, I wrote some beautiful poetic verse outlining my experience with sickness in a foreign land. In an effort to format that entry, mistakenly,....it got erased!!! Therefore, it has taken me a few days to try to retell the story. I'm positive it was much better the first time around. Enjoy!

K While preparing for my trip abroad, I made a list,...and I checked it twice. I was gonna be prepared for any situation that I faced. I made sure that my medical benefits were functional in Korea, I went to Sam's Club & bought industrial sized EVERYTHING....all to ensure when I got here to Korea that I would have all the things that I might need while I was here. Don't get it wrong, we know that Korea is not a third world country where you can't find toothpaste or chewing gum, but do you honestly think I would be without Trident's Tropical Twist for months at a time? No way! So a sister made sure she was prepared. AnyWHO! In my effort to bring useful items, I packed a full bag of medicine,....just in case. Afterall, who wants to be in another country with a headache or stomache ache & be unable to find something to take care of it? Certainly not me, so I prepared for such a time. The Main Culprits of my Sickness I'm not quite sure how I got this terrible cold. But I am certain that the root cause of this condition is either (1) My apartment or (2) Seoul, S. Korea [yep, I'm blaming the WHOLE COUNTRY] My Apartment: I think all of you know by now, that I live in this really great apartment here in Seoul. It's got a lot of great amenities, including a few restaurants, fitness center, a door man, and a toilet that takes a Ph.D to know how to operate! But really, despite all these great features, I am befuddled DAILY on how to control the temperature in my unit. I'm not sure if I'm not smart enough( that celcius/farenheit conversion can be challenging yall), or if it is broken. Everyday, I take the directions to the temperature control unit & make another vain attempt at stabilizing the temperature. Incidently, what I have managed to do is either freeze, or overheat myself to the point that my P&C completely sweated out. Since I am under the weather, it could be my own body's temperature is out of control too,...so what does that mean? It has to be Korea....

Korea

Although I have had an extraordinary time since I arrived, I must tell you that it has been freezing. Despite the fact that I grew up in Michigan, and the winters can be quite gruelling, nothing compares to this particular winter in Korea. WHY? At home, despite the low temperatures & the frigid wind chill factors, I merely run from my car to my desired destination. It's that simple. In Korea, it is very different. This town is an adventurers town,.... a walking adventure. So despite whatever arrangements that have been made, I have spent a considerable amount of time outdoors being exposed to the elements. I haven't been out in the cold this much since I was a youngster playing in the snow. So, I guess my body is in shock & my antibodies just let this cold invade my whole being!

So what does one do? Yep, you guessed it...DRUGS! As this cold has plagued my body, it has been in continuous transistion. You know how it starts with the achiness, then the sore throat, headache & post nasal drip? Just when I thought I was getting over this wreched sickness, I then began to cough uncontrollable. Great! That's all I need to do is stand out as the germ carrying, infected American. My collegues are very wonderful people, but do I expect them to listen to me bark all day?

Back to the purpose of this story, unfortunately, I forgot one elixir in my medicine bag....THE COUGH SYRUP!!!! Since I was hacking pretty bad by then, I decided to ask one of my collegues if he knew where I could procure some cough syrup. He told me that I could merely go to the basement level of the building to the pharmacy & pick up some. So, off I go....

This is pretty good time to mention that since I have been here, I experience just a slight bit of anxiety when trying to accomplish new tasks. This is mainly because of the potential language barrier, although many people here THINK they speak English, often times I am quite confused by the words that they use. Armed with this bad cough though, I knew that it could be translated into any language.

The pharmacy was open for business and to my delight, the pharmist was there and spoke moderately well.

"I have just what you need!"she tells me with enthusiasm as she pulls out this green box from under the counter. She then opens the box that contain, three seperate vials of potion(medicine). She instructs me to take this medicine 3 times a day & take the whole vial. With my simple self, I asked her the most obvious question,

"Well, if I take all 3 bottles today, what am I gonna do about tommorrow?"

"Tomorrow, you will be fine," she assures me.

Huh? Alright,...Okay, at about this time I begin to rub my eyes & scratch my neck. I was confused. Surely something had gotten lost in translation because Vicks 44D has NEVER cured me in 24 hours! As I often find myself doing in this foreign land, I pretended to understand & took the medicine to my office wondering if this potent mixture would do as the pharmacist promised. Hopefully, one of my collegues would be merciful enough to explain this medicine to me.

Upon arrival, I grabbed one of the gentlemen and asked him how I was to administer this medicine. He took one look at the bottle & said,

"Is this Chinese medicine you picked up?"

WHAT? Chinese medicine? I'm in KOREA, aren't those Korean letters on the box? I wanted to scream, but instead I just told him what the pharmacist told me. He shook his head a few times & said,

"Yeah, okay...take it like she told you."

I don't know what you are thinking right now, but his response didn't convince me to take this potion. Then, I got a great idea, I picked up one of the bottles & smelled it! What did I do that for?

WWWHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAA!

It smelled like sweat from a baboons hind parts. There was NO WAY, I mean NO WAY I was ingesting that stuff. What? Were they trying to kill me over here? Furthermore, with the recent media reports regarding Chinese manufacturing facilities, I was in no hurry to put my life on the line to prove their credibility with medicine. Oh No! First, there was the lead in the children's toys & then the poisonous toothpaste, I thought it would be better if I just took my chances with my anti-bodies & let them fight this out.

As the day marched on, and the bottle sat on my desk, I continued to stare at it & cough. It couldn't be that bad right? I mean if they are selling it in the pharmacy, right? What if it can cure my cough? Well, right about that time, I received a phone call. It was Sister Gloria from WOF Church. She was calling to check up on me since I missed the previous Sunday service (wasn't that sweet?). I told her that I had slept in because I was under the weather with a cold. At which point she tells me to get better, talks a little about the healing power of Jesus & admonishes me to stay away from the CHINESE MEDICINE! It can cause more harm than good she claimed. What? How did she know? Well, for those of you that don't really understand what I am trying to explain. I believe that she was sent by God to give me that message on that particular day. Some of you might not believe that is the case, but if you want...I can send you this elixir that still sits on my desk. I'll put my trust in the healing power of God and his ability to keep us safe over this medicine ANY DAY!