Hello all! Did you think that things could get any worse here in Bucheon, because they most certainly did. As everyone knows we’ve been rather unhealthy for, well ..., way too long now anyways. It got terribly serious last week when Tara’s neck started swelling below her left ear. She saw a doctor on Thursday the 17th, who told her that it was a minor, common infection and there was nothing to worry about. However, she started getting fevers at night and such severe pain that she couldn’t eat anything except soup. She went back to the same doctor, and he basically laughed at her and said things like “what, can’t you handle the pain? What are you doing here? It’s not serious.” She went in looking for stronger pain killers so she could maybe sleep at night, but he just gave her more antibiotics to get her out of the office.
By the weekend it was obviously a serious issue, and so we went to the general hospital on Saturday. Tara saw two doctors, both of whom were immediately concerned and wanted to admit her for two days. So we went to admissions and they wanted us to read and sign some forms, in Korean only of course, and we weren’t willing to do that without knowing what we were signing or how much it might cost. We had to harass a security guard for a phone to call the owners’ daughter, Ellisa, who said she couldn’t come and help us “because [she] had a schedule.” These were her exact words. She tried to briefly explain the form, that I had to be the guarantor, and pushed us to sign them without offering any other help. She was talking a lot to the hospital administration people, but when they hung up the phone, leaving us without even more questions than we started, we left in frustration. We were told it might cost up to $1000 dollars for two days and a possible CT scan, and we told Ellisa that we’d rather just return to Canada for the same cost.
So we left the hospital, and immediately started looking for plane tickets and packing our bags. If the school wasn’t wiling to offer such simple help in a time of emergency, we had no business working for them any more. They eventually called, right before I bought plane tickets leaving on Saturday the 20th. They claimed they were really worried about Tara, that they couldn’t help us right when we called them from the hospital because they were at a wedding (which they couldn’t tell us earlier when we were freaking out at the hospital), and insisted that Tara really needed to be put on IV antibiotics as soon as possible. We consented, and they took us to Emergency and then it took them over 3 hours to complete all the forms and get us registered for the hospital, in Korean! And they expected we could do this by ourselves, for some ridiculous reason.
So we checked in to the Holy Family Hospital, at the Catholic University near Sosa Station, and remained for the next four days. In that time, Tara had her IV changed 7 times, had dozens of bottles of antibiotics poured into her veins, plus antibiotic pills and shots three times a day, plus many shots of painkillers just so she could attempt to eat the disgusting hospital food and sleep. She found by Monday that it was a saliva gland infection, and that she should avoid any strongly flavoured foods as they would stimulate the saliva gland and cause a lot of pain. Unfortunately, they eat garlic and onion soup for breakfast, and tofu with chilli and soy sauce, and a variety of other things that she couldn’t possibly eat. As well, she started getting some allergic reactions to the IV antibiotics and had to be put on anti-histamines once to stop a very rapidly spreading rash up her arm.
It was terrifying. They only thing we could think about was leaving as soon as the doctor would let us. The school called us on Monday, seemingly to see how Tara was, but really to see if I was coming in to work that day. I was ready to tell them I was staying with Tara regardless, and if they wanted to fire me that would be wonderful. Tara, however, convinced me that it was a good opportunity to collect some things from the school and to try and tell them that we need to leave as soon as possible. I tried the latter as reasonably as I could, saying that this was such a horrifying experience, that neither of us are well (Brendan has his own potentially serious infection that hasn’t gotten any better despite the opinion of four doctors), and that we needed to get back under the wonderful (and free) umbrella of the Canadian health care system. Ellisa assured me she understood our problem, but said that we needed to understand theirs, that they needed teachers to replace us before we could leave. This actually shows how little she really understood how worried we were about our health and about staying in Korea. She said they would be by the hospital that night to talk about it, so I said okay.
They lied, of course. They didn’t bother contacting us for the next two days. We decided they must not care, and bought plane tickets for Wednesday the 23rd, non-refundable tickets no less. The doctor said Tara would be fine to leave by then, and as soon as we bought the tickets we both felt so wonderful about the decision. We missed everyone back home so much, and we just couldn’t wait to leave. On Wednesday we tried to check out, saw the doctor, got the okay to leave, got some medicine and the bill, and the nurses decided to call the school to say we were leaving. We don’t know why someone couldn’t just show us where to pay them their $400 (twice as much as we were told it would cost). I (Brendan) was given the phone and was told by Ellisa that they were coming, finally, to talk. I told her we didn’t have time, because we had a flight at 2:30pm, and she got angry that I booked the flight, and told me that she called immigration to keep us in the country! We then called Canadian Consular Services in Ottawa, who told us there was no reason they could keep us here and to call them back if they tried. We downstairs to pay, and found Ellisa and her Dad hiding and waiting for us near the exit!
We ignored them, got in line to pay and leave, and waited. They came up and said we need to talk. I said, “about what?” She just kept repeating herself, so I said “Let’s talk now then,” very loudly. She started talking about how we owe them money for the flight ticket to Korea in September, which our contract says we do, but we told them that they have a $500 security deposit from each of us and they owe us for a week of work. She made up some bull about how because we didn’t work the full month we “don’t get a pay” and that they were calling the police. This was in the Hospital lobby. These people would stoop to harassing a sick person for money in a hospital.
Time was pressing, as we needed to get to the airport in 3 hours to assure check-in, so we asked how much we owe them. I still regret this, but it really was the only way that we could make our flight on time. They said $1200, and we said we don’t have that because of the hospital bills. I went to see what I did have in my bank account, and Tara tried to make a deal about giving them what we could and terminating the contract. I managed to withdraw $900, and almost threw it at her. Apparently when I was gone she kept saying stuff about me staying in the hospital with Tara instead of working (I only missed two classes), and that we were damaging our reputations and those of every Canadian (seriously!). They implied that I should stay in Korea and work and Tara could go home, and then brought up how she could lecture even though she won’t be fully better for another 3 weeks. We also didn’t want to mention other problems caused by the medication she was on. They brought up again about how we don’t need to be together all of the time.
Bad enough so far? Well, then they took us to the apartment so we could get our stuff and give them the keys, and they lectured us the entire way about work and responsibility. They said things like “why did you make a contract with us?” and “if our positions were reversed and you owned the school, what would you say if we had to leave.” I told them that for a medical emergency I would say “good luck, and I hope you get better.” They laughed at this, about the medical emergency and in disbelief that I would actually say this. I got really pissed off at this point and said that I’ve had a serious infection for two months, and four doctors said I should be better by now, when I’m actually getting worse. They scoffed again, and kept blabbering on and on and on about money, and how kind they were to take us to the hospital out of the kindness of their hearts, and how much money they spent on our apartment, and moving us, and the deposits, and hiring us in the first place. We decided not to argue about how it was likely the moldy apartment that caused us to be sick in the first place. They also didn’t even suggest helping with our medical expenses the numerous times we told them it was too expensive for us to continue to seek health care in Korea.
We finally collected our things and left. They actually wished us well on our way out, hoping that we would have many children and find happiness (oh so sincerely), and we ran to a taxi with all of our bags and then onto an airport bus. The bus was about to leave and Tara was having trouble carrying some stuff so I ran up and shouted “o ship pun chuseyo!” (five minutes please!) repeatedly, and stalled him just long enough to get us both on board.
We wrote this in Tokyo’s Narita airport,finally relaxing after the most ridiculous week of our lives, and looking ahead to the longest day of our lives too (but the happiest, says Tara). We left Seoul at 2:20pm on Wedneday, and we’re arrived in Toronto at 5:30 pm on Wednesday after a 17 hour journey.
We saw Tara’s doctor on Thursday and as soon as he looked at Tara and asked a few questions he was almost positive that it was the mumps affecting both of us. He ordered some tests for her, told me to check with my own family doctor, and told us how ridiculous and unnecessary all of the antibiotics were that they forced on us, especially Tara. They did nothing but cause further complications, and almost a very serious reaction, as well as wasting a serious amount of time and money. We really should have just left on Saturday, but oh well. It’s in the past now. We should be fine, after a little recovery and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone very soon.
We want to thank everyone for following and showing such interest in our crazy adventures in Korea, and we sincerely regret to say that they are now over. This was not an easy decision by any means, with so many regrets behind us. We’ll miss the kids so much, and all of the things we didn’t accomplish like seeing the DMZ, or 63 Building, or climbing the famous mountains. However, we could not afford to stay and risk something terrible happening, or having to stay any longer in that dirty, expensive hospital.
The good news is obvious! We get to see our families 8 months early!!!! We’ll be in touch with everyone as soon as we can. So long, Bucheon.
