Mulloskeys Adventures Abroad

Hello loyal readers. Well, undeserving as we are of your loyalty of late, we hope you will trust that a series of both fortunate and unfortunate events have caused us to fall SERIOUSLY behind on our blogging. Chalk it up to living, adventuring, houseguests (more on the return of Scott later), and yet another food poisoning episode….whatever the root cause, we’re sorry and we’re back online. Before I go back a few weeks to talk about the arrival of Spring in Seoul, allow me first to tell you the main reason we’ve been so behind. The Mulloskeys have been felled – for the second time in three months – by food poisoning. This time, it was not the result of rather shoddy decision-making (read: eating semi-cooked, lukewarm, five day old oysters off of a dirty barrel on a pier surrounded by barbed-wire and chalking it up to a ‘cultural experience’), but rather at the hands of our employer. Now, I know that we can be a little over the top at times, but I didn’t think we had quite set ourselves up as targets to be taken out of the workplace.

Last Saturday (shortly after our return from China), we set out on our day long annual ECC Spring Picnic/Hike. Unlike most company picnics, ours involves hauling your ass out of bed at an ungodly hour to get on a bus filled with co-workers, the boss and his wife and the bus-drivers. Now, the bus drivers were an amazing group and by 8:30am had taken over the back of the bus (where all the cool kids sit) and were drinking soju and gambling. Miah tried to get in on this game but they were playing with miniature cards with Korean characters on them…something was lost in translation. Now, looking back…we should have stuck with them. Instead, we decided to enjoy the scenery and began our 4-hour hike up the mountain.

   Now, the Koreans are a spritely folk and, despite my semi-improved cardiovascular endurance, I am no match for them when it comes to scaling a mountain. Miah and I hung back and went at our own pace. I have to say I really enjoyed the hike and poor Miah was a trooper considering he was already suffering from some sort of stomach flu and continued to trudge up the mountain. In truth, you don’t have much choice. It’s a good thing that it’s enjoyable as it’s a badge of honour to scale the top (and a cause for public ridicule if you don’t). The hike was gorgeous and very peaceful though definitely challenging at times. After the majority of the group reached the top (myself not included), we headed back down for a dinner at the rustic equivalent of a mountain lodge for dinner.

Now, please disabuse yourself of any imagery of our wedding dinner … this was not nearly as charming and, as far as I know, all vomiting or digestive issues were a result of the guest not knowing where to draw the line. Easily cured with some Advil and water. This was a family-owned bungalow wooden cabin where we sat down to a dinner of bibimbap (rice, egg, various veggies and sprouts and red pepper paste). This is usually one of my favourite Korean dishes as it if remarkably meat-free. Now, I usually eat this in a hot stone bowl and the rice is usually piping hot. This means, that when the semi-raw egg is placed on top the heat from the rice or the bowl will cook the egg. This bibimbap was laid out (minus the rice and the hot bowl) about two hours before we arrived (having been pre-arranged by our boss).

Now, please note the relatively uncooked state of the egg…sitting at room temperature. When the rice came, it was lukewarm at best. We were just so hungry. I even commented on how sketchy the egg looked, but still, stupidly, we ate. We decided not to partake in the makli (carbonated rice wine – as disgusting as it sounds…picture yogurt, sprite and sour liqueur mixed together) and instead joined the game of foreigner vs. Korean soccer-volleyball … we had our asses kicked. The night became immeasurably more entertaining when our by-day luxury coach turned into a karaoke bus on our way home. The bus drivers were totally loaded and sang some amazing K-pop. I WILL get a video feed and post some footage. For now, here are some pics.

The night ended well and we went home exhausted. Little did we know what was in store for us – again. We went about our usual Sunday routine here (coffee, long walk, groceries, apartment cleaning and lovely dinner prep) and watched some movies. About midnight that night all hell broke loose. Sean tried to convince me that the symptoms were just because the peanut stir-fry I had made for dinner was too rich. No, no my friend. While I will spare you the graphic detail of the last incident. Suffice it to say that I was in the bathroom for 12 hours straight.

A few phone calls the next morning revealed that no short of 10 other teachers were sick. I crawled to the school the next day with my manager promising to take me (and some others) to the doctor. We get there and my boss (who accompanied us into the doctor’s office even though the doctor spoke perfect English) denies that we are sick from food poisoning (i.e. how many times did you have diarrhea last night – 20 at least – boss laughs it off and says no). The doctor tells me I have food poisoning and my boss busts out into Korean and starts saying that I was drinking the rice wine at dinner. Now I don’t know much Korean but I understood what he was trying to pull. Saving face be damned. I interrupt him and tell the doctor what actually happened. My boss leaves. Three other teachers and I are hooked up to IVs (complete with antibiotics and anti-nauseants) for severe dehydration. When our IVs are about half drained a nurse comes in and unhooks the IV. Turns out our boss has called and told them to take us off the meds. He needs us back at work. The doctor calls back and tells him we’re leaving AMA. Doesn’t matter. We get back to work, barely conscious, and find out that not only do we have to work but the management has been spreading the word amongst the Korean teachers that the ‘foreigners’ (as we are so lovingly referred to) were out ‘drinking’ on the weekend and that’s why we’re ill. We enter to whispers and innuendo from our Korean counterparts. I guess that it’s a really important part of this trip… to feel discriminated against. Not something we’re used to I guess. I was asked on more than one occasion what I had to drink after the picnic on Saturday. Not one of the Korean teachers that was ill was asked if they had been drinking. Three Korean teachers were sick (one of them allowed to stay home) and all the others are saying that they don’t have food poisoning. They were all sick with different things that just happened to have identical symptoms and strike at the same time. The denial was like nothing I had ever witnessed. I finally told my boss that he had better correct this perception, and quick, or he could find someone else to teach my classes that day. This unfortunately resulted in my boss prostrating himself before the entire staff and saying that it was his careless planning that got us all sick. This was clearly no one’s fault, we didn’t want anyone to feel bad. We only wanted a little thanks for working when if we were at home, the entire office would have been closed down for a day. We wanted to feel like our employer cared for our well-being. We wanted to feel that people at least believed us. Talk about frustrated. Anyhow, after a week of feeling weak, we’re back on our feet.

And so friends and family, we’re back and will be blogging about China next week.