Sooo…yeah. As you probably already know, I made my great escape from South Korea nearly two weeks ago (in true Psycho fashion, I might add). Now that I’m back in the land of hockey and maple syrup, it is kind of embarrassing that I still have one post remaining in my Farewell Tour. I’ll get to it don’t worry.
You can probably guess that my last month and a half was probably not that exciting hence the fact that I decided to leave. The truth is I had been on the fence about leaving Korea since the end of August. The honeymoon period was far from over – if I ever had a honeymoon period in the first place. Korea is a great place for a westerner if you A) can’t get laid at home, B) like to party, and C) never want to grow up. It’s not like Korea is a must see country. In fact, tourist wise it offers very little. The one consolation is that it’s close to the Asian countries that you DO want to see. The party aspect was great, and the lifestyle was way too easy, but after a while I started to feel like I was stagnating professionally, and on top of that health issues were starting to surface.
The Korean labour board is great in a lot of ways, like if you work in Korea for an entire year you’ll be given an extra month’s pay as a bonus at the end. However, contracts really mean nothing, and as far as the well being of a westerner is concerned, most employers could really care less. My symptoms started to get worse, and I don’t know how many times I went to the hospital and was simply either laughed at or turned away because I wasn’t Korean. Finally, I went to my employer seeking a two week leave to go back to Canada to see my doctors and make sure that this whole thing wasn’t anything serious. They were very accommodating, and even tried to get me home sooner than later. However, while they were ironing out the details, I managed to find a specialist in Korea who was willing to see me, and then confirmed that my condition was potentially quite serious (I was once again laughed at while given this news). With this information I went back to my employer asking them to confirm my vacation dates because it was now more important than ever that I see my doctors to A) at least confirm the diagnosis, and B) develop a baseline for them to monitor until I came back permanently. I also, quite frankly, needed a vacation to relax after two months of worry and stress. My employer decided to change their mind and “flat out refused” my request on the grounds that if I’m sick then I just won’t bother coming back. Yeah, I’d just leave all my shit behind and not bother coming back for it.
What was maybe more hilarious was that they then started to act like my request for vacation (which was laid out in my contract) was to be regarded as some sort of paranoid, illogical conspiracy against the company to the point that one of the westerners, that I was clearly friends with, was warned not to make it look like he had given me any advice on the whole situation. What. The. Fuck?!
I had decided, in principle, not to resign. I wasn’t going to be forced to quit my job because the entire system is fucked up. But there was an obvious shift in the way I was being treated. Like suddenly I couldn’t be trusted because Korea ruined my health and I wanted to do something about it. In my personal life I had done everything possible to get better and reduce stress. I had been living like a hermit since the end of September – trying to avoid alcohol and smoke filled bars as much as possible, but the bitterness at work just kept mounting. I didn’t hate my job, but I didn’t love it either. The life was easy, but it wasn’t a question of COULD I finish the year in Korea, it became a question of SHOULD I. I started getting strange colds, and being a burning ball of hate every day is no way to reduce stress and get healthy.
It was literally a last minute decision to flee the country. It seemed like I was calling my family members every day trying to debate the decisions I could make in the matter. Obviously when I had told them the diagnosis, they wanted me to come home. I, on the other hand, didn’t want to leave because I viewed quitting as weakness, but I also saw staying as letting the bad people win. Finally, literally five days before what would become my great escape, my mother basically made the decision for me and booked me on a one way flight to Toronto, and there was no turning back. According to my contract, I had to give them a month’s notice if I was quitting. I gave them ten minutes. And that’s how I got myself banned from Korea.
Boys:
1.Messier
2. Bauer
3. Scotty (Bowman)
4. Ovi
5. Modano
6. Bure (Pavel)
7. Maurice (Richard)
8. Linden
9. Cherry
10. Simpson (Craig) [New]
Girls:
1. Darcy (Tucker)
2. Vezina
3. Quinn
4. Kovy
5. Souray
6. Bobby (Clarke)
7. Ricci [New]
8. Tie (Domi) [New]
Top Photo: Yes, my hair really was this awful colour!
