I’m Back in Korea, And Yes, It’s Just Food Poisoning

I got back to Korea this morning. Just in case anyone was wondering. No major delay in the flight, no big problems. I am sleepy, but had to bang out a syllabus for that Business Across Cultures course. Yay! The Corporation is available online. (In a few places.)

By the way, as the KCDC gotten more paranoid or something? I handed in my health questionnaire form, with check marks on diarrhea and vomiting among my experiences in the last ten days. The guy who was collecting the papers gave me a shocked, slightly horrified look — which suggests a lot of travelers must be lying on their forms, since traveler’s diarrhea is utterly common. I resisted the urge to say, “You asked, pal…” and clarified, “It’s just food poisoning,” but the guy looked at me in horror as he waved me through.

Which is enough to make me wonder whether the guy has ever traveled anywhere in Southeast Asia. I cannot imagine someone traveling there for two months without having gotten food poisoned at least once. Me, I was extremely careful and still got hit three times, each time quite seriously. I’m a bit sensitive, but, really, now.

Anyway, I wasn’t hauled aside for further testing or quarantine, so I guess I should consider myself lucky. I am expecting an odd little phone call in the next couple of days.

It is better to be safe than sorry, of course. I just don’t get how the guy was so utterly shocked by a couple of check-marks which, surely, if travelers were being honest, would probably be not uncommon, if not downright frequent. I can’t shake a sense that there was some ancient-Greek aesthetic at work in the back of his mind. (Illness = contagion = evil carried into Korea by some foreigner.)

Comments

  1. Val says:

    glad to see you’re back. be well.

    1. gordsellar says:

      Thanks! I’m working on the being well, though this last bout of food poisoning seemingly wants to keep its claws in me for a few more days. It’s losing the battle, though.

      Hope you’re well too!

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