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"Wife" and Expat Medicine Woes
03/10/09
09:20:36 pm, by admin 
, 319 words 
Categories: ...and Takes On, 사랑?, America, Things I'd Forgotten About, Vicarious Culture Shock, 결혼식
"Wife" and Expat Medicine Woes
Last night in a moment of stress...
"I'm stressed! I'm sorry I'm being so bitchy!"
"Nooooooo," Good Man said. "You are not bitch. You are woman! You are wife! You are my wife!"
"You like that word," I said.
"'Wife' is best word ever! All Korean men like the word. 'Wife!'"
I started rattling off the Korean words related to wife and newlywed. "부인, 아내, 처, 신부..."
"No! 와이프!" He said "wife" in the Korean way, making it almost—but not quite—sound like "wipe."
Good Man went on, "와이프 is best word ever! All Korean men born since, hmmm, 1970, love 와이프! Wife Magic!"
Meanwhile I keep calling him my boyfriend and fiancé.
"Nooooooo! I am 'husband!'"
One common complaint of ex-pats in Korea is that getting decent over-the-counter drugs is impossible. Going to the doctor is cheap. Getting prescription meds is cheap. Getting decent over-the-counter medicine? Not as easy.
Mother sent Good Man to America with a mini-pharmacy in his bag, much as my mother sent me to Korea with a huge bottle of Advil and other meds.
"American medicine is too strong," Good Man explained.
Today I took Good Man to the store to pick up some cold medicine. I immediately reached for cheaper store-brand versions of DayQuil and NyQuil. "This is what you want, this is good stuff."
"That looks scary."
"No, it's not. It's good, but be careful you take day during the day and night at night 'cause the night one will knock you out asleep."
Good Man looked horrified. "Why is American medicine so strong?"
"Well, your Korean medicine isn't working, so go American-style. Do you want cherry red flavor or original green flavor?"
"This is medicine, not food."
"Right, but it's American medicine. So red or green flavor?"
Good Man nodded. "Green."
I picked up the green night bottle and the orange day bottle. "This will taste disgusting."
"It's OK. I have had Chinese medicine."
7 comments
Oh, and I had to show ID to buy the medicine. Since when? That's stupid.
Meth has really taken over the country. Readily available, cheap, and home grown.
I said, "Seriously, you need ID?" and started fumbling around for it. I felt bad, because the woman behind us had noticed that we only had two items and had offered us the spot in front of her. Before I could get the ID out, the clerk said, "Nah, I gotcha."
Every 7-10 years or so some drug(s) come in vogue. Crack, pot, meth, glue, whatever. My students should be able to buy glue, and I should be able to buy medicine. Good Man doesn't walk around with his passport on his person and has no photo idea with a birth date on it. If he had gone to buy medicine by himself would they have said no? To a sniffling, sneezing, runny-nosed man? Stupid.
http://www.violentacres.com/archives/193/what-would-happen-if-you-bought-25-bottles-of-nyquil
The stuff we bought doesn't even have the right methy drug IN IT! That's like showing ID to buy candy cigarettes!!!
I agree that there are many more pressing issues facing this planet than Nyquil abuse, but I guess someone important's relative died as a result of the "unauthorized" use of these types of over the counter drugs.
I nearly died last year because a drug I am dependent on was removed because the FDA decided to ban epinephrine-based inhalers, which use chlorofluorocarbons that harm the ozone. It took a few deaths from people addicted to Primatene Mist to force them to put it back on the market. For a while, the dwindling supplies were being hawked on ebay for 10 times their normal price before lawsuits finally forced the FDA rescind their ban.
Interesting about the FDA and eBay--never, ever thought about that...
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