I think squat toilets are probably safer than western ones for whatever it is, though, because at no point does your body touch any part of the toilet (you’re supposed to flush with your foot).

I did get food poisoning (from my high school’s fish, I like to think… refused to eat fish there the rest of the year and didn’t get sick again) from which I had to miss school the next day. My co-teacher even came to my apartment hurriedly after I texted her, to verify that I wasn’t bluffing. Joke was on her: I’d been puking my brains out the entire night before and my apartment probably reeked of bile.

Fun fact: I thought Korean bathrooms were weird until that early episode, where I learned to appreciate them fully for their multitasking possibilities. The night before, I simultaneously peed, diarrhea’d and puked all at once. What’s a girl to do when she can’t hold back the puke while diarhea? Well, might as well puke down the bathroom drain. Once the stomach calmed down a bit, I just turned on the tap to clean up my mess a bit, and cold showered and continued puking for as long as I needed to. I freaking miss Korean bathrooms.

Back to the crud. Like I said, didn’t get it (sounds like the flu) but my immunity system was definitely not ready for the Korean cold. And I mean, I’m a Canadian. We get winters. In fact I hadn’t been sick for 5 winters before going to Korea. But once I got there, whooo boy did I get the sniffles and toad voice every winter. Nothing bad, just… yeah, you work with kids, of course you’ll get the occasional cold. Not to mention that they don’t cover their mouths when they sneeze, there. Sigh. So yeah, of course I got sick, just never to flu (or “crud”) proportions.

@Kate: Glad I could console. LOL. Head straight to the doc & have him give you a shot in the butt and prescribe his packets of pills. Many of us have gotten sick a lot over the first few months of arrival. Guess it takes a while to get used to the Korean germs. Get well soon.

@Lisa: Korea food IS very spicy. Chili paste is in a LOT of things. Your nose will run & it’s considered rude to blow. LOL. You can ask for less spice though, just to make it bearable. 😉 Korean idol i’ve not seen although one of Korea’s favorite pasttimes is Noraebang (karaoke). They love singing.

And also, when is “The Crud” coming? It’s April 2011 now, and there’re no theatres showing it! 🙂

@Chad: Wow. You sound like you’re experience the brutal side of the Crud. That sounds a bit like what some others I know have experienced. Whatever I had was much more mild.

An interesting thing is also that many expats I know (myself included) catch colds so often in Korea. It’s like your body takes a while to acclimate to the kind of bug they have here. Hope you get well soon and thanks for sharing your insider perspective!