I am often asked to compare Taiwan and Korea since I have lived in both countries.  Thus far it has been difficult for me to do.  I don’t really know what people want to hear and since I am able to prone to rambling on when I am excited or interested in a topic, I never know if I’ve really answered their question (or if they even know what sort of comparison they are looking for).

Another consideration is, are you looking for a factual based account or personal?  I am more about the human interest stories, peppered with a few facts to tie it all together.  So without further ado…

I’ve already mentioned the reasons why I went to Taiwan in an earlier post but haven’t related much about my actual time there.  Let’s just say, neither one started off very well.

The day that I left to move to Taiwan my grandmother passed away.  My parents didn’t tell me because they didn’t want to upset me for the flight over and knew that I would be wracked with guilt over leaving.  Within a three month period my grandfather and my aunt’s partner also both passed away.  My sister and father both broke their wrists in separate accidents and I was in 2 vehicle accidents in one week.  

Almost every week my mom was relating tales to her friends of a continuous stream of bad luck that seemed to have settled on our family.

When I had made the decision to move to Korea my parents were out of the country and I would not see them again until I returned home for a visit.  I felt a lot of guilt about leaving without being able to see them again and had nagging fears about a repeat of the Taiwan departure.

The day after I arrived, my dad told me that my mom wasn’t feeling well and was in the hospital.  Now, my parents rarely go to the doctor.  My sister and I commiserate and then compete over who has the ‘I was so sick and they never took me to the doctor’ stories quite often.  I think it’s a Canadian parent thing.  Unless you are super sick there’s no point going to the doctor, the ‘there’s nothing they can do for you anyway’ mentality runs deep.

The next week I get a phone call saying that they are back home and running more tests.  Then that they have found cancer.  A few weeks later, not just cancer, but stage 4 ovarian cancer that is inoperable and that she has 6 months to live.  Then chemo.  Then, now we can operate but we’re not sure how far it’s spread.  Operation a success but more chemo.  This went on for about 3 months with the news and information changing what seemed like weekly.  I was at a complete loss as to what to do.  Every conversation I asked if I should come home and my parents told me that ‘well, let’s wait and see, we have no idea what is really going on, so…’.

 By the end of 4 months I went home.  I was back in Canada for 2 months with my parents.  That was the longest I had been living with them since I’d finished high school.  I lounged around making fruit smoothies for my mom and myself.  We would wake up late, eat breakfast, my mom would nap and we’d all read all afternoon.  Dinner, a movie and then bed time.  Repeat.  

Until the weekly chemo treatments that were in another city about 1.5 hours away.

Then I got a job- and, as is common in Korea, can you come next week?  Eh? What? You want me there that fast?  So I packed my bags, tears flowing, not sure as to the health status of my mom and left again.  

Let it be known that there was no fleeing, no pressure and no arguments by anyone.  Just that it was “time to get on with things” as my mom says.

And now?

 Well, now we chat on Skype once a week.  

In September it will have been 1 year since the last chemo treatment and if she gets a clean bill of health then we should be good for another few years.

So when I get asked the question “How’s Taiwan different from Korea?” that’s the first thing that comes to mind.  The second is for another post.