Storing Array in MySQL column/row

[Al]

I want to store an associative array to one column/row but it returns as a string. The only way I was able create the associate array was by exploding the string and using replacement functions (not illustrated below). Is there an easy way to write and call these arrays to MySQL?

Here is a sample associate array:
$month=array("0"=>"Month", "1"=>"January", "2"=>"February", "12"=>"December");

I wrote "0"=>"Month", "1"=>"January", "2"=>"February", "12"=>"December" to the database. (I also tried single quotes, and inserting carriage returns after each set.)

Then I returned it from the database and then put it in an array:

$montharray=$row["somearray"];
$month= array($montharray);

Then I tried to manipulate it, but it treats it as a string:
foreach($month as $key=>$value){
if($key == 2){
echo "<h3>Foreach KEY AND VALUE: $key and $value end</h3>";
} else {echo "<h3>Not equal to 2</h3>";}
}