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bluelake
Joined: 01 Dec 2005
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 Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 8:14 pm Post subject: |
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| I need to make a yearly trip back to the States to see my folks; they are now in their 80s and have health concerns. There will probably come a time when I rarely, if ever leave Korea. |
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luvnpeas
Joined: 03 Aug 2006
Location: somewhere i have never travelled
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| Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 9:41 pm Post subject: |
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When I first got here (4 months ago...don't think I'll win), I was talking to my co-teacher about American TV in Korea. It suddenly occurred to me to ask if she knew MASH. She didn't and asked what it was. I blurted out very enthusiastically "Oh, it's great! It's a comedy about the Korean War!"
I felt a little stupid a second later. |
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Teufelswacht
Joined: 06 Sep 2004
Location: Land Of The Not Quite Right
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| Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2007 10:34 pm Post subject: |
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| VanIslander wrote: |
Any waygook been in Korea continuously for the last five years? I doubt it. At least not many. |
I have been here continuously for the past 7 years. I haven't left Korea - even for a vacation - during that time. Hell, I've only been to Seoul 1 time (In 2002 for 3 days) since coming to Korea. |
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SuperHero
Joined: 10 Dec 2003
Location: Superhero Hideout
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 12:28 am Post subject: |
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| VanIslander wrote: |
| Any waygook been in Korea continuously for the last five years? I doubt it. At least not many. |
raises hand. except for one week in Singapore. |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 1:25 am Post subject: |
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| Teufelswacht wrote: |
| VanIslander wrote: |
Any waygook been in Korea continuously for the last five years? I doubt it. At least not many. |
I have been here continuously for the past 7 years. I haven't left Korea - even for a vacation - during that time. Hell, I've only been to Seoul 1 time (In 2002 for 3 days) since coming to Korea. |
Wow. That's what I'm talking about! And you're not even a gyopo? Or married to a Korean, with Korean offspring and Korean fluency, gone native?
How has it been being here so long without even a week's break away? Are you planning any trip away? |
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jaganath69
Joined: 17 Jul 2003
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 3:12 am Post subject: |
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| JongnoGuru wrote: |
| bluelake wrote: |
| semphoon wrote: |
Any more of these? I love hearing about how it was. Ive heard there was a curfew of sorts.
How has the Korean attitude changed to foreigners since then? |
Although there were still curfews in places, most small towns didn't seem to have them.
During the mid-month civil defense drills, traffic came to a complete standstill and people took cover in whatever building they were near. |
I didn't exactly arrive yesterday, but I did miss out on the whole midnight curfew culture by many years. For firsthand impressions, we have the accounts of other foreigners and of Koreans who were here then. And oddly, the latter of these two sources is the more apt to get things wrong and forget the details of that period. This is probably because most Koreans that any of us tend to know and talk with were very young, or indeed had not yet been born, at the time.
With few exceptions, married Korea men worked and married Korean women were housewives. Though it was certainly a nuisance, the curfew also served to "trap"  husbands in bars and clubs, and prevent them returning home till the next morning, or till the end of business the next evening. I cannot imagine a better set of circumstances, nor a better country, for aiding and abetting wholesale infidelity & prostitution. Another thing I heard from those living here then, the curfew did not apply to the landlocked province of Chungcheongbuk-do, the idea being that the Nork spy infiltrators would be nabbed as they passed through the DMZ in Gyeonggi & Gangwon provinces, or detected and capturered in the coastal provinces where they were expected to set ashore on spyboats. So if you were a married man living down in Cheongju those years, you were out one very major excuse/cover for hanky-panky that your countrymen in most parts of the Republic enjoyed. |
I was talking to a mate here the other day who has lived in Cheongju a lot longer than I. He mentioned when he first got here the bars would close at midnight. Not sure if it is the same curfew thing you are talking about though. |
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Teufelswacht
Joined: 06 Sep 2004
Location: Land Of The Not Quite Right
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 3:22 am Post subject: |
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| VanIslander wrote: |
| Teufelswacht wrote: |
| VanIslander wrote: |
Any waygook been in Korea continuously for the last five years? I doubt it. At least not many. |
I have been here continuously for the past 7 years. I haven't left Korea - even for a vacation - during that time. Hell, I've only been to Seoul 1 time (In 2002 for 3 days) since coming to Korea. |
Wow. That's what I'm talking about! And you're not even a gyopo? Or married to a Korean, with Korean offspring and Korean fluency, gone native?
How has it been being here so long without even a week's break away? Are you planning any trip away? |
Well, I'm not a gyopo, but I do have a Korean spouse. However, we were married long, long before I/we came to the Land of the Not Quite Right. My child is bi-racial, of course, but she, having been born in my home country long before I/we came to Korea, is more "Western" than I am. No Korean fluency. However, I do speak Hite-ese and Cass-ian and Jack Daniels-ese.
Not going native, I don't think. However, if I ever find myself squatting, smoking a cigarette while waiting for a bus, I getting the f**k outta here!
I'm a simple person with simple tastes who learned a long time ago that home is where I hang my hat so to speak.
No immediate plans for a trip away. |
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rednblack
Joined: 12 Jun 2006
Location: In a quiet place
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 4:51 am Post subject: |
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| Seventh year and only 3 days out of the country. We plan to retire here. |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 4:57 am Post subject: |
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| rednblack wrote: |
| Seventh year and only 3 days out of the country. We plan to retire here. |
Stuff like this amazes me. Don't you ever take holidays outside the Republic? Like just to Japan or Guam for a few days? |
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rednblack
Joined: 12 Jun 2006
Location: In a quiet place
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 5:21 am Post subject: |
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Teufelswacht
Never really had the opportunity. A good job, but the trade-off was little vacation time. I now have a new job and have been promised 2 full weeks this year. Not great, but I'll take it. |
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rednblack
Joined: 12 Jun 2006
Location: In a quiet place
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 5:26 am Post subject: |
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| Sorry, JongnoGuru. Not Teufelswacht |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 5:11 pm Post subject: |
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| rednblack wrote: |
| Seventh year and only 3 days out of the country. We plan to retire here. |
By "we" do you mean you and a Korean spouse? with children?
Teufelswacht has a Korean wife and kid and so seems in the raising-a-family routine, which explains it. |
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periwinkle
Joined: 08 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 11:29 pm Post subject: |
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| SuperHero wrote: |
| VanIslander wrote: |
| Any waygook been in Korea continuously for the last five years? I doubt it. At least not many. |
raises hand. except for one week in Singapore. |
I've been here continuously since June 2001. Except for a week here or a week there for vacation. |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 3:20 am Post subject: |
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| periwinkle wrote: |
| I've been here continuously since June 2001. Except for a week here or a week there for vacation. |
I know what that's like. A week away makes a world of difference. I just came back from a week in Canada and can go another year or two in Korea after that.
But it's hard to imagine 5+ years without getting away. |
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SPINOZA
Joined: 10 Jun 2005
Location: $eoul
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| Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 4:20 am Post subject: |
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| JongnoGuru wrote: |
| rednblack wrote: |
| Seventh year and only 3 days out of the country. We plan to retire here. |
Stuff like this amazes me. Don't you ever take holidays outside the Republic? Like just to Japan or Guam for a few days? |
Holidays are absolute crap. I've discovered this the most expensive, hard way. The amount of extra green, the extra xeros on my bank balance, I'd have if I didn't waste my time on planes, ending up tired and grouchy in some bloody foreign city, makes me actually bitter. Independently as an adult (childhood hols are awesome of course), I've seen some mildy interesting stuff, but I'd trade it all for the money saved. Travel is the most overrated thing I've observed. I'm jealous of folks like VanIslander who've not stepped foot out of Korea for 7 seven years - you must absolutely stink of money. |
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