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tfunk
Joined: 12 Aug 2006
Location: Dublin, Ireland
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 Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 7:09 am Post subject: |
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| Paji eh Wong wrote: |
Here's my advice: ditch your old friends. The are only going to hold you back. They mean well, but they were friends with the old you, not the new you. Pretend like you're a complete newbie in the city and see what happens. You will meet new people. |
Sure. We're always moving onwards and upwards, spiraling and ascending towards the heavens with our new brighter than Bush personalities.
I'm not going to ditch my old friends, I'll say hello now and again and even go for a few beers. I'm not superior to them...davescafe is gossip, whatever way you spin it. |
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Boodleheimer
Joined: 10 Mar 2006
Location: working undercover for the Man
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| Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 6:53 pm Post subject: |
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| come back! |
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itaewonguy
Joined: 25 Mar 2003
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| Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 7:32 pm Post subject: |
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you will be back, only a few people who have lived here more than 3 or 4 years can actually live away from here.. the rest of us end up coming and going from here for years and years!! its like the hotel california!!
people who say IM out of here next year for good, I just laugh at them and say yeah yeah see you in 1 or 2 years! everyone COMES BACK!!!
as much as they hate it, they love it |
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sojukettle
Joined: 23 Aug 2005
Location: Not there, HERE!
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| Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 7:53 pm Post subject: |
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I left from Auckland and spent five years in Singapore.
Went back to a decent job in Wellington and lasted 6 months. Found it quiet, hard to meet people, not much to do. Left and have never missed it.
Went to Australia.
Now into 3rd year in South Korea. No plans on leaving asia again.
Good luck CLG
SK |
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bosintang
Joined: 01 Dec 2003
Location: In the pot with the rest of the mutts
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| Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 8:03 pm Post subject: |
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This thread is depressing as hell. Let'sl call it the "Apocalypse Now" syndrome. When you're here in the *beep*, you can only think of getting out. When you are home, you can only think of coming back.
I'm going home in two weeks, and I'm set on staying a couple of years. There's more to life than being a lonely drifter even if going to the grocery story is more exciting in a foreign country for awhile. |
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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 8:59 pm Post subject: |
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| bosintang wrote: |
This thread is depressing as hell. Let'sl call it the "Apocalypse Now" syndrome. When you're here in the *beep*, you can only think of getting out. When you are home, you can only think of coming back.
I'm going home in two weeks, and I'm set on staying a couple of years. There's more to life than being a lonely drifter even if going to the grocery story is more exciting in a foreign country for awhile. |
See you back here in a year or two! 
Itaewonguy is right though. I've left FOUR times FOR GOOD. I left once for 3 years, and 3 other times for 1 year.
Each time I thought I'd seen the last of Seoul/Korea. Yet...here I am. |
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bosintang
Joined: 01 Dec 2003
Location: In the pot with the rest of the mutts
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| Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 9:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Tiger Beer wrote: |
| bosintang wrote: |
This thread is depressing as hell. Let'sl call it the "Apocalypse Now" syndrome. When you're here in the *beep*, you can only think of getting out. When you are home, you can only think of coming back.
I'm going home in two weeks, and I'm set on staying a couple of years. There's more to life than being a lonely drifter even if going to the grocery story is more exciting in a foreign country for awhile. |
See you back here in a year or two!
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Hahaha, well, I already did it once. This time I'm pretty determined not to. It's not a personal grudge against Korea or anything. I just think when you're unhappy with your life, it's too easy to blame it on wherever you are at the time, rather than examine the true causes of your unhapiness. Keeping Korea as a safety blanket whenever things don't work out at home will never let me get over it and move on with other things.
I say that now..
if fate so should be it and I end up back here, I'll remember this thread and bump it. In fact, I should bump it anytime I start getting that "feeling", just to remind me. |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 10:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Tiger Beer wrote: |
Itaewonguy is right though. I've left FOUR times FOR GOOD. I left once for 3 years, and 3 other times for 1 year.
Each time I thought I'd seen the last of Seoul/Korea. Yet...here I am. |
Korea certainly does seem to be an incurable infection for a lot of people, and that includes many seasoned travellers who've been all over and sampled a dozen other countries -- countries that, I'll speculate, those very people don't gripe about even 10% as much as they do Korea. It's a puzzling thing.
You and the Bobster -- about the last two people I'd place on Dave's Irrational K-Basher List, btw -- said in this thread that you each b1tched up a steady storm about Korea when you were in America. And yet, here you both are again.
Korea seems to be so many people's Itchy & Scratchy Land. If that makes any sense and it probably doesn't. Hmm. Korea's the itch that whiteys just love to scratch. (Better?) And I wonder what would it take for that to change, what would it take to shutter this Oriental "Hotel California" and return Korea to being regarded as just another "foreign country" again. The death of the ESL Boom? Is that all it is? The shekels? |
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Adventurer
Joined: 28 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 1:10 am Post subject: |
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I am sure in some ways I probably wouldn't want to be home, but in some ways life in Korea is not real. I mean who works only 30 hours making 2.4 million won? In the end, most of us will be going back. I don't know much about New Zealand but there is tons of diversity in Montreal and New Zealand and those N.Z. people who might seem closed-minded won't be less open-minded than the Koreans left behind. I like it here over all, but I am homesick, but there are drawbacks to going home for sure... You are not as happy as you might think you will be upon returning. We have imperfect visions of how things will be over there.
I hope you adjust well soon to life back home... |
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twg
Joined: 02 Nov 2006
Location: Getting some fresh air...
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| Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 4:08 am Post subject: Re: I don't like being back home... |
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If I was feeling unkind tonight, I'd call it Stockholm Syndrome
| crazylemongirl wrote: |
| I'm feeling the urge to bugger off again. |
Like a song in your head, the only way to deal with the ramblin feet is to get a ramblin'.
You got the sweet job and the disposable income. Vacation time should see you in a new country or else you'll really be the CRAZY Lemon Girl |
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ilovebdt
Joined: 03 Jun 2005
Location: Nr Seoul
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| Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 6:52 am Post subject: |
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| mrsquirrel wrote: |
I can prove that.
However if I go to NZ or OZ I can take my wife with my as a dependent on a student visa.
If I wish to take my wife to the UK with me whilst studying I have to jump through hoops.
Stupid isn't it. |
Yes, very stupid.
Had a look at the link to the diploma course. Those courses look really interesting.
Good luck with that 
ilovebdt |
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Chonbuk
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Vancouver
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| Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 10:06 am Post subject: |
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Hi CLG,
It takes time-
I left Korea twice, both times I thought I wasn't going to go back. I was sick and tired of the place... after 6 months I returned.
The third time I left- I knew that was it-
I was ready to start my next chapter- the first two times I wasn't.
Even though I know I am finished living in Korea, I still miss it, but not like the times when I returned.
Follow the advice others gave- and seriously think if you want to return, there is no shame in that either.
But things will be different there also- People move on, life happens...
Sometimes I think us former ex-pats never really fit in anywhere, and maybe that is the way we like it---
Always being an outsider-
just a thought-
Cheers,
Chonbuk-
who wonders if there are any other ex- expats living in Vancouver area on this site? |
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Cheonmunka
Joined: 04 Jun 2004
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| Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 2:25 pm Post subject: |
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I went back to NZ in 2004. I took the Diploma in Teaching at CHCH Ed. College. I didn't find NZ boring because of the teachers around me. It was great to be with my kids and wife in NZ. I bought a Volvo. We drove for picnics in the Alps, and watched 747's take off while sitting at the runway's edge. That was my way to get baby to sleep. Take her to watch the airplanes.
But good God, I came back.
Aaaarrrggghhh.
To be honest, coming back to K was a financial decision. And in 2004 I bought a townhouse in Auckland so my presense is there, if only in my mind. |
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idonojacs
Joined: 07 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 4:52 pm Post subject: |
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I don't like being on Planet Earth.
One place is about as good or bad as another. |
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merlot
Joined: 04 Nov 2005
Location: I tried to contain myself but I escaped.
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| Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 10:38 am Post subject: |
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Reverse culture shock is an interesting phenomenon.
Personally, I had no time to experience it. Within a couple of weeks after arriving back in the states, I moved to Costa Rica.
But when I went home earlier this month for a week, I couldn't wait to get back here. The states are no place for me for so many reasons.
I'll probably be either here or Panama for the rest of my days. |
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