Korean Job Discussion Forums

[CheeseSandwich]

Every other day, I go down to the Han river to run, sometimes I just do a 4 or 5 mile run at a nice pace or I do a sprint work out by running up a hill and then doing some push ups, sit ups etc. walk back down and do it all over again.


Today was a sprint day. I was about 75% done with my work out, I'm quite tired and even on a cool day like today I sweat like its my job. I've sprinted up the hill( its not a terribly big hill) and am doing my sit ups.

I'm sweaty, my hair is matted to my head, I'm so out of breath I'm actually sort of dizzy and I'm panting like race dog.

There had been an old Korean woman, like grandmother age, sitting on a bench for the past 15 minutes, I dont know if she was watching me or just relaxing.

So I'm doing my sit ups and out of the corner of my eye i see her coming towards me. She stops about a foot away from me, looks at me and then says something I didn't catch. (my korean is rather piss poor even when I don't hear anything but my heart beating in my head).

Then she hands me two hard candies. Says something else, makes a motion for me to eat them and wanders off.

Like this was so out of the blue I just looked like what I'm sure any one would describe as a retard and managed to spit out a thank you in korean.

Now, I don't want to spit on what I'm taking as a random act of kindness from a Korean. But I still think its one of the oddest things to happen to me in Korea, let alone my life in general.

I'm quite curious as to her thought process where she thought that the sweaty grunting western fellow needed two pieces of hard candy.


Still, pretty cool over all.



I think the moral I'm taking from this is: Grandmothers all over the world, love to give people hard candy.

[RACETRAITOR]

There's a little stretch by my home where there are always guys selling stuff out of carts. A couple days ago this guy forced two peanuts into my hand. He was giving out free samples to everyone. I went by later and got two more. The week previous, a guy making rice cakes handed me and my wife a free sample, telling her "I want the foreigner to think Koreans are generous."

(By the way, not the weirdest thing to happen in Korea to me.)

[esetters21]

Hard candy is universal I'm sure. Wouldn't you have preferred a CheeseSandwich?

[CheeseSandwich]

[waynehead]

I was walking down the street today, sipping on a coke zero. Some helmoni waiting for the bus points at me, then at the coke, as I approach her. She pats my stomach when I get close enough, points to the coke, and then waves her hand in the 'don't do that' motion.

I stopped, pointed to where it says 'zero' on the bottle, and say "jjerro" very politely. You gotta roll wit it.

[LUCRETIA]

A drunk man at the Daejeon station was loitering around and hassling random people. We watched him for a half hour at least; he was just wandering around, yelling occassionally and then some police types told him to move along, they scuffled, he wandered around some more etc.

He then climbed right to the top of the stairs at the entrance, sort of swung around really quickly on the handrails, and fell down - a looong way down, all the steps - and landed on his head right at the bottom. Just the way his body fell was so sickening. He didnt move, people just walked by. His body just kind of lay there crumpled up. I cant be 100% sure, but I really think he died. It was sad for me. I never saw a person actually die before

[Cheonmunka]

It might seem odd but it is likely the ginseng or pumpkin candy - she just wants to get your energy back up. I thought it was a nice gesture.

[newton kabiddles]

Oh how many I have, that biatch was insane...
One of the oddest was when I got a call at home around 600 PM that my sister had died in a car accident back in the states and I called my ex-wife who was at work and told her what happened. She didn't leave her office until three hours after receiving my call. After about one hour of waiting I called her cellphone and when she picked up I could tell she was still at her office. I asked her why she wasn't coming home and she said she was busy, that they had a lot of orders, and she would be home soon. That was the beginning of the end of the marriage.

[The Perfect Cup of Coffee]

[newton kabiddles]

[CheeseSandwich]

[Ilsanman]

The it is your duty to walk into Samgyeopsal restaurants and rebuke the people there for eating fatty shitty meat.

Or is it none of your GD business?

[ruffie]

[whatever]

So is denigrating foreigners, ignoring your children and being drunk as *beep* in public at all hours of the night.