Korean Job Discussion Forums

Adventurer · Joined: 28 Jan 2006

Well, today was an interesting Saturday. I went to Namsan Tower. I took a cab, and he insisted he couldn't take us far up there near where you would take the elevators and stuff. I knew he wasn't telling the truth, but I figured we would get there the rest of the way. Anyway, when we got out this ajossi was wondering why we didn't stay in the cab. Actually, there were two ajossis.

I explained to them that the cab didn't want to take us up all the way, and they got pissed off at the cab driver. One of the older guys yelled in Korean at the cab "Hey, take the foreigners up there, what the hell are you doing! That's not right". I got the impression that's what he was saying. Later, the cab got blocked by some busses. He was blocked for quite a bit of time, I think.

I told my girl "That's karma for the cab". I wasn't surprised he got blocked, and it didn't bother me that he was trying to not take me exactly where I wanted. Then, we walked up, and we were going to walk up all the way until these nice old ladies made sure we didn't walk 2.6 kilometers up and took a bus. It was nice of them.

The view up there was superb with the way the trees' leaves have changed colors. Later, when we got down and were walking down we saw this military officer (he looked like an officer) with his awesome big dog. Many of the Korean kids were scared of the big dog, and I was chatting with the officer and talking about home, the dog, and what have you. We stopped in front of some kids who got scared of the dog. I then showed the kids by petting the dog that it was very safe, and tons of Koreans swarmed to pet the sweet, big dog, and the dog from Kansas just loved all the affection.

I just thought I would post a feel good post..... It is not a work of literature or anything special. It is simply ordinary.

Sure, after that I had a few drinks with the guys and then went to that new Middle Eastern restaurant called the Arabian Restaurant which has Iraqi decor. The hookahs are reasonably priced.

coffeeandmilk · Joined: 23 Oct 2008

Thanks for that post. Sounds like you have more patience than me. I am working on it though.

Adventurer · Joined: 28 Jan 2006

coffeeandmilk · Joined: 23 Oct 2008

IlIlNine · Joined: 15 Jun 2005 Location: Gunpo, Gyonggi, SoKo

I could have sworn only buses (and VIPs) are allowed to drive up to the very top of namsan.

cdninkorea · Joined: 27 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

When I lived at the bottom of Namsan I used to jog up to Seoul Tower and loved running into people with big dogs. They were usually foreigners but once in a while it'd be a Korean too.

Growing up with big dogs and not seeing them in Seoul much, I always stopped to say hi to the German Shepherds, Huskies, Jindos, and Labrador and Golden Retrievers I ran into on occassion.

KYC · Joined: 11 May 2006

I was told the same thing when I went up there. The taxi driver did tell me which bus would take us up there. I didn't see any taxi drivers either...all the korean people had to take the same bus I did.

*shrug* wasn't a big deal to me.

danby_ll · Joined: 06 Dec 2006

When I went to the top of Namsan, a taxi took us up all the way to the top. I was with 3 Koreans. They will not drive up unless a foreigner is present. I had to show some form of ID proving I was not Korean (not that I look slightly Asian at all).

danby_ll · Joined: 06 Dec 2006

When I went to the top of Namsan, a taxi took us up all the way to the top. I was with 3 Koreans. They will not drive up unless a foreigner is present. I had to show some form of ID proving I was not Korean (not that I look slightly Asian at all).

blaseblasphemener · Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 8:07 pm Post subject: Re: My Saturday....

Kenny Kimchee · Joined: 12 May 2003

I played poker until 4am on Friday night and got into bed at 5am. I was scheduled to help my friend move house in HBC at 11am and gave some serious thought to blowing it off, but good friends are hard to find so I dragged my hungover ass outta bed at 1030am the next morning.

I was running late and decided to take a taxi, rather than take the subway from Sangsu to Noksapyoung. At night, it's a 6000won/10 minute taxi ride and I figured a taxi would be faster than waiting a long time for the Saturday subway/11 minute subway ride to Noksapyoung/10 minute walk to HBC. WRONG! Traffic was flowing smoothly until we got to Gongdeok, where a jam was in full effect. Took 25 minutes to get from Gongdeok to Samgakji; total taxi cost was 45 minutes and 9000 won. Argh!

I got there, apologized profusely, and redeemed myself by doing a bit of heavy lifting. Had lunch and raced back home to take a shower, put on a suit, and go to a job interview at a university in northern Seoul.

I barely missed the subway (twice!) and was cutting it really close to being late for the interview. Had to take another taxi from the station to the uni, but made it with five minutes to spare.

I had to do a demo lesson and it went over like a ton of bricks. My interview was reasonably okay, but all I could think about was how I probably looked like something the cat drug in. My shoes were polished and my shirt pressed, but my puffy red face and bloodshot eyes probably didn't give the best impression.

I came home, put on my pajamas, surfed the net, ordered some 돌솥제육, watched a video, and went to bed.

I got 11 hours of sleep last night - feeling good. Girlfriend is coming over in a bit....