Korean Job Discussion Forums

[PianoMan2]

Hello everyone,

I'm starting a job in Buyeo in about a week. Does anyone know anything about this place? Things to do, expat hangouts, etc?

Looks like this place is in the sticks...

[young_clinton]

oh well at least you can take a quick bus to Seoul on the weekends. If I remember correctly Buyeo has a Lotte burger and a few interesting landmarks and a fortress to walk through. But it doesn't really have much.

[waynehead]

Never heard of it. Bad sign.

[taobenli]

I've traveled to Buyeo several times. It's a really pretty small city and won't take you that long to get to Daejeon if you need to shop (plenty of buses to Seoul, too). One benefit is that people in that part of Korea speak pretty slowly (kind of a drawl with some people) and so it will be easier to pick up Korean!

[captain kirk]

Yes it really is a pretty little town/city. I lived in Cheonan and drifted down on the motorbike alongside the wide river, very nice country, wooded. Just a bit west and the Yellow Sea. There is an old fortress there as well as some Paekche tombs one can walk into, like at Kyongju. The cliff along the river near the fortress is where some court ladies leapt off rather than be captured when the fort was invaded, back in Paekche times. Anyhow Taejon is a big city not that far south of Buyeo. Buyeo is a wide open very scenic lovely place IMO.

[Hotwire]

Not to be alarmist but if you can switch jobs do so. Unless you want a very quiet life and like your own company, then no biggie.

Friend lived there. Even Lonely Planet says it is the most traditional (read backwards, even LP wrote it in a way that hints to that) in Korea.

My friend hated it. Bus drivers constantly rude to him. Kids who shouted hello in the street - when my firend ignored them their parents would go to his public school and make complaints about him. No other foriegners. Nearest ciy over an hour away. Very remote and rural. Adjoishis shouting expletives at him, spitting around him, one hit him over the head wiith a soju bottle when he didn't want to talk English with the guy and just wanted to mind his own beezwax and eat his meal... Public school rippped him off (which is very unusual in Korea for a ps to do that..)

Real horror show.

And this is a guy who I usually have to say 'Jeez man I don't want to hang around with all these adjoishis I don't know' to- because he is so sociable with Koreans and always inviting them to join us and drink with us etc!!!!

[young_clinton]

[ChopChaeJoe]

I love Buyeo, one of my top-10 cities (actually it's a town) in Korea. Busses to Seoul tap out about dawn as I remember.

[Hotwire]

[fortysixyou]

Scenery good.

Necks red.

Geographical position remote.

Car necessary.

Easy girlfriend acquisition improbable.

Friends essential.

[bharville]

I've been living in Buyeo for about a week now and it's pretty cool. There's around 25 or so westerners here and it's not hard to meet up. Small town but i don't mind it.

[towl]

I live in a neighbouring town and I've got a whole bunch of friends from Buyeo. There's around 20 foreigners there and they have a soccer team that meets Wednesdays for practice, if you're into that kind of thing, they have a pretty social little community.

I've been there and can tell you that Buyeo is a very scenic town, it's close to Daejeon, it has a cool river, it's close enough to Seoul, it's got all the amenities you need with one or two bars. Don't listen to the nay-sayers, obviously he's never been there and he's the kind of guy that prefers a big city to a smaller town.

You'll like Buyeo, it's certainly not near the worst you could do.

[LGSakers]

[Hank the Iconoclast]

I lived in Buyeo a few years ago. Sure, it's rural but I had a great experience with my middle schools there. There are good restaurants, excellent scenery and you can take a non-stop bus (2 hours) to Seoul on the weekends or Daejeon which is an hour and thirty minutes away. I do have to agree slightly with the naysayer on one point though, I did encounter some really rude high school kids a few times. Luckily, I was able to put them in place when I contacted their school principal.

[Jane]

When driving from Seoul to Gwangju, I need to pass by Buyeo on the highway. I always make a point to yell 'BUYEO!' when I spot the sign for the turn off.

End of story.