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Spinoff from the 10 years away 'what do you miss or not'
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SHGator428

Joined: 05 Sep 2014

Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 3:12 am Post subject: Spinoff from the 10 years away 'what do you miss or not'

I got there mid 2000s and left at the end of the decade. People still there, what do you miss or not miss about your home locale? Also, what do you think you'd miss or not about Korea? It would be particularly interesting to hear from people that had lived on a farm with parents that were pilots and had uncles that took them sailing, had later lived in a hood and got held up at gunpoint in a pizza shop.

greatunknown

Joined: 04 Feb 2010

Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 7:04 am Post subject:

Been here a little longer than 5 years. Originally from NL, Canada. Things I miss - The food - Holidays with family - Accomplishing day to day errands easily. (Hair cuts, bank, dentist, having my car repaired.. things like that are more difficult for me here) - Blending in when I want to Things I don't miss - Weather - The boredom of living in NL. - Illicit substances that everyone uses to cope with aforementioned boredom (surprised myself on that one actually. Dont need it in my life.) I can't really think of much more to say! Besides the really obvious stuff that all people who live outside of their hometown miss, there isnt much! I think about it far less these days.

Steelrails

Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System

Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 9:29 am Post subject: Re: Spinoff from the 10 years away 'what do you miss or not'

SHGator428 wrote:

I got there mid 2000s and left at the end of the decade.

People still there, what do you miss or not miss about your home locale?

Also, what do you think you'd miss or not about Korea?

It would be particularly interesting to hear from people that had lived on a farm with parents that were pilots and had uncles that took them sailing, had later lived in a hood and got held up at gunpoint in a pizza shop.

Yeah, its called living 15 minutes outside of the city and moving in once I turned 18. For some reason this is some crazy concept to someone who moved around the world to Korea. And you haven't been here for 5 years, so what the heck are you still doing posting here and talking about it like you know?

Anyways, I miss certain family, friends, foods, beer, shows, sports, parts of gun culture, diversity, and getting to participate in the US political system. I miss a good deli sandwich. I miss a good bottle of Laphroaig/Bulleit/Rebel Yell for under 100 bucks. I miss American Chinese food. I miss Bell's Two Hearted. I miss NBA basketball. I miss playing bridge. I miss a bunch of white/black/Jewish/Arab/Asian/Latino dudes all playing pickup basketball on the local court. I miss the bar at the bowling alley. I miss the cleaner air. I miss chilling on the front porch or under the carport. I miss walking through some random woods in someone's back yard. I miss the library. I miss the theater. I miss going up north to a cabin. I miss a good sports bar. I miss hitting up random college towns. I miss everyone before work grabbing food and sitting down and talking about sports and the news in the daily paper.

I don't miss having friends murdered by guns, having my place of work be the repeated victim of armed robbery, being out on the porch drinking a 40 and grilling and hear from 1/4 mile off 'bang bang bang........bang' and everyone making gallows humor jokes about whether it was drugs or a domestic (well I do miss some gallows humor). The racism back home vs. here is a bit of a wash (hint- it's not the paradise back home you think it is). I don't miss my roommate getting pulled over every time we visit friends in the 248 because he's black, even though he has a firefighter decal. I don't miss dealing with people who are losing their lives to heroin or meth. I don't miss the culture wars. I don't miss bulletproof glass at gas stations with chore boys sold at the front counter. I don't miss biker gangs taking over the local pool bar. I don't miss the depressing drive into the city to see a baseball game and seeing abandoned houses and drug dens. I don't miss taking a wrong turn after going to a baseball game and ending up in a really bad neighborhood.

It is what it is.

SHGator428

Joined: 05 Sep 2014

Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 3:48 pm Post subject: Re: Spinoff from the 10 years away 'what do you miss or not'

Steelrails wrote:

You grew up outside of Ann Arbor, no? What you describe sounds more like Detroit.

Furthermore, why do you always use your place of upbringing for comparison to every other place in the world?

Steelrails

Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System

Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 5:01 pm Post subject: Re: Spinoff from the 10 years away 'what do you miss or not'

SHGator428 wrote:

Steelrails wrote:

You grew up outside of Ann Arbor, no? What you describe sounds more like Detroit.

Furthermore, why do you always use your place of upbringing for comparison to every other place in the world?

Yes, people in SE Michigan have cars and can go from Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti to the 248 to Wayne to Detroit. Also, there's great parts of A2 and not so great parts and its basically connected to Pittsfield and then Ypsi. You do realize that in SE Michigan, a 20 minute drive in a certain direction can either plop you into farmland or into a crummy neighborhood, right? What do you think someone who grows up in Suffolk County can't go have moved around to Massapequa and then Flushing and then the Bronx and then Midtown?

Did you only live in one city from age 0-whenever you moved to Korea? Did you never drive to other cities around where you live?

SHGator428

Joined: 05 Sep 2014

Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 5:16 pm Post subject: Re: Spinoff from the 10 years away 'what do you miss or not'

Steelrails wrote:

SHGator428 wrote:

Steelrails wrote:

You grew up outside of Ann Arbor, no? What you describe sounds more like Detroit.

Furthermore, why do you always use your place of upbringing for comparison to every other place in the world?

Was it a 15 minute drive to 'the city' or not? Stop talking about NYC- it makes you look stupid.

Steelrails

Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System

Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 5:58 pm Post subject: Re: Spinoff from the 10 years away 'what do you miss or not'

SHGator428 wrote:

Steelrails wrote:

SHGator428 wrote:

Steelrails wrote:

You grew up outside of Ann Arbor, no? What you describe sounds more like Detroit.

Furthermore, why do you always use your place of upbringing for comparison to every other place in the world?

Was it a 15 minute drive to 'the city' or not? Stop talking about NYC- it makes you look stupid.

I said 20 minutes. And if you hop on !-94 from Ypsi you can be in Wayne in like 10 minutes. Another 10 minutes of 75 mph and you're in Melvindale. Of course back in the days of 55 mph and heading from the west side of Ann Arbor it'll take 40 minutes to get to absolute downtown Detroit.

Stop talking about SE Michigan. It makes YOU look stupid. Anyone who knows SE Michigan knows that you can cross one street and go from one suburb to another and be in a totally different kind of place.

So you're saying people in NYC don't ever move? I really don't get your point here. What are you trying to prove? That people never move? That people don't have cars and can't go different places? That you can't live in one city at one point in your life but not another?

Dude, you bleepin lived in Korea.While here, you probably hit up SE Asia, Japan, etc. No one doubts people who have lived in the Philippines and then Korea and then Japan. Yet, you can't accept me moving 20 minutes down the road?

And guess what? Crime doesn't only happen in the ghetto.

May I ask where you grew up?

SHGator428

Joined: 05 Sep 2014

Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 6:12 pm Post subject:

You changed your 15 minutes to 20. Can you settle on a time at least? You use one place in the US as a comparison to everything (you haven't lived anywhere else). Stop it.

Fallacy

Joined: 29 Jun 2015
Location: ex-ROK

Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2015 6:31 pm Post subject: RE: Spinoff from the 10 years away 'what do you miss or not'

SHGator428 wrote:

what do you miss about your home locale?

greatunknown wrote:

Blending in

Definitely this.

SHGator428 wrote:

what do you think you'd miss about Korea?

metalhead wrote:

convenience store drinking

Possibly this.

SHGator428

Joined: 05 Sep 2014

Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2015 12:10 am Post subject: Re: Spinoff from the 10 years away 'what do you miss or not'

Steelrails wrote:

SHGator428 wrote:

You haven't lived in the US for more than 5 years yet you always use that as a comparison. Do you see the irony?

Steelrails

Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System

Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2015 12:23 am Post subject:

SHGator428 wrote:

You changed your 15 minutes to 20. Can you settle on a time at least? You use one place in the US as a comparison to everything (you haven't lived anywhere else). Stop it.

I said 15 minutes in to the city, by which I meant Ann Arbor. I also said 20 minutes in any direction from parts of SE Michigan can put you in Detroit or a farmhouse. Those aren't the exact same things. Regardless, its irrelevant because thanks to this invention called the "automobile" and the "highway", people are able to easily travel dozens of miles in a single hour and be in locales as varied as rural farms to suburbs to inner cities. I know this may sound like a stunning development to you, but it indeed has occurred and taken place.

I think SE Michigan can be pretty representative. Within that space you have rural and small town, conservative-leaning areas like Livingston County and Lenawee. You can shoot up to dying rust belt midsize cities like Saginaw and Bay City. You've got one of the most progressive cities in the US in Ann Arbor, right next to a middle of the road Pittsfield, and lower-income, higher-crime Ypsilanti and surrounded by more conservative small towns like Saline and Chelsea. In Oakland County you have suburbs that range from progressive ones like Ferndale, to Brahmin-esq ones like Bloomfield Hills and West Bloomfield, WASP havens like Rochester Hills, blue collar areas like Wixom, black suburbs like Southfield. Then you go into Wayne County and the D and you get everything that goes on in there. You can go from deep red, to purple areas, to hardcore Dem blue. And from sparse rural farmland to the inner city.

Is it perfectly representative? No. For one thing, SE Michigan lacks a significant Latino population like much of the southern US. But as far as the various political traditions and income and other racial elements of diversity and different types of communities, yeah SE Michigan is pretty representative of the country as a whole. Of course, there's lots of places you can say this about, and I'm willing to bet that they have similar experiences. There's lots of places in America where a 15-20 minute drive one way or the next can be the difference between pasture and gridlock.

May I ask again, where are you from that is so representative?

SHGator428 wrote:

You haven't lived in the US for more than 5 years yet you always use that as a comparison. Do you see the irony?

Well, I've lived in the US for 26 years. However, you said you lived in Korea for only 5 years. You said you left at the end of the decade, yet you are still posting here.

Anyways, there's a big difference of 26 years living in a country vs. 5. Also, I've been back during that time and its my base. My family and all my friends are there and I can keep up. Also, all the news is in my native language and I can stay up on things. Nothing much has changed. Meanwhile, even the most bitter of expats acknowledge that things have gotten better, even within the last 5 years in Korea. There's been some social changes back home, sure. I would have though Colorado, Washington, and Hawaii would have been a pipe dream. But we're talking about things like crime and racism that we grew up with and still witness.

SHGator428

Joined: 05 Sep 2014

Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2015 3:24 am Post subject:

Steelrails wrote:

So, you became an expert about all things Korean the moment you set foot in the country despite not having lived there for the first 26 years of your life. You continue to be the expert on all things 'western' despite not having lived anywhere other than Michigan (how long has it been since you lived in the States again?).

Plain Meaning

Joined: 18 Oct 2014

Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2015 5:56 am Post subject:

Quote:

I miss Bell's Two Hearted

Yes! America has some good beer, but this was my go-to.

wooden nickels

Joined: 23 May 2010

Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2015 8:12 am Post subject:

SHGator428 wrote:

Steelrails wrote:

I have lived in the United States and in Korea longer than he has. I lived in several different states in the US, and I have lived in a couple of different cities in Korea.

The big difference is, he is from a family of boat captains, airplane pilots, submarine mechanics, door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesmen; you name it. He some some expertise connections in every field.

Steelrails

Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System

Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2015 11:42 pm Post subject:

SHGator428 wrote:

Steelrails wrote:

For goodness sakes, we all have opinions and we all talk about what we think, both about back home and Korea. We are all qualified to talk about it. I don't have some imaginary criteria to determine whether you are an expert in Korea or the West. Anyways, unlike a lot of people on this forum, when I came to Korea it was NOT my first major contact with Koreans. I was active in the Korean community back home. In fact, believe it or not, I was a bit of a basher and hater back home. I didn't really go through much culture shock here and I was pretty prepared for the negative things that might happen. You see, I actually bothered to look into the place I was about to move to, instead of just having whatever sort of delusions people had before they came here and ended up disappointed.

Dude, we all talk about back home. Everyone does. Its pretty easy for us to keep up with things from back home and while there have been a few changes, things are pretty much the same. Although, some people seem to be under the impression that certain things that happen here, don't happen back home. A good one is the gripes people have about people being glued to their smartphones or getting texts filled with emojis. No, its not only Korea and kakao where that is happening.

Regardless, you only seem to focus this on me, not on any other poster, nor yourself. I don't think you have any rational basis for your argument, simply a personal issue with me. I don't have a personal issue with other posters. You don't see me calling out other posters in random threads and going after them. I can have a debate without making it personal.

wooden nickels wrote:

First off, I DO come from a family of pilots. My grandfather was a pilot. My grandmother was an aerial photographer. My father rebuilt my grandfather's plane. My mother at one point had a pilots license. Lots of Americans are amateur or professional pilots. I was fortunate enough to be adopted by one such family. Also, being from SE Michigan, I had relatives who owned a yacht. This isn't some crazy, outlandish thing. It's not unusual for people in SE Michigan to either own some sort of watercraft or have a relative who does. The statement "My uncle owns a yacht", isn't going to cause people in SE Michigan to flip out in surprise.

Yes, I in threads about flying or boating, I might mention my personal experiences. Of course I will. When am I supposed to mention my parents are pilots? In a thread about spitting? Regardless, that's TWO things that I have mentioned having relatives involved with. Apparently this translates into every thread my parents being involved in. However, in many threads about other things, I make no mention of my parents being involved. Of course, the bashers don't account for this. But what do you expect? These are the kind of people who base their entire view of a country and people off of 1-2 incidents and focus on the exceptional rather than the unnoticed majority. Their views aren't based on objective standards, but rather whatever provokes an emotional response. 10 boring articles a week on foreigners that are positive doesn't produce an emotional response. 1 article a year that has something negative to say about foreigners is the example that's held as the norm.

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