Korean Job Discussion Forums

[diver]

On Saturday I left Jeju to go to the mainland and see a girl I have been dating, but have not seen for two months.

I get to the ferry terminal in Jeju. The ticket girl runs away. No 'hello', no 'sorry', no 'wait a minute'. She just runs away. Her manager explains that she doesn't speak English. I tell him that I speak enough Korean to buy a friggin' ticket, but she didn't wait around long enough to find out.

Going through the boarding gate. I get jacked up for my passport. I don't have it since I am reasonably sure that Jeju City and Mokpo are still in the same country. The official demands that I explain why I don't have my passport. I start to tell him that it is a domestic trip and...He cuts me off by yelling "I am not interested in your excuses!". So why did he friggin' ask?

I get on the ferry (sans passport). I get into my second class berth. There is another Korean couple in there with me. I come in...they whipser to each other. The Korean guy goes outside and grabs a porter. He tells him they don't want to have to share a room with a foreigner. They leave. Well, the good news is that I get a berth to myself because of those racist twits.

I get to Mokpo. See A Korean guy beating a dog in front of the train station. As he bands over the dog to hit it again, he has his back to me. I boot him in the spine and send him flying. I tell him to stay down. He doesn't. I put him down again. I tell him as best as I can that if he touches the dog again, I will start breaking his bones. I am not a tough guy...just very pee'd off. It is actually the only time I will smile on the trip.

Get to my destination. See the girl. She breaks up with me. Her parents don't like her dating a foreigner.

Get back to Mokpo to go back to Jeju. Arrive at 12:30pm, with plenty of time for the 3:00pm ferry that the wonderful KNTO told me about. Except, it would seem, the lovely KNTO was wrong. There is only one ferry a day at 9:00am. It is now 2:00pm. I am sitting in a PC bang in Mokpo. Only 19 hours to kill until my ferry leaves.

I-go.

Sorry if I wasted peoples' time with the rant...had to vent somehow...and a multi-province killing spree may have been a little over the top.

I might have to check out the rumour on this board that there are flights leaving daily...

[Swiss James]

mate that's terrible, you've been done wrong.

I can't offer any advice, how 'bout a hug?

[The Lemon]

[mithridates]

I second that. I've spent 18 hours at an airport two times before so I do know what that feels like, I do know what it feels like to be broken up with so I can empathize....
are you still in the pc bang?

[diver]

Thanks...

Got a room...

Gonna go see Spiderman...

I don't mean to whine. I know it gets better. It just sucks today...

By the way, I should note that the KNTO will pay for my room tonight since their faulty info got me stuck here. So they are not all bad. I should get them to call my girlfriend maybe...

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

The officials like to ask people for their passports when traveling to and from Jeju because it makes the travelers feel as though they're arriving at/departing from some exotic place. Some place not Korea.

Sparkles*_*

[Michelle]

You poor thing, OMG

What is it with Mokpo? When I came back from Jeju the boat took hours longer then I expected and I was too late to get any transport back to Daegu, because the big city close by with a bus and train still running (Kwangju) was an hour away by Taxi. By the time I got there, the last one had gone. Not good.

BTW, they really do try to keep the illusion of Cheju being another country real, don't they?

Of the people that haven't been to Korea for a period, no one would think it is another country.

At least it gives some of them that warm well travelled feeling.

[Alias]

This conversation has happened countless times.

Me: Have you travelled to another country before?

Korean: I've been to Jeju.

Me:

[just because]

Diver thats too bad.

Makes me feel better though after reading about the fantastic job you have though

(Just joking)

[Swiss James]

at least Spiderman's a good film eh?

[SarcasmKills]

[Zed]

Doesn't the passport thing have something to do with a Jeju free trade zone or something like that?

[rapier]

Sad luck diver- a classic example of a wasted weekend in korea, it happens all too easily..we've all been there.
It just serves to highlight why korea will never be a tourist mecca.

[diver]

Okay,

Got back to jeju today. The ferry comapny bumped me from 3rd class to 2nd class with my own bed (woohoo!) for the inconvenience...which they didn't even cause.

So, not all is bad. And 'Spiderman' was pretty cool. Still single though...