Korean Job Discussion Forums

[gajackson1]

Heya, all -

For those who wonder about our apparent disappearance from the board: you will be happy to know we are fine & well, & still in the Seoul area. I had been spending so much time on the board here, discussing life in Korea, I had forgotten about actually going out and LIVING life in Korea.

Anyone who wants more info about the last handful of months (like the month in VietNam) can send me a pm, & I'll give more details.

In any case, there is a shindig out in An-myun do for this next weekend

First is the link for the party:

http://www.worknplay.co.kr/evt_nightlife_view.jsp?id=55&cat=1

And then for the island itself:

http://www.anmyondo.com/

It is a nice, quiet lil place on the west coast - great sunsets, for those who haven't done it. There is a limit of 250 people total, and around 40-50 slots left. Not a bad way to end the summer, methinks.

If anyone is interested, call the organizers & get details. If you want to hook up with me & some of our friends, just send along a pm.

Regards,

Glen (& Christina, natch)

PS ~ yes, we will be hosting another Thanksgiving day feast at our house this year. But I am NOT doing more than 2 turkeys! [/url]

[Shaded Shadows]

yea my friend just called the guy and said they have about 30 slots left so whoever wires the money first will get in...

the buses are running from 5-11 out of seoul friday...

hopefully it all works out and we can make it to seoul from daegu in time...

[paperbag princess]

i'm going! weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
i can't wait

[Shaded Shadows]

ends up can't make it for this...

[baldrick]

I'll be there.

[Zyzyfer]

Wish I could go, and it's good to see you two runnin' around again.

[gajackson1]

Heya, L -

yeah, sorry about the hiatus. Anyway, nice avatar! (Set in Nacogdoches, at that!) C & I are thinking about doing Elvis & Priscilla for H-ween this year; last year will be hard to top.

It was good to see So-hee out, & hope we catch up with you kids again soon.

Princess, Baldrick & anyone else is welcome to join us & our group. Drop a pm my way & we'll synch the details.

Regards,

Glen

[itaewonguy]

so how was it.>>>>/????

[gajackson1]

Heya, ITWG - longish time, no seeum

I have been trying to locate a post-party message board for the past couple of days, but to no avail. Probably buried somewhere on the WnP site . . .

The short version, for those who want it: I, like the majority of people there, had a great time. Good people, no authority-types, great weather, cool happenings, excellent spinners. There were a lot of little annoyances/inconveniences, but nothing that can take away from the overall experience. In almost 7 years, I can honestly say that was one of the best parties I've been to here (really, only some of the World Cup shindigs are close, and that is because of scale).

Suffice to say, we had a great time. And I would say that that went for around 250 of the 300 there.

Friday evening, we gathered at the park in front of Han-nam station. The buses were there & rarin' to go, but we had to wait until we had enough people. So, people just gathered into small clusters, discussing general Korean nightlife stuff, drinking beer & soju from the 7-11, grabbing last minute supplies. From the start, it was easy to tell that this was shaping up to be a good group of people - diverse, there to party, laid back, etc.

First bus (ours) left at . . . 8:30, I guess. It was supposed to be about a 3 hour ride. Actually, it is, to An-myon island. It took about 1 hour of that just to get back to An-yang, where we live - that was kind of a ticker (they didn't want anyone to drive, for several good reasons, so taking my car wasn't an option on this one). A gyopo named James was sitting up front, and comandeered the karaoke system, so we had techno & trip-hop cds for the ride, which was good. More beer & soju on the bus, and someone even broke out a bottle of lao~lao (the non-mushroomed kind)

However (and this is where the 'other 50 people' fits in), 2 of the min-bak chosen for accommodations were a solid 20-30 minutes from the beach, and down small, twisty, gravel, unlit hilly roads - the kind that make city Korean bus drivers go mi-chin. It took us over 1 & 1/2 hours to get to our place, drop off stuff, & go back to the beach, where the others were located.

So, if you were out at A/C Castle, or Lost Place (ha!), you were really stuck on transpo. The bus drivers were supposed to be running shuttle service, but just outright rebelled. Call taxi was the way to do it, but even the call taxi wanted 10k for a 1-way run.

The beach itself was just about perfect - isolated, good sand, tidal flats, long. They had the spinning decks set up on Fri, a simple bar, and dead minimal food (there was 1 'store' close by, but it had nothing practical - only drinks, ramyeon, chips).

So, people just started building fires, drinking, chatting up, & dancing. The other busses arrived, driopping people off, but most people seemed worn out from just the ride, so Friday was kind of quiet. Even the deck workers played more chill/ambient stuff.

Pick back up again Saturday morning:

Christina, having NOT stayed out Friday night, wakes up early & decides to walk to the beach. I love her dearly, but sometimes . . .
She wound up walking over 1 hour towards town, then got picked up by a farmer, and got a ride the rest of the way (it would have been over a 2 hour walk, even if you knew EXACTLY how to get there, and were moving light & fast - which she self admittedly was neither).

The rest of us caught the 'shuttle bus' around 11. Of course, the early risers are already out on the beach, because their places are right there. Really nice group of people. All seem to be in the 19-35 set, and a very even balance of boys & girls. Besides your normal 'Western' set (US, Canada, Aus, NZ, SA, UK, etc.) there were some Eastern Europeans, a group of 5 black US engineers, Japanese, & a lot of gyopos. Everyone seemed to be in a pretty good mood.

Weather was perfect, and there were pick-up games of frisbee (real frisbees!) & rugby. Someone brought a volleyball, but no one was inclined to improvise a net. The promoters got to work, shoring up the bar/food situation, setting up lights/viz effects, having people paint up banners, digging out a couple of fire pits, etc.

Most of us just stayed out on the flats, sunning, drinking & chit-chatting with whoever was cute.

In the late afternoon, most people retreated back to their places to get cleaned up, dressed up, & decked out for the evening, because Saturday night was shaping up to be a looonnnggg one.

Going to have to leave off for now - I have to be at Yuhan-Kimberly in about 1/2 hour. I'll try to finish it off later on today.
Regards,

G.

[paperbag princess]

i had an awesome time!!!

[gajackson1]

Jobs - gotta love 'em!

Ok, from our Last Exciting Episode:

So, 1/2 of our group opt to spend the late afternoon/early evening back at the min-bak; the others stay at the beach. We are sharing space with 3 korean dae-hak-saeng; 2 girls & a guy, all 3 young hippy-trippy types (Pajamas Girl, Young-ho the Photographer, & a strangee precussionist-goth-trip chick) . We have naps, get cleaned up (not full decked, like some did - we figure beach means comfortable ), and opt for a taxi to take us to dinner, then out to the beach after.

That was a good move on our part - again, the food situation was limited (there was supposed to be a pig roast; we betted on it not coming together, and betted right), and figured we could use a good meal. Dwoen-jung, hae-mul, & kim-chi chiggae around the table, & beer to get it started.

Taxi pics us back up, & off to the beach. About 9 or 9:30, we get to the beach to find things in full swing. From there - probably the most interesting stories - things get a little funny/fuzzy/crazy. The dj's were on; fire pits dug out; a few poi-spinners; a guy giving back massages/adjustments right next to the dance area; a large drum circle; a projection screen showing trippy still-art frames; the phosphorous luminescence in the tides; clear night sky; rolling fog; bar & food stands working overtime; fireworks & generally tuned in, turned on people - a lot of great outfits & sensual flirting to round out any rough edges. A lot of funny stories, good vibes, great tunes (Fujiwara played a funny 'police announcement' clip in his set, which threw people off for a few).

I think a lot of people, judging from the conversations/antics/dancing, were pretty messed up. 'Nuff sed on that. A lot of hooking up going on, as well. 'Nuff sed on that, too. BUT!!! A REALLY good vibe/atmosphere - none of the 'normal' confrontation stuff you tend to see at some club events.

People lost stuff, found it, and returned it (including a video camera, & a wallet & moneybelt, both with cash intact). At sunrise, we fixed pancakes for those still standing, worked on cleaning the beach, and some people went skinnydipping, while the decks spun on. If anyone knows who the cute green-eyed, dreadlocked girl eating panckes & syrup out of my hands was, please let me know! lol . . .

(I was beach-cleaning with a foreign girl who spoke fluent Korean & an older Korean guy. The guy looked at the swimmmers, and I expected a negative comment - he thought, turned to us, and said in halting English 'Naked . . .is . . .beautiful.') Yes, indeed it is. At sunrise on the west coast, with new-found friends, yes it is indeed . . .

Down sides: someone who threw firecrackers into the bonfires 'for fun' and almost wound up hurting some people. Ummmm . . .some REALLY drunk guy, who probably should have gotten the holy crapolla beaten out of him, but didn't. A few things lost, but hopefully they were recovered & will be returned.

Around 7, self, Chris, & Corinne opted to head back, thinking to crash and do the afternoon there, back at the beach. We had a hilarious ride back with some of the spinners in the back of an old orange bongo, which is probably a story in its own right . . .

Christina was awake when we got to the min-bak, and instead of crashing we opted to take off for the bus station. Our cab driver was a complete random draw - the guy spoke NO English, but was delighted to hear about all the foreigners descending on the island. On the way to the bus station, he gave us this wierd, rolling, almost Buddhist-like narrative about the history of An-myon do - it was a surreal, fascinating, TV-quality run.

We get to the bus station as the An-yang bus is pulling out - he blocks the bus, gets out, and helps us unload/load, while this Sunday-morning crowd of locals looks on in bewildered amusement. We take over the back of this bus, pay it up, & all crash out.

3 hours & a few stops later, we are back in An-yang, heading towards home. By noon, we had showered & flopped into bed. A GOOD call on C's part - making up for her 'walk to the beach' decision.

This last Saturday night, we met/ran into another girl from the party who opted to wait for the Groovetrek bus - she got home around 9 pm, and all those people were paying dearly for it on Monday, apparently. lol.

As for Groovetrek, after a final tally, they are calling it a qualified success - a bunch of us are meeting up for dinner at a Nepalese restaurant on Thursday, the 16th. Then, an ambient-groove chillout party on the 25th in Hong-dae (the gyopo set apparently have their own sets of lesser-travelled clubs & dj's scattered around Seoul, and want to introduce us to some of these places for alternatives the the regular Itaewon & Hong-dae Club Night circuits). Should be a good time.

For those interested, they are thinking of another event on Nov/Dec, but NOTHING is set yet - when it does, it will probably show up in e-mail first, WnP's site second, and word-of-mouth from there.

If I get word on a link for pics/a message board, I'll post it here.

Regards,

Glen