Korean Job Discussion Forums

[captain kirk]

What are you mailing home to family for Xmas? Typical/distictive Korean things they would get a kick out of/treasure as curios/crafts/artistic things.
Between Ulsan and Pusan I stopped at a highway-side ceramic sale. The tables were sheets of plywood placed on cardboard boxes the ceramics were packed in. In the background was a big box truck.
It was the green celadon, so I stopped. I like that crackly green celadon. The first 'table' had the small vases. They looked good. I walked to the truck where a fiftiesh strongly built Korean man was sitting in the empty box of the truck. He had a portable gas range going heating up some chigae, side dishes out. He asked if I'd like to eat, too. I thought that was pretty cool, considering I'm just asking him how much are the small vases.
He climbed down and was a real character. Strong looking, like a potter. Some of his big teeth were covered over with silver which flashed. His tongue lolled in his mouth like a big, fat, pink sausage. He looked like a gypsy.
At first he'd said the small vases were 20,000, but without any haggling he changed it to 10,000. So I looked more closely at the small vases, about a foot high. The usual pale green celadon with crackled, thick glaze. And white cranes. But the best were a dark, black green, with the cranes pale green and over that, crackled clear, thick glaze. I said those were the best ones. He'd given me his card indicating he was a potter. The best ones, IMO, turned out to be his work. I told him they were going to Canada as gifts to mother, brother and he looked pleased.
He doesn't speak English, but if you want some of these foot high, black-green vases his phone number is 031 882 0975. Handphone 011 374 4908.

[eamo]

I'm okay for ceramics but I love the post! Felt I knew the guy!

[captain kirk]

I'll make an effort to get a photo of the vases onto this thread.
Yeah, he really was like a 'gypsy'. Potters/ceramics makers are regarded as peddlars. Low status supposedly. His were the best vases. I supposed he was peddling because he was most 'into it'. Or it was 'his turn' among the potters, to represent, do a sell run.
I supposed he thought like this, 'so what if I'm 'low status'. Not many people can make such ceramics and they end up examples in people's homes of Korean culture, what can be done with design carving, glazes'.
Calm guy. Once I drove past a potter's shop out near a mountain and he was out in front splitting and piling the split wood. Big stacks of split pine, stacked in towers. Two wide, then two wide right angles to the two on the level between. Towered with air in between to dry them out. Takes a lot of wood to heat up the kiln.
The kiln was nearby. Traditional buried brick construction in a hillside.
Korea, as you know, has a high level of ceramic artistry. Nice gifts.

[pet lover]

This post serves no purpose.

[Koreabound2004]

Anyone know how much is costs to ship things to Canada?

Ie. 1kg=10,000 won

??? I have no idea, and given my past nightmares at the post office, I dont want to go in and ask...just want a rough idea.

[Swiss James]

I'm going home for Christmas but one of the best things I sent home was a CD full of photos from out here.

I got a DVD player from Amazon sent to my folks house and then sent the CD from here so they could see the pictures on their TV and not have to mess around with all that fancy computer nonsense.

[kermo]

I've sent packages home with dried squid, t-shirts with heavy Konglish, oddly flavoured snacks (Stress Control Project: Jasmine), but my parents' favorite so far is a box of black condoms, beautifully packaged in a box with panthers, drawings of nude black people, and the following words:

POWER, BLACK
COLOR CONDOM

Keep it real.
Keep on faith.
Keep on going.
Piece!
So cool,
Respect!





Stay real!
WE are all brack people.

[turtlepi1]

[kermo]