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thebum
Joined: 09 Jan 2005
Location: North Korea
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 Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 11:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Such an attitude makes me wonder why someone like you would go to Corea in the first place. |
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hari seldon
Joined: 05 Dec 2004
Location: Incheon
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| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 12:18 am Post subject: |
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I tend to agree with the OP and Koreans tend to agree with him. (Why do you suppose there are there ten million of them in Seoul?)
Incheon is provincial. It doesn't have the accoutrements of Seoul. The biggest tourist draw is the airport; although the islands are nice.
Fortunately, Seoul is only a subway ride away. 
Last edited by hari seldon on Thu Feb 10, 2005 12:37 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Manner of Speaking
Joined: 09 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 12:35 am Post subject: Re: BEWARE OF THE BADLANDS - Advice for Newbs |
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| Cohiba wrote: |
Think twice before you live outside of Seoul. "In Seoul" and
"outside of Seoul" are like two different countries. Seoul
is an interesting place with variety and venues for most
tastes. Outside of Seoul you will find a homogenous Korean
culture. I don't mean this in a bad way, but you will never
find things like: brown bread, good beer, bars with good
tunes, English book stores etc.
Remember the FFF RULE. FFF=Fun For Foreigners. |
This is a ridiculous post. Pusan is a very cool city and a great place to have fun. The first year I worked there I didn't save a DIME because I was out clubbing every weekend. Excellent bookstores and FRESH AIR...something Seoul sure as hell doesn't have.
Daegu is not as fun as Pusan, but there's still LOTS of great things to do. And the nice thing about both cities, you can usually get set up with a place to live that is decent and close to your work...you don't have to spend a third of your life with someone's hand up your butt and somebody else's elbow in your ribs on the subway. |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 1:07 am Post subject: |
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| Blind Willie wrote: |
| mishlert wrote: |
| Quote: |
| . . . but you will never find things like: brown bread, good beer, bars with good tunes, English book stores etc. |
I don't know Incheon that well, as I was there about 3 years ago for an interview, but I find it hard to believe that you can't find any of these things at the Carrfeour I saw there. Those of you who are there. Is this poster right? |
All that stuff is there, it just depends upon your own standards.
But none of the cities in Korea are nearly as sexy as The Republic Of Seoul. I mean, you can stay up all night... and they got lots of foreigners there... and it is so easy to pretend, just for a second, that you're in any major urban center back home.
Now, I prefer Seoul just because I come from a small city and I like the idea of being able to just cut and go somewhere I find interesting when I'm bored. But this "FFF" equation really only matters depending upon how far removed you've become from the university lifestyle. Older ex-pats I've met seem to be able to make themselves at home in any town here.
If you want nothing more than to party, then yeah, living in the ass-end of Incheon is hell. |
I've never lived outside of Seoul for more than a month at a time. But ages ago when I was visiting Geoje Island, I did fantasize for a day what it would be like to live there. (Island of Fantasy... maybe there's something to that.)
That was pre-Internet, pre-McDonalds, pre-Carrefour, pre-a single living Korean soul who had ever heard the word "baguette". Home telephone service and Western-style toilets were catching on outside of Seoul in a very big way, I recall. Perhaps Diver might know what I'm talking about.... Back when Daejeon circa 2005 would have seemed like Hong Kong to the most cosmopolitan Seoulites of that era.
That's why I find it so... different... when I read things like the OP & some others, evaluating cities based on their FFF. The whole assumption of newer ex-pats here that obviously cities X, Y and Z should have a thriving club scene, English bookstores, an lively ex-pat community that's friendly/standoff-ish, etc. God, there's so many of us here anymore. Korea's bursting at the seams with whiteys. So different, my experiences and the rest of you. I know, I know... "So what and who cares!" 
*strokes long grey beard* Time was, sonny, when the "expat community" of some place might be old Father Whats-his-name, the French Catholic priest who took Korean citizenship in 1970-something, and who speaks and even looks like a haraboji anymore. We all knew him. Saw him about 2 or 3 times in our lives, but we all knew him. Of course, over in the next city you've got those two former Peace Corps veterans, and down there on the coast you've got ol' so-and-so who's been in these parts nigh on to ...
Anyhow, such a thought -- making Korea my home -- had never occurred to me before visiting Geoje-do, and it didn't reoccur even once until nearly 10 years later, when I bought my own home. In Seoul.
Blind Willie, I recall you had a bad employer in Incheon which may have clouded your opinion of the place. I also just read on another thread that you lived in Ansan as well. Have you written anything -- a post here on Dave's, something on your weblog, about your time in those two cities? I'd be interested in reading that kind of thing. |
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Blind Willie
Joined: 05 May 2004
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| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 1:30 am Post subject: |
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| JongnoGuru wrote: |
| Blind Willie, I recall you had a bad employer in Incheon which may have clouded your opinion of the place. I also just read on another thread that you lived in Ansan as well. Have you written anything -- a post here on Dave's, something on your weblog, about your time in those two cities? I'd be interested in reading that kind of thing. |
oh yeah, I admitted elswehere that my memories of Incheon have been colored by my experience working there. I didnt pay too much attention to the place because I had other problems on my mind.
And Ansan was mostly good.
But I have been thinking of writing down my "memoirs" one day. I was thinking of calling it "Up The Chute Without Some Lube" |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 1:36 am Post subject: |
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| Blind Willie wrote: |
| But I have been thinking of writing down my "memoirs" one day. I was thinking of calling it "Up The Chute Without Some Lube" |
I read a similar title on the other website... "Korea -- With our Without Vaseline". |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 1:44 am Post subject: |
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| Guru how long have you been here?? |
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Daechidong Waygookin
Joined: 22 Nov 2004
Location: No Longer on Dave's. Ive quit.
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| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 1:50 am Post subject: |
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| I dont know how long the OP has been in Korea, but its obvious he doesnt know anything about Korea. I bet hes one of those foreigners who has never left the metro Seoul area and Bundang was as far south as hes ever been. Busan is a great city wth pretty much anything Seoul has to offer. But there are smaller towns that are also great and loads of fun. Cohiba isnt one to be dishing out any advice. |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 1:50 am Post subject: |
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| tzechuk wrote: |
| Guru how long have you been here?? |
Are you familiar with the Korean creation myth? About the Heavenly Prince who gave the garlic and mugwort to the bear and the tiger, and told them to go eat it in a cave for 100 days? Well, who do you think rented them that cave?  |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 1:59 am Post subject: |
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| JongnoGuru wrote: |
| tzechuk wrote: |
| Guru how long have you been here?? |
Are you familiar with the Korean creation myth? About the Heavenly Prince who gave the garlic and mugwort to the bear and the tiger, and told them to go eat it in a cave for 100 days? Well, who do you think rented them that cave? |
hahahahaha... i know someone who's been here before i was even born! he came with peace corps... |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 2:31 am Post subject: |
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| tzechuk wrote: |
| JongnoGuru wrote: |
| tzechuk wrote: |
| Guru how long have you been here?? |
Are you familiar with the Korean creation myth? About the Heavenly Prince who gave the garlic and mugwort to the bear and the tiger, and told them to go eat it in a cave for 100 days? Well, who do you think rented them that cave? |
hahahahaha... i know someone who's been here before i was even born! he came with peace corps... |
It's been a while since I played the "My ex-pat friend's been here longer than your ex-pat friend" game, but here goes...
I know and have known (to wit, they're deceased now) Westerners who have been here since before the Peace Corps was even created (in 1961). Well before, as a matter of fact. And I get extra bonus points there for not including any of the Underwoods, the Adamses or the Lintons.
(Queen's Knight to King's Bishop two. Check and...)
As for myself, I fall somewhere between the last wave of the Peacenik Corps (early 1980s) and the tsunami of ESLers (mid-'90s to present?). |
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tzechuk
Joined: 20 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 2:34 am Post subject: |
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| Oh I only said that because I thought you couldn't possibly have been here before this guy I know because as far as "I" am concerned, he's been here forever!!!!.. not to boast or anything.. |
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Tiberious aka Sparkles
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: I'm one cool cat!
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| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 2:53 am Post subject: |
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Why are all of
the OP's posts written
as though they're
poetry?
Here's some poetry:
"Daydream, delusion, limousine, eyelash / Oh baby with your pretty face / Drop a tear in my wineglass / Look at those big eyes / See what you mean to me / Sweet-cakes and milkshakes / I'm delusion angel / I'm fantasy parade / I want you to know what I think / Don't want you to guess anymore / You have no idea where I came from / We have no idea where we're going / Latched in life / Like branches in a river/ Flowing downstream / Caught in the current / I'll carry you / You'll carry me / That's how it could be / Don't you know me? / Don't you know me by now? "
Sparkles*_* |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 4:11 am Post subject: |
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| Bucheon and Bupyeong are all right. Other areas to the west seem a bit drab. Was in Palu today - sure wouldn't want to live there. |
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Gwangjuboy
Joined: 08 Jul 2003
Location: England
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| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 7:13 am Post subject: |
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| diver wrote: |
I nominate this for most idiotic post ever.
Seconds? |
Yep. |
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