Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cruisemonkey]

Is this 2500 sq. yd., scum-covered pond the 'famous' Upo wetlands?

[hojucandy]

i used to live in a country town in australia that had a population of 8,000 people. 7,000 sounds like country to me. (i generally don;t use the term countryside, just country)

[JacktheCat]

Your -ri sounds like a metropolis compared to my 2500 suburb of the middle of nowhere here in the hinterlands of Gyeonggido, kilometres from the nearest "real" town and even farther away from the nearest other whities.

Get ready to be famous and the centre of attention. You will have no privacy and everybody will know your every waking move. What you buy at the store, what time you go to bed, and how often you flush the toilet.

On the other hand, your Korean will improve markedly.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Things have been progressing nicely here.

I found an apartment on Thursday afternoon about 4 km south of town. For a couple of days I thought I really was going to be a country boy, but yesterday I drove around the last building in the complex and discovered there is a tiny village of very old looking housing on the other side of the wall. So I'm still just a small town boy. Maybe my next adventure will take me out into the truly wild parts of Korea.

I did have one sour experience. I put down a deposit on Thursday and said I'd be back on Friday after getting some bank problems straightened out (I'm a victim of Kook Min Bank card inefficiency). I solved the problem and picked up my car from my friend and headed back here. Arrived at 12:15 and went in the manager's office. He was sleeping at his desk. Being a small town boy, I didn't want to intrude on his nap time, so I tippy toed back outside and wandered around the area checking out the neighborhood (not very thoroughly because I missed the little village out back). About 12: 35 I went back in and he was still asleep, so I sat down to wait. A few minutes later the woman who works in the office and some other man came in; at the same time the managers phone rang. He woke up and answered it. When he finished he turned around, looked at me, gave a kind of sour look, turned back around and went back to sleep. I was more than a little disgruntled. I sat there trying to think of some cultural explanation for such crass behavior and failed. It was just rude. So I got up and left. Tried to think of a way to ask the co-teachers if we could locate an alternative apartment. Did some other stuff then went to school, but they were gone. They were out at the apartment waiting for me to pay chonsae. I decided not to make an issue of it directly. I figure in a town this small, I'll just let people know what an a** he is.

Everyone else has been great so far: the LG appliance store man, his assistant that does all the grunt work, the flower shop lady, the PC bahng man... Tonight was my first time to go out eating here in Youngsan. The only place I could locate that looked appetizing was Pelicana Chicken. The ajumma tried to persuade me the ��� sauce was 'very, very hot'. It was pretty tasty. Her hubby was a little standoffish until he read my "The Soju Experience" t-shirt. I re-evaluated his reaction to seeing me in his restaurant. I think he was just startled and didn't know how to react. He delivered my second beer with both hands in a very polite way. And both asked to come back.

I spent Monday moving in. It was my birthday and I have noticed a serious lack of well-wishes from the crowd here at Dave's. I must say, some people need to work harder on the social graces even if they are insincere.

Restaurant/Hotel Review:
1. Don't stay at the Youngsan yog-wan. The air con and hot water don't work.

2. Stay at the Something Garden in Bugok (at the very end of the motel street--west end?), but not if you are in town for the sauna experience. It's just a glorified average ����� for W40,000 with the bath included. The air con works.

3. If feeling like splurging, go across the street to the Something Royal Hotel. It costs W58,000, bath NOT included. (Add 3,000 for the bath, but it is nice. TWO medicated pools.) Order the Combi Pizza. The outside is wonderful. 3 kinds of meat, green and black olives, lots of cheese and veggies...NO corn. Small is W12,000. All in all, the best outside edge of a pizza I've had in Korea. Just avoid the center. The cheese was still very cold. The air con works, but it is controlled somewhere else by someone else.

It has become one of my goals to try out as many of the saunas as possible in Bugok, the spa capital of Korea, in one year. I may not be a <ahem> real English teacher, but I'll be clean and water-wrinkled--which is a whole lot more than some can say.

Last note: I have met the Village Idiot. He's about 6 ft tall and around 20. He shuffles around town, hunched over cradling a tape player and giving salutes to everyone. Including me.

[pet lover]

*sings while doing a little dance and wearing revealing clothing*

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday, dearest Ya-Ta Boy~!~!~!~!~!
Happy birthday to you!!!

*dramatic finish, use your imagination (ABOUT THE DANCE AND THAT'S ALL)*

[Rteacher]

- I guess "pet lover" is a girl (possibly a naughty girl...) Oh yeah, "happy birthday, Ya-ta boy!" (What the hell post is this, anyway... )

[pet lover]

You thought I was a guy?

[Rteacher]

. ...Who, me? ( ) ...

[Ya-ta Boy]

I've discovered a down-side to small town life. Shopping. I knew shopping was going to be a challenge when I moved here. What I didn't take into account was shopping from a catalog.

On Monday I went in to the tiny local LG store to buy a stove so I can bake bread and turkeys and chicken pot pies and Dutch apple cakes...It was more challenging than I thought it would be to look at 8 tiny pictures and choose the one I wanted. I made my selection, paid up and waited as patiently as I could, eating sandwiches and salads till the stove arrived on Thursday.

And it was the wrong one! Either I pointed to the wrong one or the factory delivered the wrong one. This one looks great, has four burners but the oven isn't an oven. It's an 'oben'--a combination gas oven and microwave in a semi-circular SMALL space. I was so disappointed. I think we have agreed I can exchange it for just a plain oven but I'm not 100% sure.

Sigh. My Italian sausage went back in the freezer to wait for another day. And maybe the worst part--it'll be another 3 or 4 days of cold food. No roast rosemary and garlic chicken for Sunday dinner for me again this week.

Added information: the meat truck must have come to the local grocery store on Wednesday. There were 5 hunks of meat in the counter instead of the usual 2. Still no chicken though.

And there are no Chinese restaurants in either Youngsan or Bugok. Will have to adventure farther afield to satisfy my craving for kan-poon-gi (chicken in hot garlic sauce).

[weatherman]

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200505/05/200505052200376009900091009101.html

[Ya-ta Boy]

Hey weatherman!

Thanks for the info on the swamp. It fills in some of the gaps. I was wondering how such a small one in downtown Youngsan could be considered 'big'. Now I know.

[Ya-ta Boy]

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND:

Well, if you consider the request of one person who is considering a move to the REAL Korea, not the effete, snobbish, over-Westernized URBAN landscape that most of you live in:

Tonight I was hungry for hot food (the stove has still not shown up...well, one has but it has a microwave where the oven should be and I'm going through withdrawal pangs from Western food, not to mention HOT food...there is only so long a boy can exist on ham and cheese sandwiches and salads...11 days and counting...) so I decided to go back to the hot springs hot spot of all Korea for supper tonight. Figured with a typhoon coming, or not, it was worth the trip over the mountain for some sensory gratification and maybe a lesson in how to heat the center of a pizza.

So I drive over the mountain, tummy grumbling, and bop in to the biggest hotel in the biggest hot springs hot spot in all of Korea...not a soul in sight but a waitress rubbing up against a bartender, sit down all by my lonesome with my book and an appetite and order. A couple of minutes later the waitress returns, only to say, "Cook, op-sigh-yo! Sorry."

Being an adaptable and innovative kind of guy, I ask where else in town I can get a pizza. She and I go outside and she points the way, down the only real street in town to another place, with live music. I'm flexible, so I go for it. Drive down a block and a half and hop out of the car. Lo and behold! There is a Chinese restaurant directly across the street from the appointed place. Remember that the 7-11 girl had said there was no Chinese restaurant in Bugok. This is only about a block from 7-11. Bugok is only about 5 blocks long. OK. 7-11 is not the fount of local wisdom I had counted on. My bad.

It turns out this place has dynamite kan-poon-gi (chicken with hot garlic sauce)...but it has been 4 years since I've had to order it in a new restaurant. It shows up with bones! Ick! Chopsticks are wonderful for some things, but eating chicken is not one of them. After 4 years of only having to walk in to my Chinese restaurant, I had forgotten that you have to request boneless chicken. Now I have to call up a Korean friend and ask how to ask for boneless...the words escape me. I will say the sauce is absolutely terrific. It's the best, hottest, spiciest garlic sauce I've had in Korea. Tasty. I will return...and try out the pizza across the street in case it's edible.

Morals of the story: #1. If you are living, or thinking of living, in a small Korean town, be sure to have your own means of transportation. It's vital for your sanity and culinary delight.

#2. Don't rely on local high school girls who work at 7-11 to be a fount of wisdom on the only town they have ever lived in, even if only 1,000 people live in the town.

The bad news, if it is that, is that another way-gook saram is coming in a couple of weeks to teach at the girls' high school. With a total of 2 of us, what are the odds that he will be tolerable? That is, opposed to a cereal box-saving pedophile who only listens to opera and pulls wings off flies.

[Someone who shall remain nameless is considering a move to a place like mine next year. That person has requested that I either start a blog, which would be cool, if only I had the slightest idea how to do that, or to continue to post on this thread. For anyone not interested, screw you. I know a person of discriminating taste when I meet him/her. I am only complying with a specific request. If you have a problem with this, you can either ignore the thread or choke on a chicken bone. It's all the same to me.]

PS: I lived in Koong-dong, Daejon when it was one of only 3 all night drinking places in all of the land of the morning calm and I was known far and wide as the Endless Sheriff. I moved from there to Hong-dae before it was trendy. You Johnny-come-latelies are only playing catch-up. Word: if you have to TRY to be cool, give it up now; it isn't going to work.

The Swamp-dwelling Ya-ta Boy

[Ya-ta Boy]

The Giant Plastic Elvis and Me

Now that I have your attention�

The early part of the week was just chaos and enough of it is on another thread for anyone wanting to listen to a rant. The good part of it was that some of it was brought on by the co-teachers trying to find a set-up that satisfied me. By Thursday things had settled down to a mutually tolerable arrangement at school, which is good because it let me settle down and enjoy the boys.

They have been great ever since I started showing up in the days before I began teaching last Friday. One of them, Yi Noo-Ri snaps down into a deep bow each and every time he sees me. The rest of them are scared, but polite, and quite a few are curious. Even the two who got caught stealing a bag of rice from the middle school and had to clean all the windows in the high school for punishment are intimidated but polite. I just wish I had my own group that I could really get to know. The most frequently I�ll ever get to see any single student is once a week except for the ones who signed up for my two elective courses. Those guys I�ll see one more time a week. There has been no dong-chimming or anything like that. I did stand two up and had them hold chairs straight out for screwing around, and that seemed to do the trick. The word, just like the rumor about who the way-gook saram riding around on a red scooter is, spreads quickly in a school this size.

Next week will be even better because the Grade 1 and 2 boys will be off at membership training for three days so I�ll have a lot of time to organize my lessons and get stuff into the computer. Then with Chusok coming up, I�ll have still more time. So that is a weight off.

As I said, by Thursday things had evened out. What is also contributing to the improved outlook is that the snow peas I planted in my balcony garden last Monday have sprouted. Three were up on Thursday morning and all 15 seeds had sprouted by this evening. AND the oregano and marjoram are up. So that is all looking good. I haven�t had to use my grow light yet. Anxiously looking for the thyme, basil, sage and chives. (Bought rosemary already grown.) I have a question about the grow light when the time comes. I can�t tell you how much snow peas add to a good thick chicken gumbo or stir fry. Can�t wait till Halloween! (That�s when the peas will be ready to harvest.) Now if only my stove would get here. The one I didn�t want took only 4 days�the one I do want is supposed to take 7 or 8 days. The Italian sausage is mixed and frozen, waiting for a heat source. The night the stove gets here I�ll be in pig heaven. I may just jump in the spaghetti sauce and eat myself into oblivion.

I got to meet the other way-gook sarams last night. We all work for the same county, but the rest of them live up in the metropolis of Changnyeong with indoor plumbing and other amenities. They seemed like decent, upstanding folk. Not a derelict or suspected serial killer in the bunch. Quite nice. And I also met a rather cool Korean teacher with them. This one loves meat and soju. Hallelujah and praise the Lord! (A bunch of the people in our little group are vegans.) Also had an interesting chat with a Brit in the group. Totally opposite from me, and that was part of what made him an interesting person. He actually enjoys the process of traveling. I have heard rumors that there are people like that, but I think he�s the first one I�ve knowingly met.

Don�t worry. We are closing in on the giant plastic Elvis part of the story.

So with the stressful early part of the week and no cooking facilities at home, I was ready for some hot springs and hot food by the end of today. It was off to Bulgok [Edit: There is no 'l' in Bugok, you idiot! Bugok. Boooo-goke.], the hot springs capital of the Republic. Tonight I tried my third spa. I pulled in to the parking lot of the next hotel in line. There was only one vehicle and it was a panel truck. Not a touristy looking thing, in my opinion. I go in and there is no one in the lobby. I do my �Yo-gi-oh!� and it turns up an ajosshi who leads me up the stairs. I guess he didn�t trust me to read �nam-ja�. Anyway, the place is deserted. I start thinking I�ll have the whole place to myself. That is a rarity in public places in Korea. I strip down and head in to the pools. I start my way around searching for the comfortably warm one and am testing the third pool when I hear a splash and a naked kid, un-cut if you are into that sort of information, comes bouncing over. He�s about 8 or so and starts babbling at me in Korean. Then he grabs my hand and takes me on a guided tour of the place, talking up a storm the whole time. Not a clue about what on my part.

I take my shower and hop in the warm pool, which is also his choice. The first thing he does is ask if I want to swim laps (in a 10 meter mok-yok-tang pool) with him. At least that is the meaning I got out of his gestures and talk. I decline and start to relax. Then he wants to know if I want to go into the sauna. I think that is what he wants. Then he wants me to try another pool. He wasn�t pushy in an obnoxious way. I think his dad owns the place and dumped him upstairs in his own �private� swimming pool just to give him something to do and he�s lonely. He wandered off for a while and then came back. Each time he tried to talk to me but it wasn�t in that nasty �why the funk can�t you understand simple Korean?� kind of thing some kids get into. In the end, I kind of enjoyed having him around. I soaked for a while and started to feel like it really was Friday evening. I moved back and forth between two pools. Each time I moved, he picked up my glasses and brought them to me and gently laid them down on the ledge. At one point, he clearly indicated I should go to the sit-down shower and scrub my back. Maybe he was offering to scrub it for me. (That has happened several times. Total strangers have washed my back. And I haven�t had a single �thing� appear in my hand, as mentioned in another thread about baths. Whew!)

I finally was ready to go and eat and headed for the shower. Before I got there he ran over with a tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush, then rushed off to get some Dove shower gel or whatever it is called. While I was drying off he brought me a cup of cold water and then tried to show me how he could change channels on the TV with a Q-tip. To be honest, I felt sorry for the kid. How would you like to spend your evenings after school all alone and naked, with strangers, in a deserted sauna? From the evidence, 7 PM is rush hour at this particular public bath. Three adult guys came in as I was leaving, and one of them was clearly a mafia guy. Tattooed on the back from the waist up. I�d like to know his story.

The last time I was in town I tried to get a pizza at the cold pizza hotel, only to be turned away. Well tonight I went to the place the hotel waitress pointed out to me. The new place didn�t have pizza so I ordered don-kass. I usually hate the sauce they dump on it, but this wasn�t half bad. And it had quite a few mushrooms, too. But the highlight of the evening, even better than socializing with a naked 8 year old, was that the bar/restaurant. �Parasol� has two tables outside. It being a beautiful fall evening in spite of the rain earlier, I sat outside to enjoy the action. Right next to a genuine, life-size plastic Elvis, sitting on a bar stool, playing his guitar. In the hour and a half I was there, Elvis and I didn�t count more than 15 cars drive past. I�m sure that not more than 20 people walked past us in that time--and that is if you count the two ajosshis from the night clubs who stand outside and try to get people to come in. They both walked down to the corner and back several times. Bugok may be a happening place in the summer, full of tourists, but it is quite pleasant at this time of year. I enjoyed Elvis�s silent singing. [I can�t wait for the biopic of Johnny Cash. Please, please, please let it be a good movie.]

This will be the last message from the only white boy in Swampville. Sometime today another teacher arrived who will be teaching at the girls school in town. I will no longer be unique. From now on, I can only report as one of two white boys in town. Not the same. Even if, in our 4-street town, our paths don�t often cross, my days of being a pioneer are over. As Daniel Boone said, �The neighbors are crowding in!� (Actually, I made that quote up.)

If the rain stops I�ll be able to take the scooter out exploring my area tomorrow. I�ve found out that there are bunches of little tiny villages that send boys to my school and I want to figure out which one is where. I�m also determined to find out where the Sitting Buddha is. And I have a couple of thousand pages of Francis Parkman waiting for me.

The moral of tonight�s story is: If you want to live in an itsy bitsy teeny weeny Korean town, be ready to forego the pleasures of Hongdae and learn to enjoy naked 8 year old boys (in a healthy way!) and giant plastic Elvises.

[pet lover]

I really can't understand why you can't post on a more regular basis. You let an entire week go by!

Having to deal with naked children is just one reason I've never gone to a sauna. I deal with enough of them at work and at the park across from my place and I certainly feel a lot more comfortable when everyone is completely dressed (if you ignore the toddlers that run around with shirts on but no pants, diapers, nada).

Did you ever go back and update that 7-11 girl and let her know about the Chinese restaurant you found?

It will be interesting to find out what the other foreigner is like. Depending on the type of person, you could either have a lot more fun or end up slinking from building to building hoping he/she doesn't see you which likely won't work as there will always be some kid around to point you out.

When might we expect photos?

[Ya-ta Boy]