Korean Job Discussion Forums

[blaseblasphemener]

Earlier I posted a story of seeing my first rat here in Korea (after 2 1/2
years) (see "Rats in Daejeon")

Of course, I got nothing but replies about "rats" in the streets wearing
business suits, etc. Which I didn't discourage.

But, I would now like to ask for some rat stories. I in fact am fascinated/
horrified by the creatures, perhaps because I am from Alberta in Canada,
which makes the claim to be "Rat-free", although our premier does look
a lot like a fat-rat.

So, if anyone has seen an actual, 4 legged, pink tailed, rat walking the streets, garbage, outhouse, of Korea, please share your story. Pictures
along with your submission will put you in good steed, and you may win yourself a years supply of STAR, the wonderful canned rat meat product that came of the States some years back.

Now, bring on the rat stories! (fingers crossed)

[RACETRAITOR]

I'm from Alberta too so I can't imagine a rat infestation being so bad. They're too cute to hate.

A few weeks ago, there was a moth in my apartment. I tried to kill it but only wounded it so it couldn't fly very well. My cat was chasing after it, and I remarked to my girlfriend, "The cat is trying to catch that moth."

My girlfriend screamed at me, "Get it out of here!"

I went into the other room and she slammed the door. She yelled through it "Open the door so it will go outside!"

Of course I didn't because more would come in, and I told her that. She screamed again.

I lost the moth, but then my cat found it and I finished it off. I picked up the cat and brought her over to the shut door so she could knock on it with my paws. There was a scream on the other side.

I opened it to find my girlfriend standing on the bed. She saw the cat in my arms and screamed. She asked me if I got rid of it, and I said it was dead. She peered past me, saying "Where is it? Get it out of here!"

I went over to the dresser and scraped it off into a tissue. My girlfriend said, "Oh, I thought you said mouse, not moth!"

[Juregen]

I saw a huge one just a week ago

Walking the center of this little town, they have these huge sewer grates where you can actually see the stuff.

And there it was, a nice big fat rat, and it was big and fat. People not sitting 2 meters away eating their Bulgogi.

First time i ever saw one this close, and having my baby this close to one ...

I was prepared to kill the beast.

[blaseblasphemener]

honest to christ, I don't understand why in a country that has rats, but seems so blase about leaving open, rotting garbage out, how have the rats not overrun everything? I must give full credit to the cats, or else, the rats are American and won't eat kimchi, only Mcdonalds and 2 liter bottles of coke. (just yanking your chains yanks!)

[captain kirk]

First place I lived in Korea a rat came up the drain pipe in the bathroom. It was in the kitchen when I saw it, scampered over to beneath some plastic grocery bags, empty, in a pile. I had a rock half the size of a shoebox as a doorstop and aimed for where I thought it was under the bags. Direct hit! Its head had been squashed flat. It was six inches long without the tail. This was in Kwangju ten years ago.

At that same time the local theatre had rats. They'd bump your feet as you watched the movie. Hoovering up fallen popcorn and licking up pop spills. They'd also climb the walls. You'd see motion and there was a rat. Then, back to the movie. Then, back to the rat(s).

[HapKi]

The swelter of Korean summer a few years back. Had my front door open for a little merciful draft. Watching T.V. at around 10 or 12 at night, laying on the sofa with my head at one end , as we all do. Suddenly noticed a slowmovement out of the corner of my eye, yet just a few feet away from my relaxed head, go behind the fridge. Woke up my roommate as I got the broom handle out and started shaking behind the fridge. It comes scampering/waddling out. "Jesus...that's a rat!!" I'd really not had much contact with rats before, 'cept for some Stephen King short stories. Seeing one up close, I remember thinking, "Yep, that's what I though they looked like. Smooth, sleek black hair, and fat. And with a bald tail that doubles it's length. A size that a cat could handle, yet would be a good fight with the rat getting in a couple bites, maybe rolling the cat once or twice. I don't know. Anyways, big. I almost felt sorry for it that it looked so close to a cute furry squirrel, yet hated and disgusted around the world. Hovering around man's outskirts, in the shadows, just to survive off of trash, yet the constant threat of a 2x4 smashing your body, or a trap breaking you in half.
Anyways, we got it from out the fridge. It turned as if to go into another room, but my roommate did a little one man dance that seemed to detract the rat from going that way. We corralled it back down to the long hall-way, at which point the rat trotted at a casual pace, much like a coyote at the edge of an empty field, as if thinking, "I'm doing my thing, and running into you humans is a minor inconvenience. If you got a 2x4, bring it on. Otherwise, get the hell out of my way."
It walked out the door, took a left, and headed down the outdoor corridor. A couple minutes later I went out to retrace it's steps, but it was gone. And I don't know where it could have dissapeared to.
My roommate and I looked at each other, both thinking, "How the hell did that thing get up here?" We lived on the 14th floor. Pipes? The stairs?Maybe the elevator? The roof? Something to think about the next time the elevator door opens, and nobody gets out.

[Captain Corea]

Another Alta native here.

Yeah, I've seen two in my 5 years of being here.

One was a clean Youido rat. Had a nice brown coat on him.

The other was a garbage rat in Indeogwon. Bugger bounced out when I threw my trash on the heap. Scared the jeepers outta' me.

You guys ever get the blank stare from people when you tell 'em that there are no rats in Alberta?

[blaseblasphemener]

I once sat down with an Alberta rat catcher, and he told me some stories.

He was called out to Lloydminster, a town on the Alberta/Saskatchewan border. The town dump had not been packing the garbage piles properly, and rats had been spotted on the top of one of the huge piles. That meant, he told me, that rats would be nested all the way from the bottom to top.

The rat catchers had to tie their pant legs so the rats wouldn't run up them. They loaded up their shotguns, and the bulldozers got to breaking up the pile of trash. Then the rats came streaming out, and the rat catchers unloaded buckshot on their asses. Just another day in the life of an Alberta Rat Patroller.

Another time, he had to go under a house on a farm, where the wife had seen a hole in the floor, and a rat had poked it's head out. The rat catchers had to dig down and go into their tunnels to make sure every last one was dead, or they would return with again. Rats will keep breeding no matter how small the space. They found 146 rats under the house!

[Captain Corea]

Now there is a book that is begging to be published!

[HapKi]

Every been to Phnom Phen?
Literally more rats crawling around the streets at night then people. I kid you not.

[mithridates]

My brother has a shirt with the following design from the 50s or 60s or whenever it was:

[Ninjorp]

[Pak Yu Man]

I saw a couple of rats Friday night when I was drinking at the corner store. A guy showed up with two of them wearing little pink coats with ribbons in their ears. Now that I think about it....they might have been dogs. They sure looked like rats though.

[HapKi]

[excitinghead]

My first and worst rat exprerience was IN THE SHOWER! There I was, doing my stuff, felt something run across my foot and looked down...took a bit longer than the split second it should have taken to realise what it was, first, because I'm used to seeing long pink things when I have a shower , but a lot fatter than a rat tail , and second, because my world view doesn't really have room for rats and SHOWERS in the same place and couldn't handle it.

What does one do? I don't think I'd ever seen a rat in real life before I came to Korea. Somehow, seemingly from nowhere, came the thought: "Kill it with a mop!". The fact that I didn't have a mop did not deter me. Rufus the Rat, in the meantime, was used to my original fazed reaction and had taken advantage of it to hide under the washing machine. So I decided to wake up my flatmate to get him to help me kill him (Rufus, not my flatmate).

In hindsight, I think that all Westerners somehow have a deep collective consciousness that equates "Rat" with "Kill it with a mop!". Admit it, that's the first thing you thought of when you first saw one! Fortunately, I think my native cunning was working in the background...ie, we didn't have a mop, and what? We were supposed to whack it, then pick up it's blood and bashed out-brains from the floor? No thanks...subconsciously, I went to wake up my flatmate to allow Rufus to bugger off from where he came, which he obligingly did. Maybe that's also why I forgot to put on a towel first, because I had to do some lengthy explaining when I walked naked to my flatmates bed.

Later that night, I was thirsty at 2 am and so went to get a drink. Noticed that Rufus was back and crawling around under the Kitchen cupboards, but was too half-asleep to care. I kept the bathroom door open to make sure he could get back out, and resolved to keep it closed in future.

When my girlfriend mentioned Rufus to the landlord the next day, she cheerfully mentioned that as she's gone for most of the year Rufus usually lives at her place and so would go back there when she left the next week!

Did I mention that this was in the SHOWER??! Was the last time I lived in employer provided accomodation in Korea!