Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

Does anyone know of a border in need of a shabby bordertown? I think I have found a worthy candidate. It even has an alias.

I set out yesterday morning for the contract signing ceremony with directions to catch a bus up to Seoul, then a subway to Gangbyeon, then another bus to here. So it starts raining on the way into town. Get drenched going into the bank. I'm the only one on the bus. We run into and out of the rain a couple of times between Swampville and the pit stop place east of Taejon. It pours again just in time to run into the rest area for a cup of potatoes. Then we hit road construction and my 4 to 4 1/2 hour bus ride turns into 5 hours. Get the subway OK and run across the street in the rain to the other bus station and catch the bus to here. We head back south an hour--so I've wasted an hour going north, a half hour crossing Seoul and another hour going back south. Seven hours to arrive at the shabbiest bus station this side of Juarez.

My meeting isn't until 11am Wednesday, so my plan is to check out the neighborhood. I take a taxi to the high school (the driver points out a teacher's wife downtown) and insists that Ohio is the same as Iowa. Not in his wildest dreams. We cross the sad little bridge over the sad little river and turn left at the 보신탕 restaurant at the T intersection and go a quarter mile or so out of town. The school sits on the highest ground anywhere within miles. (This is the first place I've seen in Korea where the mountains are so far away.)

The school grounds are beautiful. I've never seen a high school with a very nicely planted 'park' in front of it, with recently varnished benches under the trees. Otherwise, a pretty standard looking school.

Head back to town hoping to snag a taxi so I can find a motel. No luck. I walk the whole way. It isn't raining for a change, but this time my shirt gets soaked with sweat. Guess I'll have to sit downwind at the meeting.

As luck would have it, I found a 'park' motel beside the sad little river and got a room for only W30,000. Dried out my shirt under the air con and set out to explore the town and find some nourishment.

Outside the chicken feet restaurant I find a crowd of teenagers. Sure enough, they are students at the school. Pitiful English level. They send out two 후배's to guide me to the only grocery store in town. It's up the street about 100 yards. I think I could have located it on my own. It's a sad place. There are only 3 kinds of salad greens where there should be 10 or 15. The meat department is small, but it does exist, putting it a step up on Swampville. The two checkout girls are kind of homely and sad. At least they don't smile, so I guess they are sad.

I come out and discover that the sad bus station is right next to the sad grocery store and I hadn't noticed it when I arrived. I continue on down main street and discover that the downtown is about 3 blocks by 4 blocks. There are more people on the street than Swampville ever had, except during the March 1 Independence Movement Festival, but in size, this wide spot in the road is smaller. Much smaller. At least Swampville had one stop light. This place doesn't have one.

I wandered down a side street and found a pizza place with a little 'balcony' area outside. Two tables. One red plastic. The other, blue plastic. I ask for a pizza without corn. What I got was a pizza with about three pounds of cheese. It was pretty good. While I was sitting there waiting for it, an ajumma stopped to ask where I'm from and why I'm there. So I'm sure, via the ajumma network, the whole town knows I'm here. I saw 7 other foreigners walk past in my time at the pizza restaurant. They looked German/Russian. That explains why no one stared at me. Well, almost no one. One woman and I played 'gotcha' for a few minutes.

The pizza man drew me a map and said there are 3 PC bangs in town, so Swampville is better served that way. There is only one 목욕탕 (pretty shabby) and one health club. Haven't inspected it yet, but the pizza man says it is nice.

I feel more isolated here than I did in Swampville. I think it's because I was a little familiar with that area and Masan was only 30 minutes away and I could drive to real grocery stores. I'm beginning to see why the previous teacher bailed at the semester.

Since the landlord found someone to move into my apartment as soon as I move out on Friday, I don't think I can back out now and keep searching.

BTW, it's sprinkling again.

[matthews_world]

You and your stories. Start a blog.

[canuckistan]

A car or motorcycle would probably = Swampville being more bearable.

[periwinkle]

You like teaching in the country, don't you? Personally, I couldn't handle the attention- I'd be running around in a baseball cap and sunglasses all the time- probably even be driven to coloring my hair a dark color if I lived in the sticks.

Ha- I thought you meant to post in the travel forum when I read the thread title...

[kimchi_pizza]

Nice fluid writing style and great descriptions, but....why do I feel so...sad?

[Ya-ta Boy]

I solved the mystery of the alias today. It seems 가남 is pretty big and has 12 리's in it. Some people call the biggest one 가남 but it's real name is 태평리. So it isn't as nefarious as I was hoping.

The job offer turned out to be a whole lot better than I had been led to believe. The school is vocational, but has two tracks, and half the Grade One kids and 1/3 of the Grade Two and Three kids are university track, so there will be some classes where it will not be painful to show up. I consider that good. THEN, there is all the over-time on offer. I agreed to 5 morning classes and there are 5 more afternoon classes any time I want them. The school is very flexible and not pushy about it. Refreshing. AND I don't have to do any MT crap. That is a major plus. The other thing I was concerned about was the W300,000 withholding for the first three months. The school said they wouldn't withhold. (The downside...I had to sign a contract that the school openly said they wouldn't abide by from the get go. What if something comes up that protects me in the contract? Well...? No guts, no glory.)

The town still isn't physically attractive, but the job has become attractive (unless the hype is just that). I did sign. My fate is sealed. A major advantage over my past year's experience, a WHOLE crap-load of the teachers speak some English and live within 15 minutes of the school. I might just have a social life again.

I think my first endeavor will be to campaign among the local kids to pressure the mayor to put in a few pots of flowers in town. This is the only Korean town I've ever seen without at least a few. It would go a long way to cure the sadness problem. Then cut the weeds along that darn 'river'.

Oh yes! The largest set of buck teeth in human history have been located. They belong to Mr. Kim (?), the vice principal. Those old propaganda cartoons of Japanese soldiers from WWII have nothing on him.

PS:
Yes, I do like living in the country, I'm not sure if I like working in the country. My last job was a bust.

But one of the really nice things: I will be living in 'Rich Town' ( ) the local highrise apt complex. There are 3 buildings, on three sides of a square. When I look out my balcony, opposite the empty side, there is a small hill and lots of green stuff...and a sky. A major step up from my present apt.

Got a car. May get a new scooter. Scooters are a lot of fun to ride exploring the little country roads. I did find the local scooter shop, but didn't see any that really grabbed me. Did see where a lot of sorry-as* scooters go to die, piled up next to his building. I guess those are the ones not worth stealing and exporting to Peru.