Korean Job Discussion Forums

[akcrono]

[ippy]

that's exactly what i mean. The reason is that after the event when i tried to piece together everything, i remember one of the friends quite vocally complaining that they should stop standing around and go in.

The thing is, he was surrounded by them, and it was guys and girls, so its not like he could have done something that would warrant it. Anyway, heres what we saw:

At the time a different friend of ours was very very wasted, so me and his S.O. were looking after him and waiting for the aforementioned friend to stop yammering to this group.

The group was around 6 people. A couple of koreans, and i think 4 girls and 2 guys. It could honestly have been a couple more but its obviously a little messy outside club mass at around 2am, and its not like anyone would think anything was about to happen to pay that kind of attention. Besides i was dealing with what i thought was our ACTUAL problem.

So here he is, on his own, chatting up one of the girls. I remember one of her friends getting rather irked by it and telling her to hurry up.

We're about ten feet away because we were waiting on this guy so we could get our other mate (the one who was rather wasted) into a taxi and back home. Naturally we went for the whole gentle route of standing far enough away to indicate a kind of hurry the hell up type vibe and not engaging with anyone so we could get the hell out.

The next thing, we turn around and theres a massive space cleared all around him. 2 of the group (i assume) are also gagging.

Me and my mate are actually at this point chuckling because we think "oh christ, has he really just thrown up on someone?" I cant see anything, but naturally im finding it kinda funny that the guys behind him are retching too. How on earth did he make them sick as well?

We get him to the wall and bushes just to the left of the club so he can stop causing a scene and throw up in some kind of semi privacy, (he's still dry heaving and blowing snot).

Around two minutes later he finally regains his composure and starts screaming about how bad it hurts. We're kinda confused at this point. Why wouldnt we be? The guys screaming because he threw up? 'Just how wasted is he?' we think.

Its only then he gets out the words that hes just been sprayed and the penny finally drops.

Now i live a sheltered life, i dont look for trouble and trouble doesnt find me, so naturally i thought pepper spray was just some kind of 5 minute gig. My, how wrong i was

So a couple of minutes later, and it didnt occur to me at the time, but a korean girl (one of the group) comes back from inside the club and says these bizarre words "its probably only korean pepper spray, so its not as bad as the stuff you get in the US". She looks concerned so i just nod as another of her friends pulls her back down into the club.
One of our mates returns from the convenience store with a bottle of water. We try cleaning his eyes out. It gives him enough of a respite that we (incorrectly) assume it wont be long till he feels better. So we get him into a taxi.

Within about a minute of the taxi ride he's screaming his head off again. After about ten minutes the taxi drivers had enough of this and kicks us out in the middle of christ knows where.

Now at this point im literally the only one of 4 of us who isnt out of his mind blind drunk and/or writhing in agony.

The only problem is that im now the only person capable of actually finding out where we are and how to find our hotel and unfortunately I've never been there.

Well, when i say only trouble, i should also mention that (as it turns out), the motel is actually in an apartment with absolutely no indication on the outside of the place that it is anything but some dudes apartment.

Naturally then we are lost, we have a dude thats been pepper sprayed and the three people that know where this apartment is are all completely fried.

It took no less than TWO HOURS (and many many angry neighbors) to get him to the hostel. And when he got there he was still screaming. He'd long since ran out of water and was continually rubbing his eyes.

I forgot to mention, i was at this time in my cute space alien costume from toy story (if you were there, you may remember me). So not only am i the only soberish one trying to work all this crap out, im also doing it looking P.I.M.P. (well actually kind of an idiot wandering around a korean residential area in the middle of the night with two drunken wasters and one guy alternating between screaming and passing out) :p

Once inside he literally sat in the shower until 8 in the morning when he got part of his vision back.

The postscript is that one of his eyes got infected and he had to wear a patch to work for the next week because it was too scary for the kids (apparently). And all this because he either said something ridiculous (we honestly dont know), or he was just bothering some girl who realy needed to dance.

His memory is very hazy on the subject, but all he said he remembered was chatting away, just normal chatting, and one of her friends (he is pretty sure it was a girl) spraying him in the face. Then it all goes messy.

I honestly wish i knew about pepper spray before then because the police would definitely have been called and i would have taken him to a hospital. That stuff is ludicrous.

Im absolutely convinced that either someone utterly ignorant of its affects, or a complete sociopath would empty that in someones face who posed absolutely no threat to them. Christ, even if he was obnoxious, which im 100% sure he wasnt, (they seemed quite happy chatting last we saw (which must have been about ten seconds before it all went mental)), theres no justification. I mean seriously, what on earth is wrong with people?

An absurd night. But really please please, if you own pepper spray, test it. Just spray a little bit on your arm or something and see how it feels. Even from him just grabbing me while i lugged him back home the stuff was seriously burning my arm and neck up. I believe people aren't on the whole sociopaths, so i have to assume that its pure ignorance that would lead to someone doing that, so please do realise what it is your about to do and understand the implications. I think its becoming so common-place that its in danger of being trivialised.

[akcrono]

Wow. Please tell me you filed a report with the police. If it's strong enough to stop an attacker cold, it MUST be powerful.

BTW, my confusion:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/literally

Doesn't take away from how awful your night was.

[okiedokie]

That story is awful. I take it your friend is okay now but why would anyone think they needed to pepper spray someone whilst in such a busy area and surrounded by their own friends?! There are some totally moronic people in this country!

It aggravates me in particular because people doing that kind of thing is what will make possessing pepper spray something the police will crack down on. If enough people use it carelessly then no-one will be able to carry it for when they really need it.

I carry pepper spray now following a series of creepy experiences in Korea. I feel like my encounters with perverts and delinquents are becoming more frequent, it makes me so sad because I used to feel much safer here than back home. I know I draw more attention because I have long blonde hair but I dress conservatively and actually all my incidents have occured during the day or early evening. The worst was at about 5pm. I was followed walking home. I was wearing jeans, a loose coat and scarf, not exactly 'come hither clothing'.

Naturally I tried to lose the guy, I went into several shops only to be followed again upon leaving. The creepy thing was this guy was so good at making it look like he wasnt following me some people would think they were just being paranoid. After doubling back on myself twice and entering two busy shops I was starting to panic because I was having no luck at shaking him. He'd be standing a fair distance away seemingly not looking my way but as soon as I started walking he'd be there following again.

I didnt know how to tell anyone since I dont really speak Korean so I decided to call my boyfriend. I waited in a busy shop, which I saw him stroll past casually twice, in the subway station. I'd like to add I'd made it very clear through my actions that this attention was not welcome and I'd like him to f*** off right away. When my boyfriend finally got there I'd calmed myself down and was pretty sure the guy was gone (it'd had been at least 15 minutes since I'd seen him last). When we walked out of the subway he was stood casually waiting in an open fronted store that you had to pass to exit out of majority of exits or to get on the subway. It was one of the most unnerving and seriously chilling feelings I've had.

Needless to say that man has ruined my afternoon walks home so now, I always take a cab. It makes me sad that he's infringed on something that should be a basic human right - walking home from work. I may pluck up the courage to walk home again sometime but at the moment I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I would never use my pepper spray unless absolutely neccessary in a situation where I was absolutely sure the person had ill intentions and I feared for my safety.

I'd rather stand up in court to defend myself for using pepper spray on someone than take my chances of defending myself against a stranger.

Girls who use it so freely and carelessly should get some sense though. It sounds like the girl mentioned in the post above needs to get some perspective of what feeling threatened and scared really is.

I hope the police start to pay more attention to these things that seem to be happening more and more now. And like others on this thread have commented, that girls start to think take their safety more seriously; don't wait to meet friends outside - meet in a cafe, try to go home with a friend or take a cab from door to door and proabably most importantly be observant.

[ippy]

nah, no police report. Hell, i remember in a daze at 8am with our very very drunk friend waking up and walking in to find the pepper spray guy in the shower and waking me up with these casual words:

"hey ipps, how do you tell if someones dead?"

yeah he was still drunk. But the point is, none of them were in a fit state to file a police report, and i wasnt even supposed to be staying there, so come the 9am breakfast (which our pepper sprayed friend attended) i headed back to gwangju fully relieved that the whole thing was over and done with and everyone was talking about doing their bungee jump still.

(at this point our pepper spray guy had completely lost his memory about everything including sleeping in a shower for about 2-3 hours. I put that down to him also being quite quite drunk whilst being blind and writhing in pain That guy suffered. And he doesnt really get to remember it

As for carrying pepper spray for self defence, i really really want to stress that i dont object to that at all. Better that and a possible mistake than the alternative. but just understand quite how horrific the consequences are. Pepper spray should definitely not be used as an alternative to "im sorry, i really have to go, maybe ill bump into you some other time then? bye!"

[akcrono]