Korean Job Discussion Forums

[tob55]

Anyone hanging out for a pre-party/party at the mud festival this weekend when things get going? My wife and I will be driving down on Friday mid-day and like to meet any of you Dave's folks whom we might have connections with. It should be a good start to the festival and we are excited to be taking it in for the first time.

I know everyone has their own opinion of the festival, but we are going for the experience, and will formulate our own opinion once we have had a few days of involvement. I am hoping it will be as much fun as I have seen and heard about.

The English link for anyone needing it is below:

http://mudfestival.or.kr/lang/en/index.jsp

[tob55]

bump

[MissSeoul]

[tob55]

Hey Miss Seoul, good to see you in the forum again. Yeah, I guess we all fit the bill of a little crazy in some regards, but oh well. I am just taking this as a "downtime" unwind. Nothing to get into trouble or do stupid things, but I am sure some will. We are going to be staying on the beach for a few days in a pension and will certainly see our share of questionable activities and behaviors, but hopefully we keep everything in perspective.

My wife (Korean) and I have already discussed to possibilities of what we might see and are prepared for the best and the worst I guess. I do hope to meet some of the Dave's faithful who I only commonly communicate with through this forum. It is nice to put a face with a name. I have met some of the folks from the forum and they are really upright and good people.

[Darkness]

I'll be the one barfing in the corner, clutching a bottle of soju with dear life....

[tob55]

Heading out around noon on Friday. The boss gave me the afternoon free since not much going on and all of our after finals work is done. Should arrive at the pension around 3:30 or earlier depending on traffic. Gonna kick back enjoy some of the pre-party happenings around the area and just have fun. A long awaited break and a welcome for some crazy times amongst the really strung out foreign crowd coming into town. Not too late to mention a spot or two people are going to be hanging out on Friday night before the real fun begins.

[Draz]

I'm always up for meeting new people, but not sure when (if) I'm going. I've been feeling less than 100% lately. But - it's the mud festival. Erg!

[ciccone_youth]

We're heading tomorrow afternoon. I'm not sure if I'm excited or not, I'm not the crazy drunken kind so I might get bored. We'll see.

[thatwhitegirl]

I live there, and I don't think I could go. A K-teacher told me that just last weekend there were around 100,000 people at the beach. And it's not THAT big! I'm thinking of checking it out during the week, maybe it will be less crowded.
I'm curious about it, as we missed it last year...

But, we don't drink anymore, and that [probably] is a major part of the fun. I would like a mud spa treatment though.

[tob55]

My co-teacher f'd me over today! I mentioned on Monday of this week I could not do any meetings or classes after 1 pm on Friday. She listened and then proceeded to forget and did not return a call to a school that had asked me to come and begin a parents class. So this morning she calmly reminds me that I have a meeting at 4 pm today at the other school. I said, "I told you on Monday I was going out of town to the Mud Festival, and would not be available after 1 pm."

She "hmphs" a few times then says, "I need to speak with your wife." Okay, so she gets on the phone and plays the "wife card" on me.

Then says, my wife told her it was okay. Of course my wife is going to say its okay, she's Korean and puts up with this incompetence all the time. At any rate, I do the noble thing and tell my co-teacher not to worry, I will go to the class, but talk about screwing up what was supposed to be the beginning of a great weekend. Not that we'll miss much today since nothing really starts rolling until tomorrow, but the whole reason I wanted to leave early was to beat the insane traffic that commonly begins right around the time we now have to leave.

So, moral of the story, not only did my co-teacher screw me over by lacking the professional courtesy to make the call on Monday, but she effectively turned my 2 1/2 hour trip into a 5+ hour trip now. Oh well, live and learn. I could have refused, but it just wasn't worth losing a potentially good relationship with another school.

See ya'll when we get there some time tonight after 9 pm.

[Cohiba]

Dude, sorry, but you are acting like one limp customer.

1/ Why tell the school you are married? It is none of their business.
Even if they ask, lie to them. There are global standards of business
methods to be observed. Even in this primitive backwater.

2/ Why did you let that teacher thing speak to your wife? Does she
speak to your mommy as well?

3/ Why did you slide on any of these things? You should have stuck
to your guns. Next time your co-teacher won't even think twice before
she walks all over your face.

[tob55]

Thanks for the perspective Cohiba, but this is my fourth contract year in this school and they:

1. Have known I was married for 4 contract;

2. The co-teacher was trying to cover her own behind once she realized she really screwed me over, and knew my wife would have something to say about it. It really had nothing to do with talking to my wife as my "mommy." She is simply doing what all Koreans do when they are caught with their pants down so to speak, take the route of "sorry" to another Korean person;

3. As for sticking to my guns, I let her know my displeasure in the whole situation just as I did when they last ask for a copy of my credentials for the 5th time in three years. They have never done that again, and I am quite sure the co-teacher understand that if she screws my plans up again, she will not be given the same respectful reply from me again. I do not want to be seen as the bad guy in this situation, and took this route after speaking with my wife on the phone.

I am not trying to negate your very good comments Cohiba, which is why I am taking time to explain my own position. You are right in another time and circumstance I would probably tell them to go and stick, but this was not the time nor the circumstance to do it. Thanks for the feedback.

[Cohiba]

Noticed how I said "acting like". Anyone who plans a pre-party before a
party is OK in my books. Still, gotta watch those guys (i.e K People)

[tob55]

Well, the weekend was great as planned and not bad from all sides. Sure there were plenty of drunk and wasted people having a good time, but from the areas of the festival we stayed in, things were fairly docile. the prices were fairly steep, but the whole reason for going was the mud and the experience. I even had a chance to get on stage and look dumb for the crowd while they were doing the festival theme song. Got a free bottle of wine out of the deal so it was all good.

As for my wife and I personally we didn't drink or get carried away with too much partying. There were way too many things to do. I have to say the fireworks on Saturday night were very well done. Although waiting through the 4 hours of lame competition for the talent show wasn't really that great. A couple of good western rock bands got many of the foreign crowd wound up early, and there were a few party crashers getting on the stage that caused a mild stir, but when all was said and done the security guys restored order.

Had more photographers there than you could shake a stick at. They all seemed to be more interested in taking the pictures of foreigners rather than shooting photographs of the Korean women who put mud on like they were doing their make-up. It was kind of funny to watch the women stand in front of a few of the mirrors primping like they were about to go out on a date.

All in all, a great time and not the nightmare story I had heard might play out. Of course it was only the first two days, and who knows what could happen over the course of the festival, but as I said, a great time and certainly worth the trip.