Seoul, Korea - August 8, 2003
Whew, sorry, its been a long time since I updated the site. I've been thinking about it, and hope to get into a pattern to update it perhaps once a week.. was thinking every Sunday or Monday. That way I can cover the entire week and weekend. Feeling pretty lazy as of lately, and realizing there is so much to talk about.
First off, last weekend I went to Soekjo on the East Coast of South Korea. Met up with a number of friends, and it was very nice to get outside of the city - the first time since I've been back here. Soekjo is a nice beach/mountain community.. the largest and most popular mountain is there - Saraksan, as well as a very nice summer tourist town. The beaches were packed in like sardines as you can imagine with the intensive amounts of people everywhere in the country. I went into the water submersed by the ocean, the first time in a long time. Felt great.
There are so many other things to catch up on. For one, I've had a few emails regarding the German guys and how they are doing. I haven't seen them much as of the last couple months. They were constantly struggling financially, and seemed to be asking not just me but all of my friends for money on a very consistent basis. I'm in debt myself, so no one can get a free ride on me, so unfortunately just kind of cut ties. I believe they are still here and working parttime English work. If I see them around again, chances are I will at some point or another, I'll try to add another update as some of you who email me seem to know about them from me now.
I now have a computer in my apartment. Its not the greatest computer in the world, but I did get a printer and a scanner with it. If I can get focused, I'd love to start working on that old novel "Busan Korea" which I wrote in Sao Paulo about five or six years ago - I just need to edit it again - which if you read these pages, you know I have a tendency to write things once and not to bother getting back to them later. Actually I met a publisher who is trying to do a website. The website is called www.lifeinkorea.com if anyone wants to check it out. I was considering getting involved with it, but I'm so set in non-writing patterns at the moment, as anyone who reads this can vouch for, that I can't make many promises on that one.
Also, from some of my recent writings this time in Seoul, a reader or two began to think that Seoul was actually somewhat multicultural. Actually, it is not. There are more foreigners here than when I was lingering around in 1996.. but not that many. I guess I write it as a comparison to that time. But for the most part, things are the same as always. Meaning when I see another foreigner around it catches me by surprise and I stare at them for a few moments, just as people tend to notice my prescense as I'm walking around as well.
To completely jump topics for a moment. I've began to really get into eating kimchee. I've always thought of it as pungent and.. well, just not good! But as of the last month or two I've picked up a kimchee-eating habit.. ordering kimchee fried rice on a semi-regular basis as well as eating up all the kimchee I can get my holds on if its at the table. One step further, when I order the Korean BBQ (as its called in the West), or sun-gyup-sal, tae-ji-galbi, or bulgogi as its called here, I've been throwing kimchee on the grill to get it hot and crunchy. Tastes good!
Another odd eating habit I've always picked up on right away is eating seaweed on a very regular basis. When I lived in Seoul before, I constantly was buying seaweed paper to wrap around some rice and eat for breakfast. Well, now I've taken it one step further as I found Seaweed-flavored Potato Chips. I love it!!
Sticking on this food theme.. there is one kind of juice that I began to drink on a regular basis on the West Coast of the USA. That drink was Kern's peach juice. I just couldn't get enough of it. Oddly, on the East Coast of the USA as well as the majority of North America, I can't find that juice. However, oddly here in South Korea, in 7-11, I can find Kern's Mango juice. I buy at least a can a day. Can't get enough of that either.
Just so no one gets the wrong impression of Korea, as I realize people are getting impressions from what I write. For the most part, Korea does not have much western food at all. Case in point, its almost impossible to find decent pizza here. Its always extra cheesy, packed with corn, and a little clump of pickles as a sidedish. I prefer the exact opposite - a thin greasy slice of pepporoni pizza. It doesn't exist here. On the same note, they do have spaghetti here in Korea, but it has such a weird tangy pungeant sauce it takes away any kind of possible enjoyment of eating it. For the most part, when in Korea, stick with Korean food. Western food is a weird korean-hybrid cross-bread of something or another, which means you'll be disappointed -particularly applies to what little Mexican food that exists here, which basically doesn't exist here.
Okay, to my workplace. In case I haven't talked about it. I remember I kept putting it off. Anyhow, I work at an Internet company that teaches English online to Korean students. Basically, teaching sessions are 20 minute long. At the moment, they are 1-on-1, but that might change to multiple students in the near future, as the programmers are working hard day and night to make more money off this whole system. Basically my workplace consists of about 6 foreign teachers equipped with webcams, headphones, and an English lesson webbooks to teach from. My working hours are 4:30-10:30pm with a 30-minute dinner break. I like it.
The hours I teach means that I can sleep in as long as I want, however I've noticed that they aren't the best times in the world to be able to meet other people Almost everyone needs to sleep to wake up the next morning right about the time I get out of work. However, the good part of this is I tend to stay home more than usual, and therefore should be able to get out of debt completely perhaps within the next 3 to 4 months.
Well, I'll try to update this site once a week from now. I realize I've been lazy about this lately, and there is so much to acknowledge and record. Well, here is this page. More to come of course, as always.
Just as a final note. My job security seems highly unstable. They had an office in both Los Angeles and Seoul. Unfortunately, they completely closed down the L.A. office. In the Seoul office, they suddenly fired about half of the Korean staff. Apparently there is only so much money left, and when thats gone, it might be all over for us. I'm exploring other options to some extent. If we were to suddenly go, I'd probably just pack up and go hit Philippines and Thailand for awhile, then come back and start working on debt again. At least thats my plan. Lets hope it lasts, as the main reason I signed was to get that one-year bonus of about US$1,800 for completing your contract. I signed in April, so that means I'd have to wait until April 15th of 2004. Long time away, and I can honestly say I dream of traveling everyday.
Next Journal Entry in Seoul, Korea:
August 29, 2003
You can email me at:
Wintermoon2@yahoo.com