Blogs from Daegu, South Korea, Asia - page 15

Daegu is what I would consider a clash between East and West, a marvelous clash! I am located a couple miles from downtown Daegu which features back streets that are to narrow for most cars but Koreans don't seem to care. There may be about 100,000 people crowded in the streets but the cars have the right of way and don't even bother to try and block the scooters because they will simply run you down! I don't think I have ever been somewhere where the people are so alive, it's wonderful. The stores vary from international companies like Reebok, Puma, The Body Shop and Starbucks to stores that are strictly Korean. My boss took me out to a little Italian restaurant called Little Italy and the food was awesome. I didn't expect to find an ... read more

So the drama really continues… January 31 = my pay day. When I left work on Thursday I asked my boss if he had my account number to wire me my paycheck. I thought he could use a friendly reminder since he always forgets stuff. He looked surprised and kind of mad that I asked him that. He said no and I asked him if he wanted it. He said “now?” I said “yes” obviously, since today is my pay day. He said to write it down. That night I get home and check my account no money. Later that night Betty and I went to the bath house, when I got home, I checked my account. No money. I’m a bit annoyed at this point. But decide to wait it out until tomorrow. I wake ... read more

My coworker, Jason Hwang, was married in the Daegu Airport Hotel Wedding Hall in February. This was the second Korean wedding I've attended - the first being Yong Hoon, a member of the MoonKkang (my company) reinforcement team - a group of guys who help out the foreigners with medical issues, apartment problems and Visa/resident concerns. The two weddings were very similar, and, as people have told me, typical accounts of Korean weddings. The wedding hall was made up of two or three large rooms reserved for different weddings and two other huge eateries with Korean buffets. In the wedding rooms, there is a stage with candles, a piano, a podium and a table for the cake. The audience sits on metal chairs in, maybe, twenty rows of seven chairs each, and a great many people ... read more

Well, it’s 2008 and I didn’t want to do one of those cheesy blogs reflecting on the last year and pretend to write about things that would change with the New Year. But I am. Mainly because the last few days have been kind of hard and I thought that writing would make things a little easier. Reflecting would be therapeutic. Like most people, this year like any other year, has been an emotional roller coaster: laughter, tears, births, deaths, marriages, new relaionships, lessons learned and new found realizations about myself. I started 2007 at a new job and overworked. Always stressed and never really knowing what I was doing there. The people I cared for kept me there. But the lack of appreciation left me wanting to get out of there as soon as possible. ... read more

I told my boss that I was quitting on Friday and he said that he didn’t approve and that it would be impossible for me to get another job. I said that there wasn’t anything that he could do since I changed my visa. Just two weeks ago my recruiter assured him that I couldn’t get another job without his permission. He was pissed and called the immigration office. At this point I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I think he wanted to yell at me but couldn’t get the words out in English and I’m a “foreigner” so that would look bad. Immigration told him that I could work somewhere else and he told them that he didn’t understand that and wondered where he could get security in knowing that his teachers would stay. ... read more