John’s Diary – Part 4 Seoul
14th March
We’ve been to more places of interest in Seoul.
At the COEX we found a huge shopping mall (a real Jodie-type mall) which included 3 hotels, the world trade centre, exhibition centre, aquarium as well as shops as in, say, Highpoint. We found a gigantic bookshop but about 80% was in Korean – the remaining 20% was generally English and this was sufficient for me to realise that I did not need to bring books with me as there is a huge range of books right here in this bookshop.
At the Seoul Tower we had a fantastic view of Seoul from 360m up. Had to use a cable car and lift (in addition to lots of steps) to get there. Korea is very mountainous and the views from the tower reflect what I now think of as Korea – mountains with buildings filling all the gaps between (except for some agriculture).
It has snowed 3 days in a row even though it is now Spring.
We have been to the Chinese Embassy and received our tourist visas – we will be there 15th – 27th March for a look around the Beijing area – and hope to return with a work visa for Korea (can only get this from outside
Korea). To get a work visa means that Gail has accepted a job offer (after refusing several) and has a sponsoring employer. She will work at a prestigious (top 5 in
Korea) High school (years 10,11,12 only) which has full boarding for all of its 300 students who are selected, by exams, as “overachievers” in maths and science. Gail is the only foreigner in the 57 staff employed. Accommodation is included in an off-site apartment. She starts work (officially) on (Sunday) April 1st.
Here are some more general things that I have noticed here or have learnt. Many are in common with
Australia but, of course, some are not.
Hair is almost exclusively black except for the elderly grey heads and a very small number of under 25s with dyed brown heads or reddish tips.
Beards are non-existent except for foreigners or the destitute.
Most men appear “stoic”. They show no expression, rather as a professional poker player is meant to do. Young men with girlfriends are quite different and expressive. Older (married) women also show little expression. Being on a subway is like being in a lift – people try not to make eye contact. Some sleep throughout their trip (most close their eyes at least) sometimes with heads resting on the shoulders of strangers next to them. Often, salesmen (only men) do a sales pitch in your carriage for some small item (eg umbrellas, torches, carry bags), the transaction is only in cash (no receipts) and then they move to the next carriage. Today I saw a group of 7 Salvation Army people move through our carriage canvassing donations – they had little success but all passengers showed them respect/ courtesy.
Train length is limited by platform length –10 carriages by my count. Each carriage has 51 seats and official standing space for 86 but I have often seen at least 30 more than this (grand total is 167 per carriage or 1670 per train) and they go at 3 minute intervals on every line). There are 13 separate lines with, on average, 40 stations per line – so some 520 stations all serviced at 3 minute intervals. The other day there was a breakdown, on a line not associated with the one we were on, but our train stopped too until all was clear on the problem line. The total time of delay was about 15 minutes.
Seoul has more than 10 million people but if you include those areas where buildings are continuous (eg Incheon, the international airport) the total is more than 23 million making it the second largest city complex (after Tokyo) in the world.
Many young women wear skirts even in freezing weather – it matters not that they freeze, their appearance is more important.
Everyone has a mobile phone but few are PDAs as well – something to do with Internet access being different with their (and
Japan’s) mobile networks.
In the subway many have earplugs and listen to music (I guess) and some watch movies on their mobile phones and other devices.
There are beggars, but very few. They are usually blind or legless. I have seen only about a dozen in our 2 months here (but a dozen a day in
Thailand).
At weekends the supermarkets are filled with families. At other times the clear majority of shoppers are women but at weekends men and children also attend, seemingly as a family outing. Teenagers are rarely seen in public with their parents at these or other times.
8th March 07
Today is Thursday. About mid-morning, I went into the corridor of our hotel/apartment building and saw a small amount of smoke and employees running furiously. I was told that it was ok and that it was only smoke – no fire. Back in our room I went out again a few minutes later and the corridor was thick with smoke. Coughing, I made it to the lift block furthest from the smoke source. I had to go to the front desk (I needed change for the washer and dryer) and on my way back to our 14th floor room the sirens went off. On reaching our floor I found that the smoke had cleared considerably but that water was flooding everywhere in the corridors and down (a different) lift shaft. Fire brigades arrived along with important looking “suits” who were obviously going to have to explain it all to insurance companies or whatever. The corridor and some 2 dozen rooms were flooded – the water came to within 3 rooms of our own.
In
Australia evacuation would have been automatic, concern being not only about the fire but about smoke inhalation and the consequences of this. But
Korea doesn’t think like that (yet). In the same way that OH&S issues are not really considered, litigation is not at the front of their minds either. It’s more like
Australia of the 60’s when responsibility rested with each individual and some things that happened were considered to be just bad luck. With sirens blaring and thick smoke everywhere, Gail was preparing to evacuate but was again re-assured that this would not be necessary.
The clean up was efficient with perhaps 20 employees on hands and knees including the duty manager in his previously pristine suit. The other important “suits” went away quickly and were not seen to wet their hands – but I guess they had other matters to deal with. Gail wanted to take photos but recognised the possibility of “losing” her camera in an “accident” so we have nothing to show for all the excitement.
March 7th in Seoul 
We have returned to a previous residence (Ohmok-gyo) near to “Gail’s” hairdresser. Having the Internet in our room is great – worth every bit of the extra $10 per week we pay for that access.
The plane trip back was smooth and without incident – but getting on the plane was not so. Because we were leaving from an international airport, although on a domestic flight, Immigration officials had to check the documents of all foreigners. They decided that we had overstayed our visas and it all looked ugly for a while; eventually we were allowed to (just) catch our plane on the condition that we leave the country asap.
We believed that Australians could be tourists for 90 days (that’s true) and that was what we were doing after we finished our work (for which we had needed a visa). It turns out that our work visa had a coding on it that meant that 15 days after entering the country we had to depart again. There was an entry date stamped on the visa but no date by which we were required to exit. Our mind reading talents are still developing, so since nobody told us (in writing or orally) of the conditions of our visas we considered that after our work we could revert to tourist status (in fact, all we were told was that our written application – we asked for 6 months – was granted).
We have since seen Immigration in Seoul and have been told again that we must leave – and on re-entry we will automatically receive 90 days tourist status. However we (make that Gail) want to work again and must leave the country to get a work visa (cannot get them in Korea) as well. Work visas mean that you have to have contracted work and a sponsoring employer. Employment has not yet been finalized. It costs us at least Aus$800 each time we leave the country so we want to leave only once – to return as employees, not as tourists where we would then have to leave a second time to become workers. As we depart (possibly for only one night) we need to make a self declaration of our offence to Immigration at the airport. There may be a fine – we were told it may be Aus$250 each.
Jobs. Gail had an interview as soon as arrived in Seoul; she got the job but knocked it back – it wasn’t “quite” what was advertised. Another school interview 2 days later allowed us (I went along this time, too) to find out that for 4 hours a week Gail would be on-sold to another institution (a Kindergarten,) – it was only when the payments amounts didn’t add up that the Principal owned up. Some jobs want to use you for almost double the time, with less benefits, than others. Some advertise great work arrangements, etc just to get your attention/interest (there are masses of English teaching jobs and competition for employees is high) then they at least get to talk to you and might be able to convince you to undertake the real workload. Two days ago Gail was been offered another job (elementary school with an experimental media style English teaching and only 3 days a week) and may well accept this one after examining the contract. She still has an interview today at one of the top 5 High schools in Korea (for “genius maths-science students”) and, although knocking back 3 more offers in 2 days, continues to seek work as no deal is finalised until signatures are on the line.
We have found a second daily English-language Korean newspaper – one item mentioned that 31.9% of the entire world’s gaming market is Korean on-line games. As I think I said elsewhere, there is one TV channel that shows Starcraft games 24/7.
On Saturday 3rd March we noticed a festival (I think it was called a full moon festival of fire) where there was a day of music, beer, dancing etc in the nearby parkland. We went for a walk in the evening and were drawn in, by a friendly middle-aged group, to play a game involving 4 large sticks; the sticks were used like dice to determine the movement of pieces around a board.
There were 2 teams of 4 and our team won. Of course, as one of their guests, I was obliged to drink their beer and eat their delicious BBQ beef whilst with them. After we left that group we went to the main area where there were fireworks (big and impressive), a huge bonfire and kids swinging buckets of burning wood in vertical circles. We later noticed that another similar celebration was occurring about a kilometre further along the parkland (we couldn’t help but notice the second fireworks display). The meaning to it all escapes me – I can only report what I observed. The area was damp underfoot as we had had showers for 3 days (and, since that time, light snow).
On Sunday we went to a central suburb called Itaewon which has a special shopping area for tourists. It was even more westernised than other centres we have seen. I estimate that fully 5% of the people I saw there were Caucasian or black. That was a shock to the system until we walked around a corner and found that there was a US military base directly across the road. No wonder there were so many (formerly) familiar faces.
Gail commented the other day that she feels calm here – not necessarily happier than at home, but less tense. That’s true for me, too, most of the time – but we have been holidaying now for more than a month since finishing our “camp” work. The money from that employment is still holding out, but not for much longer particularly with fines and airfares and accommodation in Japan being imminent.
