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7/30/2004
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Korea Life Blog - Salmon at Sunset
Julie and I picked up some fresh salmon, lemons and bottle of French table wine in the grocery section of the Hyundai Department store across the street.
The sun sets outside the office-tel window casting the sky into picturesque beauty. It's a perfect time to put on some classical music and cook up our meal.
Without an oven, I sauteed the salmon in butter, lemon, pepper and a little wine for a quick romantic meal as the sun goes down...
On a side note the (Korean version) french bread came from Walmart. Lately we've been eating bread with dinner instead of rice. I like being able to mix "western" eating habits with Korean.
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written by shawn matthews
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7/28/2004
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Korea Life Blog - Walmart Korea
Since we spend so much time there, thought I'd show some pictures to the folks back home of Korean Walmart. With the heat, Julie and I sometimes go there just to browse around in the humid evenings.
The entrance at night...ooh ahh. I bet you're getting excited to see what's inside.
In Korea, you're supposed to put your bag in a locker before entering the big shopping centers. I don't know why this annoys me so much but it does. Especially if I don't have any coins handy (takes a 100 won coin deposit on the key). Usually I just forget and when I'm already in the store some goonball will run up to me with his security radio in hand and force me to go back upstairs with my backpack.
Some people were telling me Walmart doesn't sell pets back in the states but it's been so long that I can't remember.
Julie has a look at some of the cats. I'm surprised they carry cats actually as the majority of Koreans dislike them (they have scary eyes!) and prefer dogs. My first Korean girlfriend was terrified of them.
This is the one I've been wanting to get. Julie says nobody wants to buy her because she's plain. I don't care about that. She has a great personality and is usually sleeping or playing with the other cats. I pet her for awhile one day. I'm just not sure living abroad as I am that it's wise to take on such a responsibility. I also don't want to support a pet shop. I'd rather just pick up a cat at a shelter. However, seeing this cat day in and day out and knowing most people won't buy her because she's not a breed has been making me think. She costs 60,000 won ($50) but we can probably get a discount. One thing though, cat food and litter is costly here because it's mostly from America.
One more shot of all the cats. At least they have something to do such as jumping around on the stairs, scratching things and playing with each other. All the dogs are kept in plain cages.
Looking at this makes me frustrated and sad. I don't believe any animal should be kept in a cage, especially birds. It's just plain torture and wrong.
An ugly looking mannequin...yikes.
The check-out area. Notice the security sensors in every lane. Seems a little excessive. Back in America there's only one main one set-up as you go out the exit. Also, you're not allowed to walk into the store through a lane in Korea. You have to go all the way past them to get in then backtrack. At least they don't have lockers on every floor at Walmart. Some marts have a check-out area on each floor and you can't bring your purchases from one floor to the other if you want to shop more. So if you have 6 bags of groceries then remember you want a pair of boxer-shorts you have to put all your groceries in your car or stuff them in a locker first. Great concept that is.
Here's where you actually walk in. You're always greeted with a smile and offered a shopping cart at least. Either that or told to put your bag in a locker.
I skipped over the second floor down because it's all basic stuff like clothes and appliances and camping gear, not much unlike back home just customized for Koreans. The third floor down, where we're heading now, is a huge grocery store quite unlike the Walmarts back home. A little ways down the wall is lined with funny photo renditions of happy Koreans shopping at Walmart.
Here it is. Always Walmart. Rolling back the prices on fruits and veggies and - kimchi.
A brilliant shot of a Korean Walmart employee checking the weight scale. Wow!
Koreans love hotdogs even more than Americans. Except, for some odd reason, ground pig lips and assholes don't really taste as good here. I miss Hoffman's brand!
There's a wide selection of homemade kimchi to choose from. Now there's something you won't see back home.
More kimchi, this time of the processed variety. It's a little more expensive to buy this way but it's already aged to perfection.
This little section is the only place you can get cold beer in the Walmart. There's another huge section of warm ones. I need to make a suggestion for them to put a cooler upstairs to appeal to the night owls since this store is 24 hours/day. They'd surely sell a lot more. It's much cheaper to buy it here but it takes forever to get all the way down three floors and then back up to buy one. Compared to back home, by the way, beer is really expensive here. It's usually sold in individual bottles such as these. A regular can of Korean beer costs around $1.50 and it's not much cheaper when you buy it in bulk. A can of America beer such as crappy Budweiser is $2.50, even here at Walmart. Those big 1.6 liter bottles on the bottom are a good deal though at 3,500 won ($2.75)...if you can drink that much.
Not sure if they sell wine in Walmart back home either. They have a huge selection here. We're going to buy a bottle tonight to have with the fresh salmon I bought at the grocery store in Hyundai Department store across the street. Yum!
While most goods are of your basic Korean variety, there are a few bonus American/ international products you don't see elsewhere. There are some new kind of Heinz beans and Spanish Olives (much better than the Marino brand you usually see) which I've gotten Julie hooked on. She never had a green olive until she met me, if you can believe it (not that I had just about any Korean food before I came here). One thing I really miss that I've never seen in Korea are salty deli-style pickles like you get in sandwich shops in America or my favorite, Clausen brand. I really miss those, as whether as other deli items such as sliced turkey breast, various cheese, hard salami and pepperoni. They carry lots of pickles, but they're all the sweet kinds.
Well there you have it. Not too exciting but I thought people who have never to Korea might enjoy seeing how we shop here.
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written by shawn matthews
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Korea Life Blog - Greatest Warrior
I'm up early (10:30) and I'm off for an interview with the public schools. The job will be 1-6PM, 4 classes/day as an assistant to a Korean teacher. The position is part of the new government program to employ a foreigner at every school in Seoul. The pay is really good considering the short hours and includes the visa trip and a housing allowance. I should get it as they have a lot of openings and they want teachers who are in the country now with experience and degrees in English Education or ESL certificates. It's about time I do something a little more respectable than working in a kiddie hagwon. I just hope I can still use my bag of word search puzzles...
Sky Life is coming today. They just installed Satellite TV for the entire building and should stop here this afternoon to hook ours up. The deal is 150 channels for just 19,000 won/month ($16) as a package for the building.
So Julie and I went out and got this Samsung 29" flatscreen TV at Walmart last night. Not a bad deal for 350,000 won ($315). The problem was they wouldn't deliver it for a few days. Julie can't go another day without TV so we brought it home using a Walmart cart. It was pretty difficult and, well, embarrassing. The security guard in our building got a kick out of us bringing the cart and huge TV into the building and onto the elevator.
It's a beautiful day outside my window. Wow, is that what the sky looks like? I'm so used to hazy polluted looking weather. It should be a nice trip across the city. See you when I get back from the interview.
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written by shawn matthews
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7/27/2004
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Korea Life Blog - Giant King Crabs
There's a restaurant next to our place that serves lobster and GIANT King crabs. We haven't had the nerve to eat there...not so much because of the scary looking crabs, but because of the scary looking prices. 100 grams = 6,000 won (about $6). Sounds cheap when they break the weight down that way. However, looking at the size of the crabs, that could work out to be a fortune. They must weigh 20 times that.
 Julie has a look. Like me, she can't believe how big some of them are.
 The alien crab lurks in the tank awaiting his fate - to be dropped in a vat of boiling water. Notice they don't clamp the claws shut. A couple of times I got freaked out when this big one started reaching over the edge of the tank. Also, the ajushi in the picture above started petting it. Smart!
 Julie put her hand up for perspective. As you can see, Julie has a small hand. That was a poor attempt at humor. The Crab is just huge!
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written by shawn matthews
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7/26/2004
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Korea Life Blog - Korea Life Blog is Back in Korea
There was some rumors circulating today about the block being lifted. James said he could view my website from work, but I thought he was yanking my chain since I was still unable to see it. I just checked again and it's true - Korea Life Blog is back! A warm welcome back to my readers in Korea. Now you can view my website directly and post comments again.
The government must have felt the heat coming off the recent articles in the paper and the coverage in the international magazine Newsweek that just came out. I'm glad I didn't go through with starting a new site as I was planning to.
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written by shawn matthews
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7/25/2004
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Korea Life Blog - Practice Rooms Update and Bonus Arm Wrestling Pics
Well we ended up having a great time at the practice room. We played for 2 hours and the kind owner gave a full hour more as "service" - meaning for free. We were so busy jamming I barely took any pictures but here's what I did get:
As you can see, the room is identical to the pictures on the website. I half expected the old "bait and switch" but I couldn't have been more wrong. The owner was extremely nice too, accommodating our every need, even letting us use his friend's superb effect pedal set-up (not shown because I'm an idiot).
Good thing because James, smart as he says he usually is, remembered his effects processor - but not the cable to plug it in.
Several different amplifiers to choose from. James used this one mostly (or the one next to it) and I used a nice Fender on the other side of the room with the effects hooked up. Sounded really nice.
Another shot of the equipment. According to "Doug" (I'll call him Doug as I'm not sure if he wants his name posted on the internet after suffering an embarrassing and crushing defeat at arm wrestling as you will see a bit later) the drums were really good. Much better than in the practice rooms in Japan, he said. He'll be coming back to Korea when The Korea Life Bloggers take the show on the road.
These guys are multi-talented. They both could play the guitar, drums and keyboards, sing and juggle porcupines. Humbling, truly. They were in a band together years back in England and played for stadiums full of beautiful screaming women. I think that's what James said when he was drunk anyway.
Doug, who could ride a note like a sailboat gliding gently on the sea, continues to experiment with the keyboards. Mostly he played the drums.
James banging away on the drums and singing his favorite lyrics: "Hey hey we're the monkees!"
All in all a great session considering how long it's been since any of us played in a band. We played Airbag and Just by Radiohead as well as a few others I can't remember the names of. The rest of the time we just improvised - creating incredibly spontaneous and awe-inspiring noise. When it was over, there were several agents waiting outside the room with recording contracts and a stretch limo and James had to fight off the groupies with a can of spray-on chest hair he had in his guitar bag.
Later we hung around at the hotel James lives in and drank a couple of vodka-and-orange juice cocktails. I planned on taking the last train home but they had stopped running earlier than usual due to the recent strike. Met back up with the gang for a late dinner and then out to a bunch of the clubs until morning again. I'll let James cover the fascinating aspects of that on his website. There were a few problems because I was dressed in shorts and sandals (didn't plan to go out) and apparently there's a strict dress code in Hongdae these days I had no idea about.
Now for the arm wrestling match that took place at 6 or 7 in the morning back at the hotel. James has been taking protein and eating cretins, I mean Creatine (maybe both) in a hopeful attempt to become a "brick shithouse" and beat his friends up back in England next month. He and Doug decided to put his newfound strength to the test.
Doug won the first couple of times but apparently he had been cheating.
After a lot of whining on Jame's part, Sam came in to adjucate the match.
Two fearsome warriors locked in a mighty battle. Who will be the champion?
Hahahaha, chump! With a mighty roar James finishes off Doug once and for all - showing the world he really is a hero in his own mind, err, time.
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written by shawn matthews
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7/24/2004
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Korea Life Blog - Practice Rooms
I always wondered how bands could practice in this country as most homes are apartments and houses are very close to each other. Now I know. James found a place in Hongdae (click on the picture above to see the website). It makes sense as you often see guys walking around there carrying drum sticks and guitars and other gear. The rooms look great on the site. They come in A, B, C, and D, depending on the level of equipment you want to play with. The A room is 20,000 won ($18) for an hour and D is 12,000 won. We're going to get the C room at 15,000 which has everything we could want. All you need is your guitar or bass. James plays guitar and sings, I play rhythm and lead and another guy that's visiting from Japan where he teaches will be playing the drums. Julie's going to play the bass...heh, yeah right.
I'm not sure if they have these kind of places back in the states or other countries. I know in Syracuse where I'm from they have practice rooms but you have to bring all the equipment.
Since it's out first time together I'm envisioning two hours of ear splitting raucous noise. I'll bring my camera and have an update tomorrow.
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written by shawn matthews
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7/22/2004
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Korea Life Blog - Fireworks
I heard a bunch of loud explosions tonight. Honestly it flipped me out a little. Thanks to my mother, whenever I hear a loud noise I think of her comforting words: "Any day those North Koreans will come charging out of the mountains again and then it's over for you." Turns out it there was some kind of fireworks show going on somewhere off behind Walmart.
We have no idea what the event was but it was a pretty good show and went on for at least 15 minutes. I managed to get these decent shots from the roof. I left them as-is (sorry dial-up users) so you can click on them for full size.
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written by shawn matthews
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7/21/2004
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Korea Life Blog - Julie's Kindergarten
I should have brought my camera but I didn't think of it until it was already there.
I made a guest appearance at Julie's Kindergarten yesterday. Her boss wants to hire a foreigner to come in once a week and teach English (with Julie). I went once for a test run and it was a raving success. With a couple of exceptions the little runts were totally adorable.
Julie called me today and told me about little "Sarah" who is now in love with me. She ran upstairs early for class and almost broke into tears when Julie said I wasn't coming today. Julie had to send her outside to calm down.
Now there's only one problem: the boss. She wants a foreigner to bolster her school's image yet at the same time she doesn't want to spend the money. I ended up working the first day for free. In fact, the boss barely said two words to me and didn't even watch a class. I didn't mind so much because it was actually fun but I'm not about to do that every week.
The good thing is all the kids in the three classes really liked me. They kept shouting "Goodbye Shawn!" as I walked down the stairs (strategically by the boss's office). Now they're in the halls crying over my absence. Hey, wouldn't you? Julie's telling all the kids to tell their parents about the "wonderful foreign teacher"...heh. We'll see what happens.
Julie was really surprised. I usually tell people how I goof-off and read the newspaper when I'm supposed to be teaching. Though I sometimes do that, I'm not always such a slacker. When I actually teach in a proper setting I get into it and make the kids laugh a lot. I was running around like Jim Carry acting like a clown and teaching English. It's just when you have so many classes it's hard to maintain that energy.
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written by shawn matthews
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Korea Life Blog - Hollym
I heard back from Hollym today. If you forgot, I sent them a short sample from the Geoje-do story. Actually I had to call them back. They received my e-mail before but didn't bother to reply, no surprise. The long and short of it is they don't publish novels unless they are translated from Korean or based on historical content. "Publications include Korean language textbooks and dictionaries, Korean history, art, travel, cooking, "novels", folktale, politics, and children's books." This seems to hold true if you look at the books on their website, however I thought maybe they would take advantage of something a little different, something that might appeal to a different audience. When asked what publisher I should use, they said there was no specific one that has published such a book before and that I'd be better off self-publishing. Apparently there's a niche in the market waiting to be filled! Yeah, that's it...
Oh well, the more I looked into Hollym the more I realized they wouldn't be such a great option anyway. Do you see when you try to order a book from them on their website? The "preferred method" of ordering is to e-mail them your credit card info. Does anybody do that nowadays? Their website also says "Hollym Current Titles Last updated July 22, 2003". That's pretty current! Either they mean 2004 and updated it two days in the future or they're sorely in need of one. The main reason I liked them is because they publish in both Korean and other countries.
I guess in the end I'll end up going the self-publishing route. The downside is it's going to take a chunk of money I don't really have if I want to get it done right: copy-edited, professionally designed, listed on Amazon and all that. Another problem is that the book would be readily available only in the states, anyone in Korea would have to order it. I'm not sure anyone is willing to even buy the book (unless it's very cheap and staring them in the face in front of them at the local bookstore) much less pay shipping to here.
A plus with the self publishing route is that I'd actually own the book and if it showed signs of being popular later, maybe a real publisher would give it a go here in Korea or the states. And since copy-editing is available, it would end up a lot more professional than submitting manuscripts with errors/inconsistencies, etc, that comes with self-editing.
Anyway, thanks again to everyone for the nice comments and especially all the e-mails of encouragement and suggestions I've been getting. If you want to send Hollym a letter encouraging them to change their mind, you can e-mail them here:
hollym2@optonline.net (America)
info@hollym.co.kr (Korea)
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written by shawn matthews
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7/20/2004
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Korea Life Blog - Free Printer!
We got our free Canon color printer today. It was one of the promo giveaways for signing up for a year with KT internet. The other choices were a computer desk, bicycle, webcam, and an iron - which Julie wanted to get until we saw one at Walmart for $6. We figured there was no way we'd find a printer for that much and we definitely needed one anyway. Here it is:
I checked and it sells around $100 or less on the net. A cheapy but not a bad deal for free seeing as we were told we can only get KT in this building anyway. I hope it can hadle the 200 page Geoje story draft as I want to read it over in phsyical copy form for a new perspective. Probably be able to pick up a lot more errors that way. Maybe I'll just change the font to an 8pt and use a magnifying glass....
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written by shawn matthews
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7/19/2004
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Korea Life Blog - Kid's Herald Joondong Bucheon
This is typical. The owner of the Korea Herald school called me and claimed I'm supposed to work there starting tomorrow from 9AM -6PM, the vacation schedule for a month. He claims that I promised him when I only had told him that I'd think about it.
I told him again that schedule is ridiculous and that I'm not going to work there unless he wants to pay me 35,000 won/class - the going rate for part time work - since he also wanted to put off the E-2 visa trip for a month. He started to have a spasm attack demanding to talk to my "wife" (he thinks she's my fiance and kept urging her to marry me to make the visa easier for him, in other words so he doesn't have to pay for the trip to Japan). I told him this is her phone and he can talk to me. Even though I think he made the problem, I calmed down and apologized for his situation. He flipped out; "Sorry? How can you! I already made the schedule. Please put your wife on the phone now!" I replied, "No, I won't. You'd better find another teacher and don't call us again," then hung up. I feel bad for anyone that may work there...
It makes me laugh because he also didn't want to pay me any housing allowance for this month while he processes the E-2 - yet I'd be working full time. Anybody who works full time at a hagwon gets an apartment or housing allowance, it doesn't matter if they haven't processed the E-2 yet. In other words, he wants a part-time teacher for a month to teach 8 classes/day and pay the minimum full-time salary with no housing money. Anyone else would have to pay at least 25,000 won/class hour (that low because it's in a block schedule) for part time. That would equal 4 million for a month. I'm sorry that I'm not a naive fool, Mr. Hwang.
Please, anyone who is going to work in Korea - do not accept a job for more than 6, 40 min classes or 5, 50 min classes a day. No matter how awkward you may feel, be sure to clarify that up front. Otherwise you're just perpetuating crummy job offers because they know they can trick newbies. Believe me, anything more than 6 classes will leave your head spinning at the end of the first day. Imagine how you'd feel after a few months.
Update: The guy called me back three times begging me to work there. He even cut it down to 6 classes/day and "whatever you want, just work my school!" I told him he what he was offering was normal and should have offered that in the first place. I don't like the guy at all and I'm not going to work there. I found out more about the school. The cameras are hooked up to the internet as well so that parents can also watch you teach from home. A foreigner I met yesterday told me how a friend was fired at that Kid's Herald because a parent saw him using a cell phone in class. Not that I agree with chatting on the phone in class, but come on. Can you imagine the phone complaints: "He's not paying enough attention to my boy!" Forget that...
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written by shawn matthews
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Korea Life Blog - House-Husband
I feel like a house-husband. Today so far I've made breakfast, cleaned and vacuumed, washed and hung laundry, made rice, cooked dwen jang chigae for dinner later, and have been waiting for our free Canon color printer to come. (We got it as a promo for signing up with KT Internet).
What I haven't done: look for a job for more than 10 minutes. I will after this post, though. The hagwon job near my home, at Kids Herald, turned out to be not so great. I think the teacher who had been working there was trying to make his job sound better than it is not knowing I was going to attempt to apply. Turns out it's not 3-7:30 but rather 3-10:30, a whopping 8 40 minutes classes a day, 150 hours /month. That's 30 more than the norm. I told the owner as politely as I could that he must be out of his mind to think I would teach that schedule. He tried in vain to assure me this is the standard schedule these days and that it's not as hard as it sounds. I just sat there trying not to laugh. I said that it's impossible to be an effective teacher if I have to teach more than 6 (and even that's too many!). he said he couldn't make a special schedule just for me. That's OK, I already know I won't be working there...
The salary was also lower too, surprise. He tried to say he hires usually at 1.8 Mill, but for me, with my experience, 2.0. Again, BS! I wouldn't work that schedule for 3 Million. Keep in mind I was making 1.8 teaching 3 or 4, 40 min classes a day in Nowhere-dong. I may not be able to find such a sweet deal in Seoul, but no doubt I'll find a better job than the Kid's Herald in Songnae, Joong-dong (Bucheon City). I may even switch over to reading the Korean Times from now on I'm so disgusted!
On top of that when I went there it was a Saturday and the teachers were there preparing tests. I spoke briefly with a guy from the states who told me they were making him and his wife move out of their office-tel because it was too expensive. One last thing, to add insult to injury, there are cameras in every classroom so that you are constantly monitored.
What I hate most is imagining a new teacher coming here fresh off the plane and having no idea what is good and what isn't and finding themselves stuck in that kind of job for a year...I'm glad I already learned the ropes. I'd rather be jobless and poor for a little bit longer and take my time looking for the right job than get myself into that kind of situation again. There are good jobs out there, you just need to be patient and motivated to find them. Also, it helps that I have an English Education degree. I should put it to some kind of use this time.
In other news I sent a few sample sections from the Geoje-do story to Hollym, a publisher I stumbled across that specializes in a variety of books in English about Korea. They have an office here in Seoul and in New Jersey in America. They publish books simultaneously in both countries (and others) which is just perfect! Hopefully they will be interested, though I'm not sure what kind of deal they offer yet.
If anyone wants to send them a brief note expressing you're interest in seeing my book in published form, here's the addresses:
hollym2@optonline.net (America)
info@hollym.co.kr (Korea)
The tentative name of the novel to refer to is Geoje-do Foreigner. Speaking of that, I'm having the worst time trying to name the book. I want to use the name of the island because I know Koreans are curious about it and would spark interest. However, I'm not sure anyone unfamiliar with Korea would know how to pronounce it! (In case that's you, it sounds like Kaw Jay Doe). I welcome any suggestions for a title.
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written by shawn matthews
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Korea Life Blog - Walmart
Sad to say it because I hate their marketing and employment practices in the states, but Julie and I love the Walmart across the street - especially Julie. She went there yesterday and came back practically hysterical by the deals she got on a few things. "I can't believe how cheap it is!" I thought she was going to hyperventilate.
We love that it's not crowded and open 24 hours a day. We've been going there around 12AM, first stopping off to visit the pets and the extremely friendly cat I'm dying to buy but Julie won't let me, and just wandering all over checking out the mountains of stuff. Then going down to the gigantic grocery store on the bottom floor and picking up some late night munchies.
Yesterday, Julie bought a jar of spaghetti sauce. Here sauce is very expensive, at least 3,500 won ($3) for the generic cheapest. However, the jar she got rang up wrong: only 900 won (75 cents). Last night we went back and bought 5 more jars. We were a little nervous at the register. Julie put one jar down and bit her nails as the clerk rang it up. Again 900 won, not 3,500. I elbowed her and we bit our cheeks to keep from laughing as Julie put the rest of the jars on the check-out conveyor.
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written by shawn matthews
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Korea Life Blog - Hwa Jang Shil (bathroom)
I've been getting a lot of e-mails with inquiries about where I live. Apparently Julie and I are getting a really good deal and several readers are interested in living here. I had a few requests for shots of the bathroom, which I forgot to include before. Here they are:
There it is, the throne. Nothing fancy. I want one of those water squirting seats. Notice the black and white tiling. Kind of weird at first but cool and modern looking.
There's the shower. There's no bathtub here but I never liked taking baths all that much anyway and it's just an extra thing to clean. If there was a bathtub here, likely it'd be too small for me anyway. They really went for the modern avantgarde artistic styling there again as you can see.
Huge mirror, more post modern styling. This is the first place I've ever lived in Korea where there's no hot water button. Like back in America, the hot water is always available and ready. The shower heats up in a few seconds. Makes it a lot easier to wash dishes in the kitchen too.
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written by shawn matthews
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7/17/2004
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Korea Life Blog - Back from Japan
Well another successful visa trip to Japan is completed. This was the fifth one in a row. I've been leaving every three months and coming back without any hassle at all. I was a little nervous about it until my friend James told me he's done it 8 times now. However, watching the immigration official trying to find the right visa and the previous entry stamp in my passport is kind of nerve wracking. I'll probably get a real E-2 again, though the thought of signing a year contract again makes me even more nervous...
I'm working on the update in the Japan section today and should be posted later. Blogger just incorporated new features that are making me long even more for my blog to be unblocked in Korea. Now you can update your posts exactly as they will appear on your site. In other words, you write the HTML for the picture location and then the picture shows up automatically right in the post template and you can see it while you write the commentary. Because my pics are on the Blogger server though, the photos don't show up due to the block. Unless I upload them somewhere else like Photobucket.com and link to them, it's not very helpful to me right now. Instead I have to use the photos on my computer as a reference when updating, which is kind of a hassle...still much better than doing my own website from scratch.
While you're waiting to come along on my adventure to Japan, here's a sneak peak at Fukuoka from the ferry window.
I took a LOT of pictures on the train and ferry but 75% of them didn't come out very well because of the glass. That's too bad because the weather and scenery were absolutely beautiful, as you will see later...
Update: Finished the update. Click here to see it.
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written by shawn matthews
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7/13/2004
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Korea Life Blog - Sherry Yeogwan
Just wanted to give a quick recommendation for the cheap yeogwan motel I stayed in for a month before moving into the office-tel. It's located in the west of Seoul on line 1, Yeokgok station, exit 2 (6 stations from Sindorim). Take the stairway down and then walk directly behind the stairway. It's a street full of yeogwans. Sherry Yeogwan is about a block down. The price is 350,000 won (about $300) for a month. I already had Julie tell the owner I was going to add the info to my website so he'll be sure to give any foreigners that come in the same deal. The owner is a really nice guy and doesn't bother you at all. I had my aircon on for pretty much the whole month and he said nothing. Every room has a new 29" Samsung TV and VCR. Also they will clean your room whenever you leave them your key and you can do your laundry upstairs in the daytime. Great deal! Here's a picture of the place:
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written by shawn matthews
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Korea Life Blog - The View
Here's a few shots of the view outside our window during the daytime. It's been pretty rainy for the past month it seems but today it cleared just a bit in the afternoon before raining again. At least the air is cleaner than usual.
Time to renew the visa so I'm off to Japan. First Busan tomorrow on the slow 5 1/2 hour train, spend the night there, then take a 3 hour ferry to Fukuoka in the morning. Next day I'll return and take the 2 1/2 hour KTX bullet train back to Seoul (on Friday). The ferry trip is really cheap. Including the hotel in Japan it costs 190,000 won ($165). The slow train to Busan is 32,000 won ($27) and the KTX speedy train is 45,000 won ($39). Not a bad deal and I get a couple of days of adventure.
I'm looking forward to the slow train tomorrow, a nice relaxing trip through the Korean countryside. I plan to study Japanese on my MP3 player along the way. I'm up to Unit 20 out of 90 in the Pimsleur Japanese series. Maybe I'll be able to try it out a little in Japan. I can ask for directions and order food and greet people, etc. It's a lot easier for me to pronounce and remember than Korean. I wish somebody would make a great listening CD in Korean the way people really talk and not in the extremely formal form. It's not like I spend a lot of time talking to old people. I can understand the logic of it. They don't want to teach you "ban mal" - the Korean you'd use for talking to your best buddy or someone younger than you. But they seem to skip the next step and go straight for the overly polite, long and complicated sentence structures used when first meeting a person or speaking to an elder. I never hear people talking like that except on TV home shopping channels. I know lots of vocabulary but I need to know how to make sentences better. I'd like to start with the much simpler ban mal, practice it on Julie and then learn the other structures later. I think most Koreans, at least hopefully, would understand if I spoke down to them while I'm learning, especially if I told them why first. I guess I should just have Julie teach me now that we're living together, but I like to study on my headset while I'm on the trains and busses. Also, she gets a little frustrated at times by my inability to repeat what she's saying. With Japanese, I hear it, then most times I can just repeat it. With Korean it's like hearing a guitar solo and trying to mimic it with my voice.
Well, time for some exercises and off to bed. See you when I get back from Japan. I doubt I'll take many pictures again but maybe. I'll at least photograph the ferry trip and some of the Korean country side if it's not too gloomy again.
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written by shawn matthews
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7/12/2004
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Korea Life Blog - Office-tel
All moved in and connected with DSL already. Julie's in the kitchen cooking dwen jang chigae and making pan chan (side dishes). While she's hard at work cooking I'll work hard posting pictures. A man's work is never finished.
Here's the outside of our building. As you can see, lots of big windows. We're way up near the top.
Ah, a peaceful day. A couple of middle school girls in uniforms walking by the ugly yet comical statue in front of our building. Anybody know what character that is? By the way, I think uniforms are a good idea in public schools. No worrying and stress about clothes and fashion. I remember those days. "Did I wear this Iron Maiden shirt yesterday or was it that one?"
Right across the street is the gigantic Hyundai Department store connected to a similar, gigantic Rodmanco Department store. Both have excellent food courts with every Korean food you could want. Also, there's a nice new CGV movie theater on the top floor of Rodmanco. What I like best about this area is that there's relatively few people. Every place you go here, whether it's these department stores or the shopping marts, or even the Outback Steakhouse and TGIF down the street, there seems to be more people were working there than shopping/buying. Julie seems to think everything around here is so new, perhaps the land was cheaper and businesses are banking on new apartments and the new subway line coming here in 2008 (for now the subway is just 2kms away though).
Here's the 24 hour Walmart. I like the Homeplus down the street better, but this is right across the street and nicer to shop at because there's no people. Home Plus seems to be monopolizing business. How does it feel, Walmart? In America Walmart is the largest private employer in the country and the biggest money maker too. Here so far, there just another face in the crowd. Anyone back home that's wondering - no it's not actually the same stuff being sold as back home in the Walmart. It's mostly like the other Korean shopping centers with just a few more American goods.
The building right next to ours features two busy English hagwons and a decent health club. Look, that's one of the Wonderlands that have such a bad reputation around Korea. That's the franchise I started off at on Geoje-do (pronounced Kawjay-doe in case you didn't know).
Here was the apartment after an hour of cleaning up. In Korea, and this is one thing I hate, YOU have to clean your new apartment. If someone moves out, they can leave a mess and you have to clean it. If you're the first tenant to move in, as we are here, you have to clean all the dirt and debris left by the construction team. Because we moved in so early we also had to clean all the left-over building materials too like nails and razors and other friendly items.
That's because the cleaning team was "busy". Check out part of the team hard at work in the next apartment over.
The ultimate in laziness - a fan that comes with a remote control. Not a bad price for the set, made in China of course, and sold at Walmart for about $20.
Here's a shot of the living room shortly after we finished cleaning. As you can see the window is huge. It goes up higher by another 1/3 behind the curtains which Julie convinced the manager to give us. They come down all the way, though they don't block the sunshine much. Quite the opposite of living in a cave at least.
They also threw in this nice modern looking table. Bonus! I was also surprised that the floor is made of real wood too. First time it hasn't been that fake sticker floor crap.
Here you can see the other side, the little stairway and mini-upstairs. Is that Julie folding my boxer shorts? The joys of living with a girl are starting already.
These pics are a little out of order, sorry. Anyway, here you can get an idea of the view outside at night. I'll get pics later of the view in the daytime. There are nice mountains way back in the distance. Basically it just overlooks the city but a nice area of it. It's hard to believe how cheap the rent is ($350/month) for living in such a cool area of Seoul. I wonder how much this apartment would be somewhere like in Manhattan.
Julie's temporarily decorated the stairway with the Totoro toys I bought her in Japan. Finally my plan paid off and they are now mine again!
Here's the mini-upstairs. It's basically just a place to sleep and thereby keep your bedding out of the living room. I think it would be a cool place for a cat to hang out. There's one over at Walmart that I had to refrain from buying. I don't like to support pet-shops. Especially the one here at Walmart. You should see these huge parakeets they keep in the smallest cages. Breaks your heart. Also, Julie says cats are a big responsibility and cat pee smells bad and blah blah blah....
At least Gargamel can really enjoy the upstairs. He looks pretty happy.
When Julie wasn't looking I added a few more decorations like these short, fat Star Wars wind-ups I bought a few years ago in Japan to the top of the post-modern looking air conditioner.
Also, while Julie was cleaning the floor (bless her heart), I took the time to get other important things done like setting up part of my smurf collection...I still can't believe I lugged these over from the states, had the bag searched by post 9-11 security thugs who thought for sure I was smuggling a bomb in Gargamel's castle. Oh well, at times like these I don't regret the hassle.
Here's the door camera/phone thing. When the bells rings you pick up the receiver and talk to whoever's there while looking at them on the screen. If it's someone you don't like, this one has a button that causes a siren to wail in the hallway. I didn't know what the button said in Korean and hit it by mistake today. The poor internet guy, looking like a criminal in the hallway. Sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you.
Check out this door-lock. You lift it up and punch in your secret number and a voice in Korean says "문이열렸 습니다" (the door is open) as it unlocks. You can change the number any time you want, which means it's easy to lock your loved one out if you're angry at them. Behave, Julie.
You don't need one, but in case you forget your number you can use one of these odd looking keys. Apparently it reads the code from inside the locking device meaning you don't have to do anything to the key if you change the code. Monkey like easy.
Now for the kitchen. Julies loves it. It's nice, I agree. I like the washing machine. It's so quiet you can barely hear it even on spin cycle.
I had no idea what this was until Julie explained it to me. You know you're in Asian if you have one. You dump a bag of uncooked rice in it and then when it's time to fill your rice cooker, you press the button and out pops 150 grams worth. Nice. I used it today but forgot to replace the plastic dish so when I pushed the button 150 grams of rice spilled on the floor.
I took this shot last night after we picked up some dishes. Fortunately Julie and I have the same taste. We both like modern and simple designs.
The only thing I don't like about the kitchen is this new-age electric stove. It looks cool but it just doesn't work as well as a real gas stove. Apparently there's no gas line yet in this area of the city, that's how new it is, so they had to use these. The manager warned us it'll be expensive if we use it often. We're going to buy one of those portable gas ranges sometime soon.
The fridge on the other hand is totally nice and pretty spacious. Those three large drawer-shelves on the bottom make-up the freezer.
I like the little helpful pictures to let you know what goes where. Phew. They come in handy to a guy that's used to putting everything from chicken to peanut butter in the same place.
This flat shaped radio comes with the apartment too. We've been using it to listen to AFKN (American Forces Korea Network) which is actually pretty good.
We got this nice little computer stand for $50 at Home Plus. Julie kept asking how we could put it together without tools. I worked in a furniture store before and assured her the tools were included. She guffawed and said "This is Korea..." and assured me there were no tools.
So I bet her 5,000 won ($4.50) and well, there's the tools and there's my winnings. I felt a little bad taking it, but come on...I told her about my job at the furniture store.
There you have it, our new apartment as it is so far. I'll post some more pics later as we get more things like a sofa and a TV. There's no cable line hooked up in this area too, but according to the manager everyone will be getting Satellite TV at a huge discount starting next month. By the way, we've actually been surprised by how much we like NOT having a TV - at least for now. I've been doing crossword puzzles, reading books again, exercising, and writing. Once I get back to teaching, there will be even less time to waste in front of the tube so maybe we'll see how long we can go without one. I'm certain to miss watching movies though.
Be sure to keep coming by. Now that I'm all set up and living with my girlfriend there should be a lot of new things to share though mostly with those living abroad or those using a proxy. My blog is still blocked here, despite my heart wrenching letter to the Korea Herald. They didn't bother to include my e-mail address in the paper either so I didn't even get any feedback at all. If the block is permanent I may have to start up a new website. Does anyone know if I buy my own URL through Blogger if that will change the site address and thereby circumvent the block? Is anybody still reading the ridiculously long post? If so, thanks!
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written by shawn matthews
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7/8/2004
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Korea Life Blog - #^%!@! @^%^! ARGH!
I just wrote a long post and just near the end the PC bang computer froze up. I'm not about rewrite it all so I'll just summarize:
1. My letter was approved and will appear in tomorrow's Korea Herald, corrections included. I would have died if they printed Kim Il Sung's name in place of Kim Sun Il who was beheaded in Iraq. There was a few other little mistakes they overlooked too but will be corrected in the second edition of the day. Also, they left off my last name in the first edition by mistake. Brilliant!
2. Our office-tel is finished. Apparently they rushed our apartment for us and we will be the first people to move into the building. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, since there are 100 apartments there. Fortunately modern Korean apartments are virtually sound-proof, but I still imagine it'll be noisy when everyone starts moving, though I'm not sure if they rented many already or not. There are so many new office-tels in the area, they may not have. I can't wait to show you pictures of it. Julie's there now. The sky has finally cleared up and she says the view is amazing. Also, they finished the mini-upstairs and put some kind of nice curtains up for us in the HUGE window. Good thing. As it is, we're moving in with nothing and need to buy just about everything except a washer machine (included in the apartment itself - laudry rooms and coin operated washer machines/dryers don't exist here as far as I know) and a rice cooker.
3. I got the job I wrote about nearby the office-tel. Decent pay: 2.3 Millon per month take home (aprox. US $2000) plus full benefits. Not bad at all for working just 4 or 5 hours a day and living across the street. Wait until you see pictures of the area. Everything you could ever need, from Super Shopping Mart centers to accupuncture, is within the radius of half a mile/kilometer. On the other hand, there's absolutely no nature either. Having lived in the country side for the past year, I can get over that though.
Unfortunately the school can't process my visa in time so I have to leave the country, come back and then they will pay for me to leave again to get the visa next month. Also, I won't start working for at least 3 weeks then I have to wait a month after that for pay. Oh well, from then on things will be fine. To save money, this time I'll probably take a ferry from Busan to Fukuoka, Japan for a night. If so, I'll try to get down to Geoje-do first for a swim and to take a load of photos. Not sure exactly yet though.
4. I forgot.
5. Have a nice day, I'm getting out of this PC room! I've been here way too long.
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written by shawn matthews
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7/5/2004
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Korea Life Blog - Citibank Idiocy
I rarely use my credit card anymore. I keep it mostly for emergencies. Also, I send most of my money to my US bank account and if I were to need cash, I figured I'd use my credit card, then pay it online from my bank account. Today, that situation came up. Julie and I have been pooling our money for the deposit on the brand new office-tel apartment in Song nae we just rented. Also, we need to buy just about everything including a TV, sofa, desk, etc. Julie has a huge list.
The last two times I tried to use my Citibank credit card here left me angry and bitter. Today was no exception. The first time came when I went to buy a computer at Technomart. The card was denied. All the clerks stared at me as if I were a poor buffoon. In their presence I had to call Citibank. After sifting through the menus for an operator, I explained the situation. They blocked my card because I was in a foreign country and the computer was over $1000. I said that's fine, despite the fact I'd been living here and using the card occasionally for the past 3 years. So they unblocked the card and the clerks were happy again and I had a computer.
The next time I tried to use the card was months later at a restaurant. Julie and I ordered something that was more expensive than we though and I didn't bring enough cash with me. No problem, right? Wrong. Card declined. Luckily combined Julie and I could pay the bill. Later I called Citibank and they told me the charge had gone through. Angry I went back to the restaurant. They showed me their credit card records for the day and mine wasn't on there. Without explanation, the charge never did show up on my account.
Now today. I have been using the same Citibank card for the past 7 years, have always paid if off, and therefore have a higher limit than any sane man would use. It goes up automatically every year it seems. I've never called to have them lower it because I thought maybe someday I could use it to pay for a trip into space on a Russian Rocket. Or, more likely, if I were to get deathly injured in a hospital I could use it to pay for soothing Morphine drips.
Anyway, they only let you withdraw a maximum of 300,000 won at a time at the normal cash machines here. So I took the subway all the way into Gwanghwamun and walked a ways to the Citibank, confident I'd go in and walk out with my cash advance. The clerk at the counter spoke little English. "Use ATM, sir."
"But I need 1,000,000 won."
"Use ATM 3 times."
I went back out and used the ATM twice. I got 600,000 won. The third time my card was rejected and I was given some weird code and a phone number to call in the US. Fortunately I had my cell phone on me. Is it only me who literally hates with a passion computer automated operators? I sifted through the menus and got the most annoying and unhelpful woman on the planet.
"Why can't I take more cash out of this machine?" I started.
"Sir, you can only use the ATM three times."
"But I only used it twice."
"That's because you're in a foreign country and our system automatically blocked the card as stolen."
"Jesus, what kind of stupid system is that? Being in a foreign country, I'm more likely to need a cash advance, right? What if there was no phone around to call you?"
"Sir, do not swear at me. Sir, stop swearing."
"I'm not swearing!"
"Sir, yes you are. Now you have to calm down or I can't help you."
The scene reminded me of that in the movie Anger Management when Adam Sandler is on the airplane and he ends up arrested over a minor outburst. I took a breath and waited.
"I'll authorize your account again," the hellish woman went on. You can use the ATM one more time in this 24-hour period. If you need more money you have to go into the bank. You can take as much as your limit in there."
"But I just went in the bank and they can't speak English. They told me to go back outside."
"Sir, they probably can't speak English because you're in a foreign country."
"It's an international Citibank, for crying out loud. I came all the way here because I'm a foreigner and a Citicard holder. The damn ATM receipt is all in English and they gave me your number in the US to call."
"Sir, calm down. I can not help you if you don't calm down. It sounds like the clerk you spoke to doesn't understand well about Citibank credit cards. You have to find a manager."
Exasperated I tried again. I went inside and found a clerk who could speak English this time. She told me the same thing the other guy did, that I have to use the ATM machines. I'm sitting there showing her my ATM receipt that shows a large available cash advance amount. Meanwhile the original clerk who could speak English is standing by and shaking his head no, no, no.
"Just use the ATM machine many times," the woman said.
At this point I started to think of the movie Falling Down in which Michael Douglas plays the part of a man who has a nervous breakdown because of all the BS in the world.
"I can't use it more than three times in 24 hours."
"I'm sorry, sir. We can't help you. You have to use the cash machines." At that point the security guard, an old and ugly ajushi started to look at me funny. I went back out to the cash machine and begrudgingly used it for the 3rd and final time, still short on the total I needed. I can only wait until tomorrow, if I want to take out more but I'm wondering if I'm going to get a fee for each separate cash advance too. I don't even want to. I'll find another way, those morons. Imagine if I wanted to take $5000 off it. What kind of idiot system is this?
I spent the last 20 minutes writing Citibank through my account online a heated letter about the situation. When I hit enter, I was told there's a 20 line limit. I cursed and broke it up into 2 messages. Later I got this reply:
Our system automatically review charges being put through from an area that does not match the address on the account.
The address on your account is a New York address. Please provide us with your current address and telephone numbers.
I did so and asked again how I can take a higher cash advance in the future. I got this final reply:
We appreciate your comments and the time you have taken to provide feedback. We strive to be the best in the business and feedback like yours helps us to improve our service. Rest assured this will be considered in our efforts to provide the best service possible to our customers.
Thank you for using our website.
Wow, what a great help they are. I'm so glad I've been a customer of theirs for so long.
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written by shawn matthews
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Korea Life Blog - Letter to the Editor
I wrote up a quick letter which I will send to the two English newspapers in Korea: The Korea Herald and the Korea Times. I've never written to a newspaper before and I didn't bother to read the guidelines so I'm not sure if it'll get published or not. I'll post it here for my American readers:
Two years ago I started a website about living and teaching in Korea. I called it Korea Life Blog. I began by serializing the story of my first experience on the island of Geoje-do. Later I started writing about everyday life in Korea. The site soon grew in content and popularity both among foreigners and Koreans. Before I knew it, I was averaging 1000 hits per day. So many people left comments and e-mails of appreciation, encouraging me to continue. For some, my site was a source of comfort. They too were living and teaching in Korea. Others had been here in the past and were looking for a way to keep in touch. Still others were considering their first trip and used my site as a source of information. Soon, curious as to how foreigners perceive their country, Koreans began stopping by too. Especially interested were gyopos, Koreans born and growing up overseas. Most of them had never been here. They heartfully thanked me for bringing their homeland alive through pictures and commentary. Finally, for some readers there was no connection at all. They stumbled across my site accidentally and found themselves suddenly immerged for the first time in a website about Korea.
All this splendor began to fade last week. Without warning or explanation, the Korean government suddenly blocked access to my website. Most people, including me, didn’t know what happened; the site simply failed to load. Only later did I find the reason why: some barbaric foreigners posted the footage of the Kim Sun Il beheading on their own websites. Since then, access to websites by all foreigners using blog services have systematically been cut off, innocent sites like my own included. In other words censorship is running rampant.
Though I don't believe it was right to post that gruesome footage, I don't believe it is right for innocent websites to be blocked either. That's plain unjustified censorship. What's more alarming is the majority of people don't even know this is happening. With this letter I hope to raise awareness and encourage people to take appropriate action. Only you can stop censorship. Only you can bring Korea Life Blog back to the people. Please take some time and write the Ministry of Information and Communication today.
I ended with the contact information of the office. The letter is probably too long to print, but hopefully it will atleast get the attention of the editor for some possible coverage of what's going on. There's been pretty much nothing about it in the news here.
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written by shawn matthews
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7/3/2004
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Korea Life Blog - Weekend Update
Thanks for all the supportive comments and e-mails. I'm hoping the situation is temporary. For now, I'll just keep writing.
I'm still in the job market. I turned down the public school jobs for a variety of reasons. Basically the pay was high but they offered no benefits or holiday/vacation pay. Also, I would have to travel pretty far and from one school to the other. I'd only teach 2 hours at each school but I'd have 2-3 hours in between to wait around bored. By the time I'd get home it would be 10PM at night, which would leave no time for extra work which I'd need to make up for days off/vacation times.
I've decided to just get something in a block schedule nearby where I'll be living. Something with all the benefits including rent. I don't know if I can handle a classes of 30-40 Korean kids either, after being used to 2-10 per class. Anyway, I've got my foot in the door at somewhere specific. I happened to run into this guy Jack who's working there and he told me about how easy the job is and the location is perfect:
"I teach sometimes just 3 classes a day. Sometimes it's 6 but not usually. I go in right before I have to teach and I leave whenever I want if I don't have a class. No planning, just play games and use the books."
I asked him if they needed an extra teacher, but he said didn't think so, seeing as both teachers had so few classes.
I shrugged it off at the time but when this public school job didn't pan out as planned, I decided to look into it more. It sounds easy like the job I had before, except this would be in Songnae, a great location. A couple of days later, as I was walking past the school, I saw the number and decided to call.
Usually schools don't have foreign teachers calling them directly for jobs out of the blue. If they need a teacher, they have to use an expensive recruiter of post job ads themselves. So when I called the director, he was totally confused.
"My name is Shawn," I said. "I'm wondering if your school needs a teacher."
"What? Who are you? Shawn? I don't know Shawn, sorry."
"I know you don't know me. Does your school need a teacher right now?"
"I'm sorry. I don't understand what you mean. I don't know any Shawn."
"I'm outside your school now. Should I come there?"
"How will you get here, by buss?"
"No, I'm in Songnae."
"What, Suwon? You have to take a bus."
Finally I told him to wait and handed the phone to Julie. Moments thereafter, we were in Mr. Kim's office. He's a short, extremely thin man, about 45 and has a kind face and demeanor. Julie told him in Korean all about my experiences and education, etc. He said that was nice, but all he cared about is if I was a good teacher like Jack. This is when things got funny. He went on first in English then in Korean about how wonderful Jack is. "Usually American not have passion for teaching in Korea. Jack has the passion. He can teach every age, from young kid to high school student. It doesn't matter to Jack. He is very kind and nice. He always smiles. The children love Jack. If he want sign new contract, I can pay him more money." Now, as he said this, I was sitting there remembering Jack and what he had told me about the job and I was trying hard not to laugh. The situation reminded me of Jerry, the drunken teacher who worked before me at Wonder School on Geoje island who, though quit and ran away, was remembered with such reverie by the the school owners. It just goes to show you, it doesn't really matter how well you teach in Korea, as long as you are friendly and the boss likes you.
Anyway, he admitted he was taken off guard by me and wasn't sure what to do. He didn't really need a teacher, but at the same time he was impressed with me and wanted to take advantage of this opportunity, knowing the costs and risks of using a recruiter and hiring from overseas. For now I sent him my resume and he should call us on Monday. He's going to figure it all out in the meantime. Apparently if he does hire me, everyone will have even less classes unless someone leaves. That will make me a welcome new teacher, I'm sure. I hope it pans out.
I'm supposed to go meet James now for more of that Yogurt I posted about last week. I'm not sure though. It's the rainy season and on schedule it's been cloudy and/or rainy for over a week now, including right now. Also, and I'm not calling James a bad influence, but if I meet him, I'm sure to wind up drunk and stumbling home at 6AM again. I may just rent some movies and relax in the cave. I'm not sure if Julie will come or not. She's mad again that I had girlfriends before her...sigh.
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written by shawn matthews
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7/1/2004
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Korea Life Blog - Help!
This update will be short. Four thugs just sat down next to me, in the no smoking section and now they are chain smoking and singing cheesy Korean pop songs together and screaming at Warcraft.
I'm getting pretty down about my blog being blocked in Korea. Only people who live outside of Korea can leave comments. My hit count has dropped by 50 percent, though I'm not sure how many figured out to view this through a proxy site like unipeak. Still, there must be a lot of people that think I gave up my blog and/or that it's gone for good.
The worst part about all this is I did nothing wrong. I didn't post anything offensive, but because someone who did using Blogger, my site and every Blogger site is blocked now.
Though Korea is a democracy, it feels like I'm living in communist China suddenly. Does anybody know how or what I can do about this? I would also appreciate any of my Korean readers taking a moment to send e-mail or real mail to:
Director Jun Sung Mu
Cooperation Planning Division
Telecommunication Center Building.
Ministry of Information and Communication 11F~14F, 100 Sejongno,
Jongnogu, Seoul, South Korea Zip Code: 100-777
ipd@mic.go.kr
Thanks.
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written by shawn matthews
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