Six weeks...

Six weeks in Korea now...

This time has been different. I admit I don't always have the warmest feelings for Koreans, but the same holds true for Americans, Canadians, etc. I guess it's all about attitude. So I catch myself getting into a mood and refuse to blame the people around me. And then I keep walking down the street, bumping into people like a human pinball and just smile about it. If I let that define my experience in Korea, I will leave in six months or less. So I just laugh about it and realize that there are even Koreans getting annoyed with their fellow countrymen, and that helps. "Don't let the bastards grind you down."

Another difference this time has been working with Koreans. The first few times I was here I didn't really work closely with Koreans. Now, at the newspaper, I work with English speaking (and some who try, but fail) Koreans, both men and women. It's strange how I can be so friendly to the other foreigners at work and they know how to take it, but among the Koreans they look at me as if I'm crazy. It may be because I am partially crazy, but more likely it's because of social constraints. Because I'm male and most of the business writers are women, we can't be friends. Because the editor of the business section is in his 50s and the one male writer is in his mid-20s, we can't be friends. Age matters, as does sex. Since we weren't school mates, the girls cannot see me as anything but a co-worker or a potential mate. There is no other option. As it is, I don't mind. I have things to accomplish and would be better off not starting anything at work. And I'm not looking for a potential mate at work.

So I go in, do my best for six to eight hours a day, then go to dinner with a couple of foreigners. We aren't isolating ourselves, as some might say. We always eat at Korean restaurants and always have to speak some Korean when ordering, paying, etc. This is mostly the basic stuff, but it keeps us in practice and keeps us humble. I go home and listen to my Korean language CDs and maybe read, write, or watch a movie.

On the weekends I sometimes go to bars in a section of town called Shinchon, about five minutes by foot from where I live, where there is a good mix of foreigners and locals. My favorite is a place called "Woodstock: the 70s." No joke. It is a request bar, which means you get a paper and pen and write down whatever songs you want to hear and give it to the dj. Odds are good that if you ask for classic rock or eighties music, he'll have it. I have my favorites and sometimes they play one of my songs without me requesting within a few minutes of arriving. A friend of mine described the Koreans that frequent that bar as "the weird Koreans." Maybe he thinks because they want to sit around listening to classic rock and making small talk with foreigners they're weird. I think they're just taking advantage of what Seoul has to offer that the rest of the country lacks: diversity.

Today I went downtown to find a department store called "Lotte Mart" to get a few things for my apartment. It's something like Wal-Mart, but a bit more expensive. There are markets all over town, but I'm not good at haggling and the seller always starts with some ridiculous price that is often two or three times what I would pay at Lotte Mart or Wal-Mart. So I've given up on those markets for anything but souvenirs and maybe ginseng or other traditional foods. Saturday in downtown Seoul is a mess. But I forced myself to go, because I could easily lock myself in my apartment like I did the last time I was in Korea. That time I was in the south and the main problem was being such a novelty to the locals. This time it's the overcrowding and the way people seem to go out of their way to get in your way. It's better than being stared at, I guess.

Even though it's Saturday night I don't plan to go out. My co-worker, Dan, is stuck working on a side project that pays really well, Graeme, an English friend of mine, has a strange infection or perhaps is just paranoid, and Ronny, a German guy here studying Korean for his fifth or sixth year, has a date. There are other people to ask, but I figure if the three I can usually count on are unavailable, it's probably better I just stay at home or spend an hour in a PC bang (internet cafe). Which is what I'm up to now.

Tomorrow, Sunday, is the beginning of my workweek. We are a six day a week paper, but a new law took effect recently eliminating the six day workweek. Lucky me. So I work Sunday through Thursday and so does Dan. The only problem is Dan is a man-whore and has a different girlfriend every week, which makes it hard to plan anything with him beyond dinner. He also makes double what I make with his side job and his extra years of service at The Korea Herald. This means his tastes in venue are a bit more refined than mine. So an early bedtime will do me good, though I don't feel at all tired yet.

In a week I'll get a paycheck and maybe join a gym. I know there are things that I should be doing with my money, but if I don't start getting some exercise in a safe environment (unlike jogging in the streets or hiking on the crowded mountains) I'll go crazy. Within the year I may take up Tae Kwan Do, not to add to my formidable fighting skills, but to become more flexible and to find some balance and harmony that my body and mind are currently lacking. Please stop laughing. I mean it.

A few of the newer employees of The Korea Herald

We all began working at The Korea Herald close to the same time this year. There are many others, of course, but this should give you an idea of the makeup of the paper. Mostly young, and then there is me.