SEOUL - NOVEMBER 10, 2000
I've been watching the Presidential Election the last few days. Unbelievable. I don't know how this will ultimately get resolved. It looks like we will have to wait until next week when all of the absentee ballots have arrived in Florida. This is the closest Presidential Election in history, and the stakes are extremely high. I wish I had access to CNN for this event. There is a U.S. government TV station in Seoul through the U.S. Armed Forces. Unfortunately, they are playing soap operas all day long. They seem to follow the general entertainment television shows for the military and their families. Occassionally, they will have live broadcasts of the updated Presidential Election news, particularly in the morning before I go to class. Occassionally at night, they will discuss it briefly in the news. Unfortunately, I have to often wait until Jay Leno and then David Letterman are broadcast on the Armed Military Forces Network to listen to their monologue to catch up on the current situation. Fortunately, I can just go to an Internet Cafe and catch up on the latest news. But I really wish the one US goverment's TV station in Seoul (owned by the military) would play more coverage of the event, or at least update us periodically. Fortunetely, the Koreans, and just about everyone else knows that I am extremely interested in this, so they fortunately translate the current events through the local Korean stations in Korean. Well, thankfully the Internet has the information I am serrching for, but I really miss the CNN coverage of events. We have CNN in Seoul, but unfortunately I don't have it on my TV.
As far as my job situation goes. I haven't heard from GS-Seoul yet. As mentioned earlier, they require someone who will be on call to do work all the time, be available for weekends and lots of overtime. I told them that I'd only be available part-time. I had three interviews total, but they haven't contacted me since the last interview. So I don't think I will be working there after all. In many ways I'm actually releived. I prefer to have more control over my work schedule, which I can have by making my own teaching schedule with private students. Its much more preferable then working huge blocks of hours and having a daily commitment which extends far into the future with lack of vacations and all that comes with being employed full-time.
Other news is I have been accumulated teaching hours here and there. Also, last weekend, I went to a really cool Turkish event with the Turkish student and most of the Japanese students. We all had a great time, and went out afterwards. During the cultural Turkish event, I was offered a very part-time job to interview potential volunteer applicants who wish to work abroad on a volunteer basis. At first I wasn't interested (there are so many propositions coming sometimes), but I gave the Korean non-profiit organizer my email address, and later when he emailed me I saw what seemed like a great organization. He just needs someone to interview potential applicants for a few hours a few times a month, and he'll pay me for it, so I took him up on the offer. My main interest in the non-profit organization is that I'd be interviewing people who are potentialy going abroad on a volunteer basis (which is something I really respect in people who do such a thing). So to interview the potential applicants may be interesting to do.
Well, today I also wanted to discuss a little bit about the bars in Shinchon of Seoul. Most bars in this area are basically your normal bar, equipped with decently priced pitchers of beer. Behind the bar is a large range of mostly American music on vinyl and on CD. Most of these bars play songs by request. So if there is a song you haven't heard for awhile, you can request it, and if they have, you'll soon be hearing it. The bars in this area are called such names as Woodstocks and The Doors, so you can image what a large selection of their music is. But I have been able to request everything from Iggy Pop to Jim Groce. I'm actually pretty amazed by their selection. There has been a few evenings where I will just bring my books down to one of the bars, and if there aren't many people around, I'll make requests throughout the evening. Its like having immediate access to your favorite radio station. Fortunately many of the bartenders really know their music, so you have a fairly wide range of music being played. There are few things that I haven't heard which I have requested. These bartenders know their music. You have to be a DJ to be a Bartender in Shinchon area of Seoul. I am also amazed at how many bars are setup like this. Nearly everyone seems to have this kind of setup, and I've been to quite a few of them in the area.
This also brought up something else I wanted to say about South Korea. Throughout my time in Seoul and previously Pusan, I have always been amazed at the Americana memorabilia decorated throughout most bars, restaurants and other similar institutions geared towards the consuming customer. Even in the bars previously mentioned, they are just loaded with vinyl records lining the walls behind the bartender. I have had many conversations with the bartenders to know that many times they go abroad and purchase the decor and the vinyl and everything else. Its pretty amazing. You can find everything from American license plates to posters of celebrities and much more. One extremly controversial bar in Seoul is called the 'Nazi Bar' with Nazi German propoganda. There was such an uproar about the place among the foreigners, particularly the Jewish Community, that they changed their name to 'The Fusion Bar' and outlawed all foreigners from entering. But I have heard that it still remains the same inside, with Nazi uniformed wait staff.
The other thing I wanted to mention about Seoul in general, is that its perfectly legal to buy beer at a convenience store and drink it in the streets. They also have many restaurants setup in the streets at night which serve food and sometime SoJu (like vodka) throughout the streets. Often times I can just go to the store and buy a very large bottle of beer (equivalent to a 40-ouncer in the States), for only $1.50. Plus if you've ever been in the streets of South Korea at nighttime, you'll see many people puking and stumbling and just having lots of fun (or not so much fun) everywhere you go. Nighttime is interesting around here. Actually, from my apartment window, I have a pretty good view of a small portion of the nightly happenings. Ahhh.. the little things of Seoul that make it so worthwhile to live in. As far as nightlife and activity and convenience and just massive amounts of things happening, it without doubt rivals Manhattan, and for my own personal tastes, it exceeds it. I mean NYC is a great place, but as a foreigner in Seoul, life can be more interesting and more stimulating, than in Manhattan, where despite its intensity as well, in some ways, just isn't quite as much 'in my face' as Seoul can be sometimes, since I'm the obvious foreigner. I guess that is the only way I can describe it. Anyhow, I like it here.
Oh, one other thing I wanted to mention. I was watching a pretty good Korean film that was on late at night. Actually this thought is stimulating my thought in two directions. First off, the Korean film was really good. I just kept thinking its too bad, that there wasn't more ways to be exposed to such things than to try to catch International Film Festivals once in a great while. So many great films out there, that are completely undiscovered and unrecognized outside of their country of origin. Anyhow, the second thought, in one scene, was a small group of Korean friends drinking SoJu in the streets and just having a good time. They poured shots for everyone, and if you don't drink the shot that was poured for you in one gulp, you have to dump it on the top of your head. In the film, there was this great moment where one character didn't want to drink anymore. He was having personal problems or whatever. Anyhow, he couldn't quite finish his shot, and sat there for a brief moment contemplating his own life without seeing the situation he was temporarily in - ultimately gulping down the shot of SoJu before him. So everyone else was telling him, 'hey, now you have to pour it on your head'. They made gestures with their own shot glasses, shaking it upside down over their heads, and not a drop fell out of their shotglasses. Eventually the man was made to conform to the custom, and reluctantly poured the unfinished half of a shot of SoJu over his head, which ran through his hair and into his eyes and down his face. He had this moment of extreme melanchony about the entire situation.
I guess one of the things I liked most about that scene was just the cultural norms playing into it as well. I've been in Korea and drank with enough Koreans to know, that they drink very hard and very fast. If you are Korean person, you have to keep up to this level. Often times they will pour one shot after another, until an entire bottle is gone within an extremely short period of time. At night time, you can see people everywhere sometimes completely out of their minds from drinking, not having any idea what is going on. I don't think you can walk by any corner without seeing some young girl with her boyfriend or her fellow girlfriends trying to hold her up, while she is puking everything back up that she was trying to imbibe. Also, they have many customs in this country as well, for example, if someone older than you tells you to do something you have to do it. So if you are at a table with all of your friends (this is for Koreans - not foreigners), and the oldest one on the table decides you need to drink another shot of SoJu, you have to do it because he is your elder and you have to respect him.
Anyhow its all infinintely interesting. There are alot of little things like this. Also, leading from one conversation point into another. Alot of the older generation of Korean men in particular, are a little bit.... hard to deal with. I have given much thought to this, and I think its because they have the seniority and everyone has to agree to their opinions. Sometimes when I had taught English to adults in Pusan, I would have an older Korean man say something kind of silly, but no one will challenge him on it out of respect. Sometimes its kind of disappointing because maybe this man will continue to believe and reinforce whatever it is he thinks. The only way I can describe this is if anyone has ever worked as an employee anywhere at all. There is always this incredibly large gap of information between the people who know what is really going on (the workers or employees), and the ones who think they know what is going on (the managers or bosses or owners). Each individual person has extensive knowledge about something or another, but often times the subordinate's knowledge will never get passed upwards. Anyhow, this ultimately is to the disadvantage to the senior person as he lacks more and more knowledge which should be passed on to him, but since everyone respects him so much, that knowledge is never adequately transmitted to that person. You can see this phenomena happen in almost every major institution whatever its type. But it also applies on a social level in Korea, in the sense, that younger people's knowledge and information, can't adequately be passed on to older generation people out of respect. Its a good system, and the women here seem pretty well-informed on things, but many of the older Korean men (who hold the highest amounts of respect in this country) just seem to be wallowing in a vacuum of their own reality. ---------------- although maybe we all wallow in a vacuum of own reality to a certain extent?
Well, that is enough philosphizing for me for one day. I'm slightly more interested in updating this page to my website. I want to get on to the Internet and wallow in a CNN vacuum of the Presidential figures non-reality coming out of Florida right now..... . Until next time..........
(I just turned on AFKN - the Armed Forces Military Station), and they are having coverage regarding the election right now. Time to catch up on the day's events... well, I'm still finished with this webpage.... until next time.........
To read the Next Journal Entry: November 15, 2000
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