"the korean way"

if you watch channel 오리브...u'll soon learn how to cook korean dishes quite quickly.  because no matter if it's soup, marinade, pickling, it all comes down to the same 5 ingredients.  ganjang/salt, gochugaru/gochujjang, chamgirum, gochujang, dwenjjang, sugar/syrup...and that's pretty much it.  whether you're making a soup, a marinade, a stir fry, a banchan, a pickled dish,  that's pretty much it.  it's tasty in it's own right.  and most of it tastes the same.  there's no need for korean pride to get defensive about the HUGE difference between 감자탕 and 닭도리탕...and there's no need for a korean to get defensive when foreigners complain about a tasteless 설렁탕...it's a cuisine that satiates it's own geographical corner and despite hallyu-spora finding it's way around the world via a horse dance there's even less need for that blinded pride...

steph and i went to 방배동 where the 감자탕 was just alright.  probably could've found a place like that next door to anyone's house.  but we sat and gnawed on the spinal bone and i found a sounding board to complain about "the korean way" because she understood me.  what i've been so frustrated at the past few months is so obvious and yet there has been no korean person that has been able to compromise any viewpoint to make my life easier.  and not only unwillingly to budge, but also intensely demanding of "the korean way".  steph understood.  steph understood me.  i wasn't saying i don't like koreans, it wasn't saying that i don't admire korea's aggressive and successful expansion (amidst an unsaid closed door policy), it was merely saying...c'mon, what you're asking me to do is ridiculous.  the world doesn't revolve around you and there are other ways to do things.  i don't need the gauntlet cuz i'm not even korean...

and so it's taken me a while to find words to write down about this.  "when you visited me last month, i was really annoyed at korea..."  - i was over my honeymoon stage of being here.  i already stated in earlier posts about obvious frustrations in this non foreigner friendly place, and as my patience wore out and life settled in, i was tired of hot girls with plastic surgery, the clubs became an escape to get obliterated and without family and real companions around, the city carved out an empty hole in me. on top of all this.  it was THE WORK THAT WAS KILLING ME.  

"you have to find a hyung and get in with him so he'll take care of you...working in korea is all about relationships.  you have to also put in your dues...its tough for gyopo's.  i understand where you're coming from.  hang in there.  u need to give it 1.5 years to see where it all goes..."  - eddie who i met this weekend said this to me.  (he is moving back next month after 2 years out here)   eddie is absolutely correct on all aspects.  it's just that i came to korea for a small company.  that's pretty much a roulette situation.  i struck out.  and on top of that, it wasn't just the company's passive aggression that got to me.  it was dealing with self righteous korean customers that demanded "the korean way" ...and needed everything to be about "chae myeon"...and of course i physically got sick after that. i needed to get away.

it's funny, i leave korea to go to taiwan because i have family there.  it's close enough to home for now, but in hindsight it doesn't replace home.  it just buys time (which is why i reiterate the importance to regroup going back home once every 6 months).  i went to taiwan, hung out with my sis and my cousin and my grandma, but that doesn't feel like home.  there's no warmth for a variety of reasons (the apt is a mess, kim is a mess, cousin is a mess, the family isn't tight knit, and my parents aren't around).  the only time i really felt rested and comfortable was at louisa's.  there's something to be said about that.

i'm better now.  both healthwise and mentally.  i'm freezing though cuz its now COLD here.  i'm taking it easy.  i've cut down my partying and alcohol intake by at least half.  it could only get better from 8 days a week.  i even felt a little like my old self trekking outside of seoul today.  i went to incheon today.  i left seoul people and hung out with JT's fam.  a family atmosphere.  it felt like a real home.  a pet kitten roaming around.  scratched, sunken in, huge leather uber comfortable couches. a rug that makes the floor warm.   a simple homemade dinner with way too much food.  mom cut fruit after dinner.  i felt warm again.  i felt trusting of the people again.  and so it's like im starting all over again.  finding that balance.  

JT took me around songdo.  showing me around the newly named GCF secretariat location.  central park.  the site of the 2014 Asia Games.  the IBD buildings etc.  The proposed settlement, New Songdo, isn’t so much a Korean city as a western one, floating offshore. It was chartered as an “international business district” – a hub for companies working in China. To make US expatriates feel at home, its malls are modelled on those in Beverly Hills, and Jack Nicklaus designed the golf course. But its most salient feature is shrouded in perpetual haze, opposite a 12km bridge. On the far side is Incheon International Airport, which opened in 2001 on reclaimed land and instantly became one of the world’s busiest hubs.

“[The Koreans] tracked us down, wanted us to build a city in the ocean, and no one else was interested. What was going on here?” Gale said. “Their vision scared everyone else away. It wasn’t until I saw the airport that I understood where they wanted to go with this.” The answer: to China. The sales pitch to prospective tenants is simple: move here and you’re only a two-hour flight away from Shanghai or Beijing. You’re four hours away at most from cities you’ve never heard of, such as Changsha, which happens to be larger than Atlanta or Singapore. Nearly one billion people are a day trip away. - link

songdo reminded me of a conversation i had with frank lan.  "i was talking to an elder korean guy in samsung doing housing development.  he mentioned that he was taking around some foreigners for property investment and in the end they decided they would rather invest in shanghai or singapore rather than korea.  he was so shocked at that answer, he couldn't believe why anyone would not want to invest in korea.  it's that 'being too sure of yourself' that is the problem here.  it's not that this is a bad area, it's well developed but for the white guy, seoul just wasn't friendly and was hard to get around...this completely went over the head of the samsung guy"...while the city in question wasn't songdo, it very well might be.  this is where the koreans are too sure of themselves.  this is a huge economic undertaking that without a more welcoming foreign mentality will have issues.  creating a manhattan off a reclaimed island next to incheon.  population 2M with financial incentives and a thermostat that reads in the negatives a quarter of the year.  without tourism and more change, it might be tough.  but i'll give it to the koreans and their unity to find a way to overcompensate and pull through as a way to show face.  esp with this being a government project.

What was imagined as a hub for Western expatriates—not a Korean city, but a mini-Manhattan floating off the coast of South Korea, complete with a “Central Park”—has been settled instead by families from Seoul. The city won’t be finished until 2015, at the earliest, but Mr. Gale is convinced that he’s “cracked the code” of urbanism and aims to sell 20 more just like it to mayors across China. Chongqing and Changsha have already expressed an interest. - link

songdo finishes in 2015.  there's quite a bit of construction to be done.  and since it's ground breaking there's been some global swings mostly in the down direction and yet i am unable to find anything online that says anything about investing in songdo real estate.  completely contrary to what any personal investor will say.  and that's probably because korean interent is CENSORED.  JT mentioned that the city is in debt and didn't have money to pay it's government officials.  so i went online looking for bad news on the SONGDO IBD.  and found only this editorial...

Korean officials particularly hope that the hosting of the GCF will help boost the country's service sector.

From these viewpoints, there may be the need to utilize Songdo as a test bed case for drastic deregulation in the country's service sector. Beyond attracting foreign-run hospitals and schools here, consideration can be given to changing the current regulations limiting nationals to operating educational and medical institutions for nonprofit purposes only.

   With the country's export-led economic growth stalled amid deepening global downturn, boosting the service industry through deregulation is increasingly needed to buttress the economy and provide new jobs. -link

hey, if it works out.  great for the nation.  but why the veil of "i can do everything, i will cut off my right arm for the pride of the country until it does work.  and why does pride bring blinded confidence?  and how does confidence become self righteous.  and how does a a country mired in so many jailed ex presidents turn self righteousness into the "benevolent parent of the masses" ??  

The nation of South Korea is a world leader in Internet and broadband penetration, but its citizens do not have access to free and unfiltered Internet. According to Michael Breen, censorship in South Korea is rooted in the South Korean government's historical tendency to see themselves as "the benevolent parent of the masses". Outside of the internet, South Korea has for example banned people under age 18 from attending a Lady Gaga concert. However, anonymity on the internet has undermined the system of Korean honorifics and social hierarchies, making it easier for South Koreans to subject political leaders to "humiliation".^[1] -