Going to Korea

Hi all,

I've decided to go to Korea to work as an English teacher. After many delays (I first thought about this back around January) I'm just about ready. A few weeks ago I had to send some documents off via US Postal Service, now my papers have been approved by Korean immigration and on Tuesday I should be able to pick up my work visa from the Korean consulate in downtown Chicago. I'll be living and working in northern Seoul, about one hour's drive south of the DMZ. In fact, if the North Koreans ever decide to invade, I guess I'll be right in their way! lol

I have not been to Seoul since 1992, and I'm sure many things have changed since then. I used to see old men in traditional clothes and straw hats sitting (or crouched resting on their feet, rather) in the middle of a busy street, scenic overlooks with a stall nearby selling microwaved corn dogs, discarded VCRs in a drainage ditch, and, the most unusual to me at the time, a female attendant in the men's bathroom. I remember my friend Pete, from the UK, found a perfecty good working telephone in the trash behind the KBS offices. At the time, the Seoul subway system had no English signs, only Korean, which I did not know how to read at the time (until an older British missionary who had been in Korea some 40 years gave me an index card with some language notes on it, for which I am eternally indebted to him).

(image above: National Broadcasting Corporation/NBC tower in Chicago that houses the Korean Consulate)

For those of you wondering just how many people live in this here place I'm going to, here is a list of the world's top 30 cities and their populations (hint: Seoul's #4, Chicago is #28):

no.	Name	calc.2006	country
1	Tokyo	36 769 213	Japan
2	New York	22 531 069	United States of America
3	México City	22 414 319	Mexico
4	Seoul	22 173 711	Korea (South)
5	Mumbai/Bombay	19 944 372	India
6	São Paulo	19 357 485	Brazil
7	Jakarta	17 928 968	Indonesia
8	Manila	17 843 620	Philippines
9	Los Angeles	17 767 199	United States of America
10	Dilli	17 753 087	India
11	Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto	17 524 809	Japan
12	al-Qāhirah/Cairo	15 707 992	Egypt
13	Shanghai	14 871 156	China
14	Kolkata/Calcutta	14 681 589	India
15	Moskva/Moscow	14 520 800	Russia
16	Buenos Aires	13 470 240	Argentina
17	London	12 524 316	United Kingdom
18	Tehran	12 183 682	Iran
19	Karāchi	11 969 284	Pakistan
20	Dhaka	11 918 442	Bangladesh
21	Istanbul	11 912 511	Turkey
22	Rio de Janeiro	11 826 609	Brazil
23	Rhein-Ruhr	11 793 829	Germany
24	Paris	11 633 822	France
25	Beijing	11 537 036	China
26	Lagos	11 153 863	Nigeria
27	Krung Thep/Bangkok	9 996 388	Thailand
28	Chicago	9 464 886	United States of America
29	Kinshasa-Brazzaville	9 343 416	Congo (Dem. Rep.)
30	Xianggang	8 855 399	China

No, I did not spend any military time in Korea. I was a worker for a missions/aid organization and visited 5-6 different cities on a ship. Mostly we sold books and collected medical and dental supplies for the newly-opened port of Vladivostok in Russia (which we visited that summer). I was in the army between 1993-94 but never went overseas (just Colorado) and finally was able to get a medical discharge and go to college on a scholarship... military life was just not for me!

I did try some dog in a Korean restaurant in northern China (when I was there in 2005); my mistake, I ordered the wrong soup, the menu was not in English or Korean, only Chinese. There were pictures, but they weren't very clear! Only after I had drank some of the soup and tried some meat did my friend let me know I was having dog. Not anything that you may want to eat, I think. I'll stick to kalbi and bulgogi instead!

My cell phone number will probably get cut off at some point, but give it a try anyways... and if all else fails, e-mail me! That's actually the best way to contact me, even in Korea (I'll probably spend most of my non-working time down the street at the local PC-방. As soon as I get to Korea, I'll let you know what my cell phone number is. I have three cell phones, all of them made by Samsung, and at least one of them should work in Seoul!

Later,
Rick