| |
|
| eun jung in our apartment, dossing as usual | now this is typical me & eun jung |
"John ~ don't make real world jokes to us. We don't get 'em." Jason Sparks.
Now this was a year. 2002 began with my first day post-AMS, I'd quit the IT & Business and was wondering what to do when suddenly I found I'd accepted a job teaching in Tongmyong University of IT in Busan, Korea and I'd start in March. Time enough to get our new flat in shape and get a tennant into it. Just about, we went at it like a couple of novices for two months and just about stumbled out of there in time to get onto the plane to Seoul & Busan.
Got there, we thought we knew Korea but really we knew Seoul. This was Busan, and it felt like another country, or at least another age. Everyone seemed a bit wilder, a bit freer, a bit rougher. Not as many suits. What didn't click at the time was the reason why ~ all the big, medium and even small business is in Seoul, all the government, all the best education, all the best media, the banks, the most beautiful girls, the foreigners, the hard and soft business, the talent, the ambition, all up there. What's down here? A huge city of small businesses & ports and you don't see the stressed out career types. This is Busan.
Mountains and sea, and Busan-mal, how they speak here. They don't say odi isoyo? ~ they crow odino! Not odi gaseyo? ~ odigano! And everyone knows their raw fish: everyone. You know how eskimos have all these words for snow? Busan and it's raw fish, I have no idea what they're on about, they've got sayings about it, proverbs, probably songs as well even. Seoul and you see how Korea has made it so far; Busan and you wonder how come this city's so big. What are they all doing here? What is the local business? They may be sons of fishermen but what are they all doing now? Where do they all go every day?
The answer is, to trading companies. This is an export-driven economy. They're on the phone, with their English, administering trade. Selling direct, playing middle-man, talking to the factory in the provinces or in China, talking about shipments to Europe. Make it in Asia, flog it in Europe or the States and get more money for it. What are you wearing on your feet? Is it an English brand of shoes? Branded in England, assembled in Korea out of raw materials from China. They say in Western business literature that experts of International Business only have at best a dim idea of what's really going on. You do get the feeling though that these middle-man dudes are the ones on the factory floor with their sleeves rolled up who can tell the stories. And they concur with the accepted world view that given ten years, China will be the place. Will it? Who cares!
We came to Korea well drilled on all the reasons why: be near Eun Jung's family for a year, stay working, see the World Cup, have good study time. Really though it was the World Cup that brought us here. Blah blah blah...whatever...see the World Cup twinkling...yadda yadda...where do I sign? We arrived, and sure enough the thing happened. It was the time of my life ~ nothing less than that. James Taylor came out for a two-week dose of it, which was perfect; Chris Hume came as well, it was everything a young guy dreams of ~ all that football and drinking, and everyone's in heaven. I wrote a pusanweb.com section all about it, even made a couple of silly video reports on it for the same, it was all perfect. Thank you God, life can be unbelieveable and I'll never forget being here for it.
School was a great year in plenty ways. The university was up a little mountain and you could play chokku (football-volleyball) up there as much as you want, except when you have to teach. All year I had some cracking, crackling students. In total I gave fourteen classes and I loved every one of 'em ~ because in every class there was quality young people and we made friends. It was always a pleasure and I hope we all stay close. If you are my students and reading this, let's be good friends! Why, because you make me feel so young!
It takes on average six months in a new place to get going and I'd concur about us in Busan. In the summer we'd have fun here and there but still felt like it's us in the weird city with no friends. I remember us going out by ourselves here and there, nobody to call; also working at TIT Tim Burke saying the same, how he doesn't know no-one here despite being here as long as me already. But going into 2003 I had 87 names in my cellphone. Moral of the story? Get a cellphone! You're nothing without one, just a useless pile of skin & bone. I was a lump of meat with eyes... then I got a cellphone and look at me now!
Autumn all good. (Isn't Autumn supposed to be the season of the geezers? It was for this one.) Benny & Pulin came out for a week ~ it was unbelieveable, pure drink and fun. Shame they had to go. They came, and gave me an echo of my recent past with their jokes and rows. All of us are ex-AMS. We all used to work for the world class IT & Business Consulting company and here we were, falling over the table all rowdy & pissed, walking up & down Beomeosa, going to Seoul, drinking every day, it was so good.
Who were my friends this year? Some old but mainly new. Fantastic to see Daniel Hark again every time we went up to Seoul ~ Jason Sparks, Dale Patterson, Kang Ju-Hee, all Eun Jung's mates of course. But most cool is all the new people ~ you go to a new country, city, place, job, give yourself six months, and you're all right. 2002 and I'm great friends with Tim Burke from work, and there's a whole rake of good acquaintances & would be friends from work & classes, from my football team Real Busan, from Korean class ~ all added up making Busan well worth staying in for another year.