Emptybottle.org: To Live and Die In Bugok

There's an article up on kuro5hin at the moment entitled 'To Work in Korea, Part I', and it's actually pretty good, other than the stunningly bad advice that one go through a recruiter.

The author promises another on Korean culture soon, to which I look forward. Worth having a look if any of you, my faithful and devastatingly good-looking readers, despite my Korea-related screeds and rants here, are at all interested in coming over to the Land of The Morning Traffic to pick off some of the low-hanging dollars.

There are those who come here strictly for the money. Not necessarily incompetent, they are opportunists who seize the chance to make lots of money for doing relatively little work. I know of one fellow who plans on working here for 10 more years before retiring back in Canada. These are not necessarily bad people, just here for a different reason.

See - I'm not necessarily a bad person or incompetent! This is an enormous relief to me.

About This Post

What is this? Why am I here? What does it mean? Where should I go now?

Well, this is a post to the personal website Emptybottle.org. It was posted by your genial host stavrosthewonderchicken on July 16, 2002, and is titled To Live and Die In Bugok. It was published to the categories: Korea-related. In any of those places you might well find other similar things that will bring you Super Double Happiness.

Note: Super Double Happiness is not guaranteed. Void where prohibited by local regulation.

If you feel like it, why not join the personal publishing revolution and leave a comment

You can also subscribe to the comments feed for this post. Not sure why you'd want to, but I aim to please.

The previous entry on the site is Oxford Internet Institute, and the next one is RATS.

Enjoy your stay, and please indulge sensibly.

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Comments: You got fingers, right?

6 Comments |

1
John said

What is the cost of living like over there? I lived in China very nicely on about $500/month, so $1900/month sounds like a terrific deal. Something to at least consider after this most recent spat of college.

July 16, 2002 7:26 AM
2
jo said

hey stav, I'm going to korea this winter. What's the exchange rate now? Geez, I'm so out of touch.

July 17, 2002 1:17 PM
3
bearman said

But you are evil...

July 17, 2002 4:31 PM
4
stavrosthewonderchicken said

US$? Down to about 1150, last I heard. My salary is worth about 10% more than it was 6 months ago.

Big whoop.

You coming to Seoul, Joanne?

And, yes, bearman : I am evil. Mwuahahaha.

July 17, 2002 9:29 PM
5
stavrosthewonderchicken said

John : most jobs provide you with accommodation, of wildly varying quality, so your cost of living depends pretty much on how much you drink.

Does for me, at least.

Costs vary, but given that some things are much cheaper and some comparable or even more expensive than in the west (Uncapped DSL access is like 20 bucks a month, for example, but beef is wildly expensive), I'd say it'd be comparable to living in Canada or Australia for most things, maybe 20% cheaper depending on how simply you eat and live. So if you leave rent out of the equation, figure on food/transport (cheap)/entertainment as your primary expenses.

July 17, 2002 9:33 PM
6
jo said

ya, I'll be in Seoul around December sometime. I'm psyched. I haven't been back in a good--GOD, it's been a long time. It's been 5/6 years. I really liked being there in the winter last time, so I'm looking forward to it.

July 18, 2002 5:18 AM