Opinion: North Korea attacks- time to stock up on ramen and register at your Embassy

    Yesterday at  2:34 I was enjoying my casual workout at the gym in my apartment. Little did I know that North Korea had fired dozens of artillery shells at Yeonpyeong Island nearby the coastline of Seoul and even closer to Incheon. Usually I stay away from talking about politics, but this case deems an exception.
    With no t.v. in my apartment, and a busy afternoon, I did not hear about the attack on South Korea's island until returning to work at 8 pm. The lobby was filled with students watching the news on our king sized plasma. Everyone here is a little bit nervous, but there have been no alterations to our daily routines.
    However, one student did mention that his mother called him and told him to go to the store and buy tons of ramen noodles. Like any good son would do, he immediately went to E-mart and stocked up. To his surprise he was not the only Korean in Seoul doing so. He noted that there was definitely a dent in the ramen section of the grocery store. 
      Besides an unusual spike in ramen sales and a drop in the economy there is no noticeable change in daily life in Seoul. Everyone is still swarming to Starbucks and Coffee Bean to get their caffeine fix for their long day. And the soju is still flowing strong from every drinking fountain. Of course people are a little bit nervous, I for one registered online with my embassy last night. This is a necessary precaution that all foreigners living in Korea should do immediately.



Above is a CCTV video of yesterday's attack on Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea.

If you have any questions or comments about the attack on Yeonpyeong Island please leave them in the comment box below or send an email to www.goneseoulsearching.com 


  Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

Read more »

A K-pop star avoiding South Korea's draft comes as no surprise

    Recently I read an article about MC Mong, a famous Korean rapper and tv star who recently tried avoiding Korea's draft. According to the article, South Korea's Draft: MC Catch-22 The Economist, MC Mong actually had healthy teeth removed so that he was unfit to join the army. Having lived in Korea for a while now, I was not surprised at all by Mong's actions.

    Everyday at work my students tell me that the required two year service for all men is the most boring and wasteful time of their life. The men in specific complain that they barley do anything while in service, and are sometimes required to just sit and do nothing as part of their job. Most men serve after their second year in college at around age 22. So by the time most men graduate college in Korea they are between 26 and 27 years old!

Courtesy of Luke Martin, www.roketship.com.

    The other day I met a Korean man in the elevator of my apartment building. He blurted out the word Sh*t when he noticed the elevator on the 12th floor because he was late to work. Not many Koreans know curse words so I knew he spoke English and we started talking. He told me that he had been going to school in Iowa and had lived in the United States for middle school and high school. However, he had to return to Korea to do his 2 year military service. I asked him what he had to do everyday, and he replied "absolutely nothing!" 

    To my surprise not only do the men dislike serving in the Korean army. The female students say that most girls have to break up with their boyfriends during this time. Most of them cannot handle the long distance relationships, and they fear that their boyfriends will cheat on them!

    I realize that not all of the men serving in the Korean army have invaluable positions. However, if Korea has so many useless positions for a majority of their men they should strongly reconsider lowering the enlistment period or allowing alternative forms of service. The service is already being lowered to 18 months in 2014 according to the MMA (Military Manpower Administration).

   The lowered enlistment time will make many young women happy as they will have an extra four to five months of time with their boyfriends!

If you have any questions or comments about "A K-pop star avoiding South Korea's draft comes as no surprise" please leave them in the comment box below or email goneseoulsearching@gmail.com

  Gone Seoul Searching by Marie Webb is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at goneseoulsearching@gmail.com.

Read more »