Korea Life Blog - Waiting Around


Sent off a bunch of resumes and talked to some recruiters yesterday. They're pretty much all the same:


Shawn: Hi, I'm looking for a job.

Recruiter: Oh, sure! We have lots of jobs. Can we meet you tonight?

Shawn: Just a minute. Where are the jobs? What's are they like?

Recruiter: What?

Shawn: I have my own apartment. Do you have anything in Bucheon City?

Recruiter: That's OK, we get you housing money.

Shawn: But do you have anything in my area?

Recruiter: Um, maybe...

Shawn: I'll send you my resume on e-mail.

Recruiter: OK. We call you back.


They don't even want to know anything about you. They want you to travel to go meet them somewhere then offer some crummy job on the other side of the city and collect their 1,000,000 won($850)fee from the hagwon.


Now that my book is done, I have nothing to do except wait for recruiters to call and send out more resumes. I haven't seen many job ads anywhere near my home lately. Looks like I'll have to do some travelling to work. Sometimes I miss the ease of working in Nowhere-dong, 3-4 classes/day and right across the street. However, I don't miss that awful town though.

In the meantime, I've been reading book after book. I just finished Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser, and vow never to eat at a fast food chain again. Now I'm halfway through John Grisham's The Rainmaker. I saw the movie awhile ago and really enjoyed it. I'm not much into fiction these days but they carried it across the street at the bookstore so I picked up a copy for around 10,000 won. As per usual, the book is much better than the movie. What I hate about reading a book after seeing the movie is you imagine the actors instead of the character's in the writing. I keep picturing Matt Damon and Danny Devito running all around Memphis.



Another thing I've been doing: crossword puzzles. They really help to improve your vocabulary and when you have your own book you can cheat if you get stuck. They also pass a lot of time, especially on a long trip.


And then I stand here in front of the window waiting for Julie to come back and looking at the scenery:










Tonight we're going to eat a nice dinner together somewhere. Maybe more saeng galbi or perhaps even a nice steak/lobster dinner at Outback. I don't particularly like that place but I haven't had a steak or a real burger for that matter in a year and a half and she's got a discount card through her phone company.

I'll try to post the pictures later or early tomorrow.