This Miserable Place

Twice within a short period of time I found myself defending Korea. Now that calls for a shot of soju!

We are two regular Waegoogs at my Hapkido gym and both of us have been in the country for a while. We’ve not hit the 10 years mark yet, we are not newbies any more. Both of us don’t really like our own countries and both of us can moan like old men about Korea and Koreans, and both of us really like Korea. It is for these reasons that no one should take our moaning seriously. When it comes to the push I’m sure Travis will defend Korea just as much as I would.

A week or so back I met a guy new to Korea. He’s very green and moans about the silliest thing, those things that become insignificant by the time you hit the one year mark. (Go back on this blog and see what stupid things I complained about.) I also met a guy this weekend that has been here for almost a year now and really does not like the country. I’m sure it’s mostly because he doesn’t get along with the people he works with, but still, he is not exactly positive about Korea.

These two men are not really that strange, but what I did find strange was how readily I defended “this miserable place”. Korea grows on you. The longer you stay and the more you understand why the people do what they do, the easier it is to love the country. Basically what I’m saying is, don’t crap on the whole country, and this goes for anywhere else, until you have tried to figure out what is really happening, and don’t blame the whole country because you picked the short stick and ended up with the bible bashing, “Dokdo” promoting, kimchi worshiping fool that makes all other Koreans look bad.