OK, so there’s been a change of plan…
I’m now back in Korea. I genuinely didn’t want this to
happen, I had decided that I needed to go somewhere new, but there was always a
difficult barrier to overcome. Either it was a contract condition that I wasn’t
happy with, or I had to be in the country for a face-to-face interview, or the
salary to cost of living ratio was too far out of balance. The easy option was
to go back to Korea.
I had originally decided to stay in the UK for 6 months, but
life in Bedford isn’t all that interesting, the novelty of home had worn off,
and although my parents were happy to have me back, my feet were itchier that a
bad case of crabs. So, I’m back in hot, humid Seoul. Back at my old school,
living in my old apartment – it was like I was never away.
Don’t get me wrong, the time I spent home in England was
great. I got to spend time with all of my family, and either they’re all
excellent liars or they genuinely missed me while I was away. I got to
reconcile with family members that I haven’t seen in 15 years? And of course I
got to catch up with a great bunch of friends. It would appear that no matter
how long I might have been away there would have been a great reception upon my
return. I couldn’t have asked for more.
Despite all the great things of home; the people, the food, (some of) the nights out, and a reasonably priced Guinness, there were aspects of being
home that bothered me.
Something that I never realised before was how racist people
are towards Asian people. Some people knew that I’d been away, and others I had
mentioned it to them, but as soon as I did it opened a flood gate of seemingly
accepted racism. The worst I heard were “How is your Thai bride?”,
“Good morning, Vietnam!” and “ching chong ching”. The ignorance is strong with
these people. "Thai bride", "Vietnam", these aren’t even relatable to Korea.
They’re completely different countries. And “ching chong ching”? Even Jim
Davidson and Mel Gibson would conclude that this Chinese gibberish is too
racist for their tastes.
For some reason people still think it’s acceptable to say
racist things about Asian people. I don’t think these same people would say
bigoted things about other races or nationalities. It was another contributing
factor that made me want to leave earlier than planned.
And here’s another thing, I was in South Korea, not North
Korea. No, I didn’t meet Kim Jong-Un. No, it’s not “basically China”. No, there
isn’t continuous warfare between the North and South. And the 2018 Winter
Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang not Pyeongyang – they’re different places.
I probably shouldn’t be annoyed with these misconceptions, after all there is
very little Korean exposure in the UK. With the exception of Psy’s famous hit,
Park Ji-sung, and, apparently, AFC Wimbledon’s love of Shin Ramen, people know
next to nothing of Korea.
Did I have doubts about going back? Sure. Will it be the
same? Will the second year have too much to live up to? I don’t know, but I’ve dallied
on too many big decisions recently. I managed to convince myself that it wasn’t
the right time to go and live in Japan, Hong Kong, China, or Vietnam (which is
very hard to do!) and I couldn’t do the same with Korea, I didn’t want to
wait any longer.
The reasons to go outweigh the few to stay. I was doing a
meaningless job where the topic of conversation of each day was tits and fanny.
Don’t get me wrong I love tits and fanny as much as the next man (unless the
next man is Ched Evans) but I don’t want to talk about it every bloody day.
There was the boredom of home creeping in, lacking a sense of adventure,
learning nothing new. These are valid, obvious reasons to continue exploring a
country I am so fond of living in.
When considering my last two weekends in England they are at
the two ends of the spectrum of enjoyment and one was a definite factor in leaving England so rapidly. My penultimate weekend was an unplanned night
out, usually these are the best ones, but this was not one of them. It all
started well, a few lads and I played a couple of rounds of 9-hole foot-golf (football
and golf for those without an imagination).
 |
| Peggy doing what he does best |
It was suggested that we go for a
few beers after in the neighbouring town of Newport Pagnell, hardly glamorous,
but I’ll rarely turn down a few beers with the boys. At this point I did
express my concern as I was wearing a Galatasaray football shirt, but was told
that it shouldn’t be a problem. A few pubs into a pub crawl and I was approached
by UKIP’s poster boy, some product of the Hitler Youth’s sister programme – the
Farage Adolescence. He felt that he needed to take time out of his night to
inform me that, as I was wearing a Turkish football shirt that had the Islamic star and
crescent emblazed on it, that by wearing the shirt I was “supporting and funding ISIS”.
Really? The Galatasaray board of directors had a meeting and established their season
objectives: to acquire the best available playing staff, to remain profitable
and sustainable financially, and to send a couple of youth players on loan to
al-Qaeda FC. (And if that mong is reading this (which he definitely is not, he’s
probably got his head buried into the latest edition of The Daily Sport) the star
and crescent was originally a symbol of the Ottoman Empire. The symbol became
associated with Islamism in the mid-20th century, so the crest on
the shirt is more an association with Turkish history rather than any religious
connection.) We bid the awful man adieu and made our way to Milton Keynes - this
was a terrible idea. I was rejected from every establishment for my choice of
shirt and was even spat on. I went home soon after. (Can you tell I’m still
angry about that night?)
The following weekend was by contrast sensational. A day and
night out in London. Beers on the train down, beers by the river, watched the
Football Manager “derby” between AFC Wimbledon and Watford, beers at the game,
cycled to Camden on the Borris bikes (this was funny at the time, but a rather
dangerous idea), beers in Camden, met some Koreans and showed off my terrible
Korean language skills, more beers, and then got the train back to Bedford. No
drama, just a great day without religious hate, or airborne saliva. Why can’t
every weekend be like that?
Anyway, I’ve been in Korea for a few days, it was all rushed
in the end and I didn’t get to see people properly before leaving, which was a
disappointment.
Sorry if this one seemed like a rant, it’s just I haven’t written
for a while.
Thanks for reading.
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