Daejeon AccessMay 2011

Mutiple

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Moving to Seoul from Daejeon

Spring Travel

Personalities

Ride for charity

Yellow TaxiYellow TaxiYellow TaxiYellow TaxiYellow TaxiYellow TaxiYellow TaxiYellow Taxi

Yellow TaxiYellow TaxiYellow TaxiYellow Taxi

Yellow TaxiYellow Taxi

Yellow Taxi

Yellow

Live music from Rock to JazzWednesdays - 4,000 won cocktails

Every other Thursday - Trivia Night

Tuesday - 5,000 won pizzas!

Located in Dunsan-dong, 3 blocks from Time World Galleria. On the corner above Garten Bier on the 4th Floor

Yellow Taxi has: a nice long bar, friendly staff, pool table, dartboards, large dance floor, booths, and stage for LIVE MUSIC!

-Tell them Daejeon Access sent you^^

Publisher: Yujin Kim (Seffrood)Editor-in-Chief: Earl NobleProduction Manager: Todd Seffrood and Sandile Nkosi Assistant Production Manager: Earl Noble Assistant Editor: Todd SeffroodClient Accounts: Yujin Kim (Seffrood)

Daejeon Access Content

Present and Past Contributors: Mike McStay, Chris Leslie, Jeffrey Neeser, Eunjoo Byun, Mik Fanguy, Tak Sakong, Van Walker, Frankie Pantangele,Todd Seffrood, and James Bordewick

The Daejeon Access is a bi-monthly magazine founded by expatriates living in Daejeon, South Korea. It provides news, information, and entertainment guides for expatriates living in Korea, with a focus on the Daejeon Metropolitan Area. Updated information can be found at our Web site: www.daejeonaccess.com. (*New website will be up soon)

Submissions to the Daejeon Access are always welcomed. Publication staff reserves the right to edit submissions for length, content and other editorial reasons and to print submissions as it sees fit. *Opinions expressed in the Daejeon Access are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the publication, its contributors or its advertisers. For more information on submissions, contact us at: daejeonguys@daejeonaccess.com *Daejeon Access wouldn’t be possible without the invaluable assistance of DICC –Daejeon International Community Center.

Yellow Taxi

Yellow

Moving to Seoul from DaejeonPage 1-2

Missing some chain restaraunt food?Page 4

Multiple personalitiesPage 5-6

Mashiso / BaboPage 7

Club convenience storePage 8

Spring travel to the Philippine IslandsPage 9-10

Backdoor AccessPage 11

Recommended places to eat in SeoulPage 12

Profile - Chinning Lee Owner and Head Chef of Bistro W in Daeheung-dong, Daejeon.

1

Seemingly everyone knows everyone (at least with foreigners)

Let’s face it, the glory days of my first year there were due to the different options of night life. Now it would appear Yellow Taxi and Sponge are it! I know I know, some love Watermelon Sugar and some other places, but it wasn’t the same for me. As for the positives, Daejeon has some great people, and I believe there are a lot of activities and events to stay busy (if one were able to wake up early enough on the weekends!). So when it was job-hunting time,

I began to look for jobs in other cities. I’m from San Diego, so a place like Seoul would be huge in comparison (I’ve also been to Chicago, New York, Istanbul, and Tokyo-needless to say: metropolises!). I decided that Seoul could work because if other people are doing it, why can’t I? I got a great job at a new university, and chose to live in Haebangchon, near Itaewon. The neighborhood has a lot of for-eigners, and cheap (that’s right, I said CHEAP-as in low price) and quality eating choices for your plea-sure. Variety is everywhere here. I get no feeling from the people here in Seoul at all that people of Seoul are somehow better than others, and none of the usual stereotypes about people from a capital city in comparison to the other cities apply here in my mind.

Some people who are live in South Korea longer than a year have considered moving to the big-top: Seoul. They look at the current, smaller city in which they live and say, ”Yep, I want the lights of the big city and all that jazz.” I made that move and have now been in Seoul for a couple of months since moving from Daejeon. Daejeon will always have a soft spot in my heart and memories. After all, I met many friends there, enjoyed two good years, and gained valu-

able experience in teaching and life. However, when people ask me about how long I have stayed in Korea, I say two years, but the first year was from 2007-08, and the second 2009-10. This is important to mention because I thought long and hard about returning to Daejeon a second year, even though I prefer to go to new places when I can. I was very reluctant to return to Daejeon, but I did return because Woosong Uni-versity provided me a good opportunity to teach. Yet in the end I concluded that each day was better than the next. Or in more simplistic way of putting it, each day was getting worse and worse, no matter how happy I was or what was going on. To put the negatives out about Daejeon first, I would say it is a city with a small-town atmosphere.

“Go small or go big when it comes to living, but do go where you want.”

Sure, I don’t get the usual stares

like I did in Daejeon from Koreans who were fasci-nated by my existence, or even the drive-by “Your handsome!” compliments from shy Korean men and women who run off giggling after saying it, but I’ve had my share of those. For the record, the men are leading in giving the handsome compliment by a large margin. Not to digress any further, I do want to point out that there is always an adjustment phase when moving to another city, so the best advice I can give is to be patient. Life was not easy the first two weeks in Seoul.

By Joe Viskoe

Moving to Seoul from Daejeon

2

After moving, you have to figure out where you live

I could not remember much and felt extremely dis-oriented the first couple weeks. I knew that I lived near Itaewon, and where the subway was, but I had to take things one day at a time and now at the present time, I feel quite comfortable about getting around. As for my commute to work, I asked sev-eral teachers at my new uni about different routes and have now found one that gets me there in 43 minutes. The first day I tried to take the subway the whole way (I teach in Seongnam, near Bundang, but live near Itaewon), and not only did it take about an hour and ten minutes, I had to withstand rush-hour in the morning.

Squished against people with barely enough room to breathe

and a rocky ride for part of the way (line 3), I had to endure constant squirming, pushing, and trying to position myself from the barging of people from the entry door to the exit door at each stop. But hey, that’s life in the big city. I now have a better route involving a bus, and now things aren’t as hectic as that first week using the subway the whole route.

Well, to wrap up this first part about life in Seoul

let me just say that if you are not one for the big city, I can understand that. But if you have fears like the ones I did (cost of living, transportation, adjustment), let me say that you can make it in Seoul. Sure there are many temptations here for blowing your money, but you can live cheap-ly here. I know a bar/club in Hongdae that has no cover charge, 2,000 big bottles of Hite, and 10,000 buckets of liquor. Make friends and con-nections and things will get better. And there are seemingly LIMITLESS ways to make cash here with so many part-time positions and other ways to make money. Go small or go big when it comes to living, but do go where you want.

Moving to Seoul from Daejeon

3

some chain restaraunt food?Missing

Sounds weird but some of you may have a hankering for some chain restaurant comfort food and the Outback/Bennigan’s/TGIFriday’s trio in Daejeon has run its course.

When you do make your next Seoul trip you may want to stop in some of these places.

Taco Bell – Itaewon (but you already know as this news spread like the scent of kimchi in a cramped bus.)

Tony Roma’s – various locations

Uno Chicago Grill – COEX

California Pizza Kitchen – Myungdong

On the Border – Sinchon, COEX, Times Square

Johnny Rockets – Shinsegae Express Bus terminal

Sbarro’s – COEX food court

Haagen Daaz - everywhere

4

5

E very couple of

months or so I Google my name to see what comes up. I see the few people who share my name who have died, I see places that I’ve been years ago but the web page isn’t dead, and I occasion-ally see my name in a place that I think it shouldn’t be. I Bing my name as well, but that always seems to yield fewer pages. In some ways, that isn’t disparaging to Bing because the choices seem more relevant.

After I run searches on my name, I then run searches on my online aliases;

yes, my aliases. A large number of people have more than one identity on the web and people who only have one identity are quickly realizing that they need more than one. One identity doesn’t suffice when your informa-tion is held in a global forum to which millions of people have free access. When employers started to do credit checks on potential employees people freaked out, their feelings being that inspect-ing a person’s personal finances was irrelevant, or at least too intimate a look for someone who didn’t even write you a paycheck. Now a credit check is standard in many industries just like a criminal background check is standard for different fields.

Keep Your Private

Follow up:

Yet all of those things are simply numbers and yes/no —credit check good, credit check bad, felonies yes, felonies no. Today a person can search your name and come up with an image or video attached to your name, images and video on the web to which you may be completely unaware. People routinely tag photos on Facebook or another social network, upload videos to YouTube, put pictures on Picasa, and attach your name to every-thing. This is great for organizing pictures for church picnics, office parties, and family outings. This makes it easier for friends and family to share information about each other’s lives and track an-nual changes as we grow in our relationships and get closer over time.

It also makes it easier for people to see what you do.

Everyone. In the past it was the social security number. Get the SSN and you’ve got everything. Now they just need your name and then they can get an entire personal profile through normal organic keyword searches. This has hurt some people; the flight attendant who was goofing off in the empty jet and posted the pictures online; the teachers who were out on vacation who sub-sequently had students discover their online album; the blogger who complained about his job; and the politician who… no need to finish that sentence.

Life

Multiple Personali

private

6

Our online selves, or at least my online self, have built in layers of intimacy.

Small children are quick to pick up on the fact that people are much more polite with strang-ers than they are with people who know them better and my online self is designed that way. My real name is always in a nice sanitized environment with nice, pretty-as-a-picture pictures that project an image of responsi-bility, confidence, and a high moral standard. Then the layers change and there is an intimate web persona that strangers, or potential employers, could never discover through any random searches. An organic search would never turn up my true political thoughts, true effective-ness in the workplace, and my true moral compass.

I like that an organic search could never reveal those things.

Ensconced in a world with in-stant communication through computers, portable media players, and smartphones,

I like that people have to talk to me to learn about my politics, to work with me to see how truly good I am at my profession, and to be with me to discern the strength of my character as they see my moral choices.

Some people may view my preference as a preference that wishes to hide something,

to not be honest about who I am, but it really is about being intimate with people. With people becoming increasingly web-reliant for their communication, our transparency of personality becomes increasingly harder to manage as we try to insulate our-selves from those to whom we are not intimate.

If you don’t have more than one web persona you should make one. Make one for your friends and family because your boss doesn’t need to know how your niece has grown up to be a truly beautiful woman.

Multiple Personali

private

ties

“follow up”

By: Earl Noble

7

Moshiso / Babo

1. Spring has arrived. Enjoy both weeks.2. Low utility bills.3. Convenience store visiting in full form.4. Longer days, shorter nights.5. Less clothing required.

1. Yellow Dust.2. Drunk expats in convenience stores screaming at passers by.3. Expats without deodorant4. Intensives coming soon for teachers.5. Less clothing required

Do You Like Writing?

Send an email to Earl@daejeonaccess.com

Write for Daejeon Access Magazine!

What should you write about?

The sky is the limit!

8

For those of you who don’t live in Japan or Korea (or even oth-er countries in Southeast Asia), convenience stores frequently have tables outside for their pa-trons. Given the absence of an open container law, people have beers or other alcoholic bever-ages at these tables. This is one of the nicest things about liv-ing in Korea, Japan, and pretty much everywhere this side of the universe. Now that spring has arrived, the convenience store drinking will be in full force.

Once, during a birthday cel-ebration, a bunch of us sat out-side GS25 in Dunsan dong. My friends were drinking while I was watching the people walk by.

The people watching was tre-mendous, more so than being in a bar or a club. People we knew also wandered up and chatted with us while we drank. People we didn’t know also came up to us, but this would be the same

C Convenience Store

Welcome to:Club Family Mart, Club Buy the Way or Club 7 Eleven.

The people watching was tremendous, more so than being in a bar or a club. People we knew also wandered up and chatted with us while we drank. People we didn’t know also came up to us, but this would be the same in any bar. You can always tell the new people. They are so excited to see white folks (they pass right by me, not being a haole) and promptly ask “How long have you been in Korea?

So, with the exception of the limited choice of beverages (yet a host of ice cream flavors to choose from), is being on a table outside a convenience store better than a bar? Or equal but different?

There is no question that it is horrendously cheaper.

lub

9

Forty minutes from Tagbilaran, the largest city in Bohol, and fifty minutes from Alona Beach, the most popular beach destination in Bohol, is the Simply Butterflies Conservation Center.

Run by Cristy Burlace, a self-described “grumpy Kiwi who likes to be left alone in the jungle”, the conservation center has been an attraction in Bohol for several years now while also strengthening the local butterfly populace.

Located on the road from Loay to the stunning Chocolate Hills of Bohol, the center spans several acres that hold the garden, breeding centers, but-terfly enclosure, and the information center and restaurant.“When I started it was raw land and I lived in a tent and dug a latrine.” Cristy reminisces, “Adding us to the grid for power and then permits and building the plumbing came next. Building the infrastructure was important but I knew I had to start tracking down host plants. I would walk through the jungle and when I discovered the host plant, I would plant them in the

garden and that would eventually attract that par-ticular butterfly.”

The local response has been positive as the center employs a dozen residents of Bilar.

“I didn’t know this at the time, but for the two years I spent prepping the place people in the town thought I was searching for some forgot-ten Spanish treasure. When I had the backhoe come out to begin construction, many people thought ‘Aha, she has finally found the Span-ish gold!’ They were terribly disappointed when they learned I was really building a butterfly garden.” says Cristy.

The center has a few hundred visitors a day even in the off-peak travel season.

“All the major resorts have us on their tour schedule and all the smaller operators include

Butterflies Conservation Center

Simply

10

Spring Travel: Bilar, Bohol, The

Philippine Islands

us as a value-add on the way to the Chocolate Hills. The standard tour takes about forty-five minutes and the tour operators let them linger for a half hour or so. If the tourists don’t take the popular Loboc river cruise and lunch, they tend to lunch here since we have a fully stocked kitchen.”

The garden also has comfortable accom-modations that run for 600 pesos a night.

“People that stay here for a couple of days re-ally want the peace and quiet as we have no TV service, no obnoxious karaoke machine, and no clubs in walking distance. We have wireless internet for people who bring their laptops, but most of our overnight visitors spend their days walking through the garden, reading books, and drinking rum and beer. At two bucks for a bottle of 8-year old rum, visitors drink lots of rum.” Cristy adds.

How to get there:From Cebu you can take a high speed ferry boat to Tagbilaran, about ninety minutes. If you book two days in advance, the ferry tickets can be as much as half off, especially if you book round trip. From Tagbilaran go to the bus terminal and book a seat on a V-hire (van for hire) to Bilar. Tell the driver you want to go to the Butterfly garden and he’ll stop for you.If not, look for the nipa waiting shelter, color flags, and “open sign” on the Highway. It’s just 1km before the Bilar market, and five minutes out of the Man Made Forest on the way to the Chocolate Hills.

Walk or drive on in, the entrance is 50m off the Highway, behind the car park.

If you’re feeling really adventurous, sky dive into the compound and Cristy will give you a free crate of beer if you haven’t broken any-thing.Tell Cristy “hello” and that Daejeon Access sent you.

11

The Mill opened in December 2007.

It offers a unique cuisine prepared by

Danny, the head chef. Danny mastered

his culinary arts in Australia and the

difference in taste is mouthwateringly

palpable!

This quaint and relaxing cafe’ offers superior quality food and coffee. It is a smoke-free environment ac-companied by a soothing ambience of easy-listening English music, perfect for sipping on coffee and losing yourself in a good book or work on your laptop.

Whether you are looking for an iced coffee to cool of on a sweltering day or a nice tortilla wrap, The Mill offers a Western-style environment that feels like home.

The Mill is located at the Crosswalk next to the Catholic Cathedral Bookstore, beside the Korea Exchange Bank in Daehung-dong, and kiddie cor-ner from the Flying Pan Italian restaurant.Take-out available: (042)-221-8005 and tell them Daejeon Access sent you!

Backdoor AccessThe menu accommodates the full range of food tastes, including vegetarians.

12

Recommended places to eat in

SeoulOK2 Kitchen

Itaewon

Chef Susumu Yonaguni serves modern food in a non-pretentious manner. The only restaurant in Seoul that has a fifty-buck five course dinner and doesn’t even notice that you are wearing a t-shirt and jean shorts. Gorgeous, balanced food, care-fully prepared by a brigade that has some serious skills. Fantastic gnocchi, hand-made ravioli, great salads—yes you read that right, SALADS. Extensive wine list, paper napkins, no tablecloths. The coat-and-tie crowd comes here but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. Make sure you try the Gorgonzola ice cream. Limoncello is made in house, too. Bring buckets of ducats; this one is going to cost you.

Directions:

From McDonald’s walk towards Itaewon station. At the next traffic light, cross the street and you should see it behind La Dolce Vita and All That Jazz.

Casablanca

Haebangchon

Chef Wahid serves some mean Moroccan sandwiches and is quickly becoming a local legend. Three four-buck sandwiches: Vegetarian, Berber Omelette, and Moroccan Chicken. Two five-buck sandwiches: Spicy Shrimp and Lamb Chili. Lentil soup for two bucks and a carrot salad for two bucks as well. Get an extra sandwich for the ride back to Daejeon. These sandwiches are the total bomb. Forget about Pita Time, this place will rock your world like your prom date.

Directions:

In Haebangchon so Exit 2 of Noksapyeong Sta-tion, keep walking, turn left when you can. Past the kimchi pots, past Hanshin apartments (on your right) and just past the newly refurbished Phillies on the left side.

Berber, French, Arabic, English, Korean, and Japanese spoken.

Have you ever been overseas?

I lived in all over the US including FL, RI, IL, and NY for a total of 8 years. I’ve visited France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy.

If you were stranded on a desert island and could have only one book, one CD, and one movie, what would they be?

I would bring a culinary art book and hope I could find ingredients. I might bring a Linkin’ Park CD. I’d bring American Pie for the movie. Something to keep my spirits up.

What are your favorite sports teams?

I like Manchester United. Just like every Korean. Go Park Ji Sung!!!

What’s the most embarrassing thing that happened to you in your professional life?

I was teaching swimming at a part-time job I had in America. One day I jumped in the pool and my swimsuit came off.

What’s your favorite food and beverage?

Since my passion is food, its hard to pick just one. I like all kinds of food from all countries.

What’s the most annoying thing about expats in Daejeon?

Nothing about expats annoys me. I was an expatriate in the United States for some time. I understand and enjoy other cultures.

What’s the best thing you like about expats?

I’ve been a foreigner all around the world. I know sometimes I’ve annoyed people, but there were a lot of people that understood me. I understand how foreigners feel here.

Anything else you want to share with us?

It makes me feel great when people enjoy my food. Since I learned how to cook in US with chefs from around the world. I love when foreign people tell me that I helped them remember what good food from home taste like.

8 Questions to Chinning Lee.Owner and Head Chef of Bistro W in Daeheung-dong, Daejeon.