Caveat: Alcoholland!

It’s not what you’re thinking.

Last night, I joined some fellow foreigners on what is a regular Friday-night outing in Yeonggwang, for pizza and beer and later a game of self-generated trivia. And what turned out to be a lot of disgruntled chat about “things wrong with Yeonggwang” or “things wrong with Korea.” And I admit, I was disgrumbling, too.

Ultimately, one of the reasons I find myself staying away from gatherings of expats in this country is that they too often turn into complaints sessions. Either that, or it’s just an almost college-life-style binge drinking experience. Which is a total turn off for me, too.

Don’t get me wrong… everybody needs to complain – all you have to do is read my blog to see that I’m guilty of it too. But I also have learned, over the years, that sitting around and complaining, socially, is generally a bad idea. It reinforces the feelings of powerlessness and frustration, rather than leading to solutions or forebearance. So I tend to make my own complaining a solitary pursuit – I complain to the journal (this blog), and I keep my face-to-face social interactions as positive as I am able. It’s hard. But it pays rewards, emotionally.

There aren’t many “foreigners” working in Yeonggwang county. There are maybe a dozen working for the public schools. These foreigners have been attempting to forge some degree of community, under the leadership of a guy named Jim. I admire this – Jim’s even created a website, which is full of information for people who might come to Yeonggwang in the future.

I suspect there may be some foreigners working at the nuclear power plant, but I haven’t met any. Some of these may be “guys from India,” such as I found to be so ubiquitous in Suwon (a city with a lot of things for internationally savvy software engineers to do). I have overheard something that was either Chinese or Vietnamese on the bus to Hongnong twice. So there are non-native-English-speaking foreigners around, too. But I’d be willing to guess that none of the hagwon in the Yeonggwang area are employing westerners.  Are there other foreigners? Probably… but I don’t know where they are or what they’re doing. It’s not like Ilsan, where there are whole restaurants and bars dedicated to the “foreigner” market.

Oh. So what’s with the title of this post? I saw a sign on a bar, walking back from the pizza joint, that seemed to imply that the name of the bar was “Alcoholland.” I attempted to snap a picture with my cellphone… it didn’t come out well, but there it is. What a totally awesome name for a bar. And maybe… what a great nickname for all of South Korea. It sure is hard, sometimes, not being a hardcore boozer, in this country.

I had one beer last night, and woke up with a headache. I don’t do alcoholland well, obviously.