What Am I Really Doing Here?

I don’t even know at times. I just constantly remind myself to plainly take whatever fate is slapping me with. EVEN THE UNFAVORABLE ONES.

I of course came to South Korea for work. Just like how a normal Filipino would treat outside-the-country endeavors. With current inflation hitting household pockets and business balance sheets, it would be impractical to say that it’s purely for fun or vacation. How I wish I were some old-aged Caucasian backpacker just out to squander all the money that his 401(k) is giving him. Hell no. But I am out to make my parents just like them, and so I am willing to take the risk, and the upright challenge and adventure that goes with it. I am in my twenties, done with school, and out to head on with anything to help paint my future, so I could give it all back to my parents who worked their asses out in letting me finish school. I am still on shaky waters, though.

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The Korean Subway System

The city of Seoul boasts of 15 train lines that make up the very efficient Seoul Subway Network. A total number of 2.2 billion passengers per year patronize the said subway system, and it is the fourth largest subway following London, New York, and Tokyo, in terms of scale.

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Thomson, Back Home

There sure was that little pride that stirred in me having stepped inside Thomson Reuters’s office in Seoul for our first day of training, which happened in the afternoon. I suddenly missed home and my life back at work, as well as colleagues that I spent working nights with at that time when I was employed with the old Thomson Financial. The branch office that Thomson Reuters holds here in South Korea banners OMGEO, the client-based department of the company. I only know a little about that department back in Manila, being the support group for Thomson’s financial data buyers. It is not really surprising for the now merged data vendor to have established a customer-focused branch office in a country like Korea, where securities companies that depend on a significant bulk of financial data, abound.

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Government Office Tours

As an overseas Filipino worker, the Philippine Embassy in South Korea and the Immigration Office prove to be the two most important government agencies to have official transactions with. The Immigration legalizes one’s tenure here, through the certificate of alien registration that every foreigner should apply and pay for, while the Philippine Embassy protects the welfare and safety of its Filipino workers through employment validation and contract authentication, among others.

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Sunday at Hyehwa

Filipinos are just about everywhere. And so in Seoul. We get so surprised with how Koreans are currently flocking the Philippines enrolling in English Language schools, and so we do our fair share of spread here in Korea. Haha. Everyone just brings about a certain level of comfort to one another, knowing that there are “kababayans”, who are just as friendly and hospitable as what we’ve always been known for, and whom each can always run to.

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First Week at Work

One thing sure, it’s going to be a real challenge for me. Adjusting with life at home with my roommate slash work colleague, and keeping up with the demands of the new job— it sure will test the wits and PATIENCE out of me.

Everybody in the research center has really been so kind and welcoming, making it easier for us to adjust and compose ourselves. We couldn’t thank them enough. I would still personally get skeptic at times, when I get those looks from people, and they then start talking in Korean, which I of course still do not understand. I just rest myself with the thought that it is just how people would normally react when they see something new, and, well… a little unique. Teehee.

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The Officetel

They call it “officetel”in Konglish (Korean-English), but the place is so high-rise condominium to us. My Filipina colleague and I are staying at the 18^th floor of the Shin Young Gwell Building in Mapo-gu, a district brightened by many bars and hofs at night. Drinking sprees anyone? Teehee.

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First Weekend in Seoul

Friday: 6pm onwards

A big improvement this time, we caught on our huge bags more easily in the wide luggage counter of Incheon’s airport upon arriving in the evening. It was so unlike that previous trip in January where it took us almost an hour to find our checked-in luggage. There were then a couple of short talks with Filipino men while pushing our bag carts on our way out, giving us that little tap of comfort in a place entirely not so like home. Mr. Funny Guy, our ‘fetcher’ and colleague at work, waved at us immediately when he saw us go out the immigration area. We quickly exchanged our money in one of the foreign exchange counters found inside the airport lobby and went straight to the car after.

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Thank You

We all go through our own journeys in our own paces in life, and along the way we meet people whom we share all that makes the experience wonderful. They are friends whom I could simply be grateful for, and they are friends I now would want to dedicate some words to. To these people, I think you know why I am so overflowing with expression to each one of you. From the bottomest of my heart, THANK YOU ;-)

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Flight on a Solar Eclipse

A solar eclipse is happening today, which will start passing through Northern Canada at 8:04 am UTC, and will end in China a little after noon (12:38 UTC). The totality of the solar eclipse, which will last for about two and a half minutes at around 10:22 am UTC, will happen in Russia.

And in what other people may consider as a spectacular, scientific, natural phenomenon, a momentous, personal transition will be happening to me this same day.

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