"EXPAT FLYERS" SUCKS!!!!

I have so much to say, but for now, I am posting my correspondence with the owner and let his words speak for themselves. And FYI he added the color to the email, not me.

MY EMAIL:
Dear Matthew,

I just wanted to let you know how I felt about my experience with Expat Flyers. As a business owner, I thought that it could only help you improve your business.

The biggest issue for me was that your directions were not helpful. You wrote the wrong terminal in one of your emails ("The easiest way to get to us is from Yuseong express bus terminal by taking the 104 bus to depyeong ri."). These directions never mentioned that there was more than one bus terminal (and thus a possibility for confusion). Nor did you tell me that you would recommend that I take the bus to Daejeon, since you told me later that is the easiest way to find the intercity terminal. Also, I asked for you to send me the name of the terminal in Korean. I think this would be helpful to all customers who speak limited Korean so they can show it to people, which creates less confusion than speaking. A map might also be helpful. I know that you must think that I am incompetent with directions, but I have traveled a lot in Korea (and in other foreign countries) and I have never been that lost at any point in my life. It was very frightening. I recommend that you make a word document that you can copy and paste into your future correspondences, something detailed that tells people they should take the bus, note that there are three possible Yuseong Bus Terminals (the express bus terminal, the intercity bus terminal and the intercity bus stop - which is where my second taxi driver took me when I told him "Yuseong Intercity Bus Terminal"), etc. If you save it as a document, then you do not need to worry about error and you will not need to retype it for each customer.

I understand that the only reason that I was so lost was that because of a lot of coincidences, but I planned everything properly and I did not realize all of the things that could go wrong. You made it sound very simple and I arrived at what I thought was the right location without an issue. I would have prepared myself for problems if I was aware of how confusing it would be.

Secondly I feel like my first day of lessons was not satisfactory. I was so dehydrated and tired from traveling from 6 am - 3:30 pm (7 hours of which were spent wandering all around Daejeon, Cheonan, etc.) that I was just agreeing to do whatever you wanted because I didn't want to be a bother anymore. Since we had already discussed a refund, I was under the impression that you were taking me for a joy ride to become familiar with the aircraft. That is my fault for not thinking in terms of business and you as the business owner. I am not upset that I did not receive a full refund, but I do not think that 100,000 won was a fair price to charge. As far as that lesson went, everything that you said, you taught me again, and more thoroughly, the next day. The flight was short and since I did not realize that it was a lesson, I did not try to fly or do much more than stare out the window and look at whatever gadget you pointed to since I could not properly hear you. The 'lesson' was basically 10-15 minutes of rushed information and a short, pointless flight. I would not have minded if you charged some won for the first day, like I said it was completely my fault for not declining the flight. However, since we had already talked about a refund, I just assumed that was the agreement we had decided on.

I want to let you know that I am grateful for any money back, but I saved for about a month to go on this trip and I feel like your poor directions were a large part of the reason that I missed Day One of lessons in the first place.

Additionally, I feel like the setting should be a little more professional. I felt very awkward being placed in the middle of the poor interrelations of the aviation club. Also, I would have preferred to have two or three hours of intense lessons rather than 5 hours of sitting around mixed with lessons and flying. Others might like the laid back atmosphere, but I feel like I paid for lessons so that is what I want most of my time there to consist of.

On a positive note, it is very clear that you are a talented pilot and that you are very safe while it seems many other pilots are not as stringent in their safety policies. I really enjoyed my time in the air and I think that when it comes to teaching you are very knowledgeable. I was happy with the information that I learned and I trust you as a teacher.

I hope that this information is helpful. I figured that every business owner should know how their customers feel, especially if there can be improvements made. Good luck with your interview for the Korean Herald and in Australia! Perhaps I will see you again.

Best,
Kate Davis

HIS RESPONSE:

Kate,

My classes help subsidise my income at present to let people fly cheap. I have had only one person got lost before. The directions couldn't be much more simple. Yuseong express bus terminal. Turn left and the stop is on the left. How easy is that! There are two bus stations in Yuseong but there is only one express bus terminal for Seoul. I think it is very unfare writting these comments and rude after someone goes to the trouble of driving over forty kilometers to give a special service for you! Also the car costs Gas and to turn down one customer to collect you!

My lose for you coming is far more than what you paid!

Let me just say this. To please you I took you up in the air even though I had been running around all day. I cancelled my classes in Boreong because I felt sorry for you. I lost a whole evenings earnings!.

Also the following day after already telling you what time I would pick you up you decided to have breakfast. You already knew what time I was coming before. Why were you not ready. This is manners ! Also I took my time with flights because the weather was not great and there were time when it was gusting and would have been too dangerous to fly. I like to be safe. We took you out and give you a good meal for free on the house. I gave you money back also and you write such a horrible letter.

You have no idea of the red tape involved in Korea and how difficult it has been to get this far! I am in process of upgrading many things but the process is slow and painful.

Now lets talk about prices. Uk prices for flight training are 200 dollars an hour. Korea is around 190 dollars and there is no real ground and the instructors take no time to do any special service like pick up etc. Korea is not blessed with cheap gas like the States and 70 percent of the money is on gas.

I do not know what kind of business you do, but if it takes you one month to save to do a course, please do not give people business advice because obviously you don't have a clue about running a business. I went out of my way to help you ! I have never had such a horrible mail before! I have never had anyone complain like you before! This is not constructive critism, it is rude and it is a complaint!

MY RESPONSE TO HIS RESPONSE:
Matthew,

I assure you that I never meant to be rude. I had a friend read the email solely for the purpose of telling me if there was anything that I could say differently and he told me that it did not seem bitter or rude to him. If you saw it that way, then I apologize. I really meant to give you constructive criticism. I never meant to offend you. I think that everything I said could be helpful in the future. I am very sorry that you turned down a customer to pick me up and I greatly appreciate that you did that for me. I know that I was a bother.

I think that you should have told me flat out what all of these issues were. You told me repeatedly that you were not canceling classes for me so I believed that. Anyway, I told you that I was fine not having a class. If you thought I was rude, then tell me and don't make faces at me when you think I cannot see you. I apologize again for being rude, but I am not a passive-aggressive type person and I thought that you, the business owner, should know what I was telling people. I thought that I was being courteous telling you what I was telling my friends, co-workers, etc. who were all interested and potential customers.

As far as my business, I make a lot of money, but I have tons of school debt to pay off so I budget it carefully; entertainment and frivolities obviously get least priority. And when I deal with my customers, I treat them with respect and try my best to please them.

Matthew, as I said I did not mean to write that email as a personal attack. I told you that I trusted you as a pilot and that I learned a lot, which is what really mattered. I understood that my circumstance was extreme. I tried to end the email with positive information so that you would understand that it wasn't an attack. I wanted to fly with you again for those reasons, which I stated at the end of the email. I knew that I was a bother and I wanted to return again with friends to make up for it. My friends wanted to fly, as I told you, and now that I know how to get there, there should have been no problem. We were going to plan a trip. But obviously now you have made this personal by clearly attacking me. I would rather not trek down to Daejeon to fly with you again.

Kate

More to come...

Sorak San!

Words coming soon! :)

Obama and Pig's Feet

On Wednesday, November 5th, a group of co-workers decided to try 족발 (jokbal) aka pig's feet. Coincidentally, this was also the night of the US Presidential Election. What a joyous evening for us!

Jokbal comes with lots of side dishes, including blood sausage and flesh from the pig's head (both on the right plate). The meat tasted very good. It was sort of fatty, but once you got past thinking "This is a pig's foot" it was very enjoyable. We shared two orders of jokbal between four people and that was definitely enough. If you are going to eat some, have at least three people to an order, but four is better.

The newbies enjoying the fruits of our labor/the labor of the Koreans with us who had to deal with the crazy restaurant owners. It was actually quite a scene to be seated. There were eight of us and many of the restaurants in the area were very small. Two women from nearby shops actually slapped each other over who would get us. We almost left because it was so awkward, but the nicer woman (who did not start the slap fight) came out to us and we ate in her area.

Our second, and last stop, of the evening. Fried food! Right next to the boiled pig's feet area is the fried anything-you-can-imagine area. It's very good when you are drinking. The newbies' favorite fried food: fried bread, haha! In the above picture, the fried food is in the center. Of course makgeolli is our bowls/cups.

We were all really sad that we missed out on history, but we made sure that we were as connected as possible. We were already pretty positive when we woke up Wednesday that Obama was our president, but I (as a Floridian) wanted to wait until it was 100% approved. This was that that moment.

오바마 wins! Cheers to Obama! YAY America!

Monkey Beach in Apgujeong

Monkey Beach is a cheap club in Apgujeong, the ritzy area of Seoul that boasts a sort of Rodeo Drive shopping area (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apgujeong). Never go here! You think that it is a good idea when you here about the buckets of alcohol and free glow-in-the-dark glasses, but do not be taken in! I figured "It's in Apgujeong, so even though it's cheap, it must still have some class." Wrong.

A picture with the birthday boy, whose bright idea it was to come here. I won't hold it against you... :)

You think I would be happy with my 12,000 won rum and coke (my second, free one because they took my first one away before I was done! Luckily I was with a Korean friend who could tell them where to put their bucket. Back into my hand!) and my free glow-in-the-dark glasses, but I could not enjoy my time there. I heard Tubthumping by Chumbawumba THREE times! This song was voted 12th most annyoying song by Rolling Stone and they played it thrice, among other songs that must have been on the CD they were playing.

We are trying to be classy, sipping our buckets leisurely at our reserved table...

...but it's hard to do with all the stripper poles and shady GIs that are there!

I was so angry that I could have pulled the snot out of a Korean man's nose. Oops. Monkey Beach de-classed me...! Why????

LOTTE WORLD! The greatest Disney-wannabe in the world!

WELCOME!
Sort of. This gate is closed at 9:30am so there was no one there to greet us. Or let us in.

This is the Lotte World mascot. Remind you of any other animal with whiskers that wears a tuxedo and a top hat? (Yeah, I mean Mickey.)

Lotte World is also trying to copy Rome with a Trevi-esque fountain outside of the ticket office. I like the sales racks and piles of clothing in the foreground of this picture...

This is the ticket office. We got there at about 9:00 or 9:30 in order to ensure that we could ride all of the rides before students got out of school. (This is on a Saturday, mind you. Poor Korean kids.) Anywho, the outdoor offices were closed, so we had to go down into the basement of the Lotte Department Store/ Jamsil Subway area to the open ticket window. I think we got 10% off because we are foreigners, so it was about 30,000 won to get the all access pass. With certain credit cards you can get up to 50% off, I think, but we didn't have any of those.

The problem with getting there so early was that a lot of the rides were closed. This lag in open rides allowed us to browse the carts that are all over the park and ride some of the smaller rides that were still enjoyable, like Bumper Cars (which of course we took to the extreme) and the the Gyro Drop (pictured below). The Gyro Swing (not pictured), my favorite ride, was open this early, though, so if you are thinking of going, I still say go early.

They also had a good selection of arcade games to play, which we all enjoyed because we are very competitive. Phil kicked this basketball game's butt and won 3 little teddy bears as a result. Haha.



While we were waiting in line, there was this guy dancing next to the line. He was dancing for about 30 minutes! Phil was saying a lot of funny things, but I don't think you can hear that. But check out this guy's moves...

Lotte World also offers shows. This was a Halloween themed song and dance type show. It was okay, but it seemed like the dancers weren't very in sync. There was some breakdancing, too. Of course. Koreans love breakdancing.

The Gyro Drop!

There are also a lot of photo ops around Lotte World. Very entertaining when you are waiting for rides to open. Or people to come out of the bathroom.

All in all, Lotte World was pretty fun. We ended up staying until about 6pm. An added bonus is that you are allowed to leave the park and come in again, so we were able to eat lunch outside of the park, which theoretically should have been cheaper (but we went to TGIFridays and spent about as much on lunch as we did on the ticket to the park). And, like most places in Korea, you can drink beer there. Many of the food/drink stands had water, soda and beer to sell. It's no Disney World, but it's pretty close!!

A Day in the Life* - Shopping and Konglish

*Warning: This is just a reenactment of what a normal day might entail. Not an actual day.

The first part of my day is being woken up by construction on the weekdays (screaming girls on the weekends). They are building a new subway line, which is sweet, but I hope that it's finished before I leave.

If I'm going shopping, then I jump on the subway. My closest station is Balsan (pronounced sort of like pie-san). It's on the purple line, which is also the line I need to take to Dongdaemun to shop.

We need to hydrate before we go shopping, so Phil buys a soda from a street vendor.

We also grab some food from the Dongdaemun Market. This is stir fried pork intestines, I believe. It tastes good, but it's very chewy. Andrew couldn't eat it (lame-o) so I ate most of this and Andrew ate the noodles. Then he got a deep fried hot dog covered in French fries. (I'll get a picture of that soon. I can't believe they don't have them in the US!)

Now we're ready to shop! We're going to Doota, which is in the background.

This is in the underground area of Doota. Lots of shops and people.

Phil is looking for the perfect shirt. Could this be the one?

I don't know why blogger won't rotate the picture. I rotated it in iPhoto, but that still doesn't work. Anyway, can anyone figure out what this shirt is trying to say? Konglish...

More Konglish. Peace and bombs in the same bubble? Hmmmm.

Leaving the market via the shoe area of Dongdaemoon. Phil likes.

Yeah, this is the subway theater. We can sit and watch performances on our way back home. Pretty classy.

Picking up supplies for the night. I think this was about $9 for 3 liters. Soju is too cheap! PS We did NOT buy this ridiculous bottle.

We did buy this though. Because we are stylish. And we needed the fiber.

And at the end of the night, Phil (pronounced "peel") and I are left to our own devices in Shinchon/Hongdae. Then we take a taxi home because the subway is closed. And that's the end of my day!

I have internet!

Hey everyone! I have internet in my apartment so now I have no excuse to be lame. It took a while because I wasn't sure if I would be staying in my stinky apartment but apparently Korean people cannot smell, so I have to stick it out until it is unbearable again (and hopefully that will not happen). Anyhow. A lot of things have happened, obviously. And I know most of you are super dorky, so I am going to try and include weblinks so that you can further research some of the cool Korean things I am experiencing. Here are some...

"Work" Life:
I am in my sixth week of teaching at the Mokdong-2 branch (http://job.cdi.co.kr/teaching/PhotoList.aspx?BranchIdx=86). I am finally getting the hang of it. I teach three different classes (but two of them are similar and since my school is so small, they don't have enough teachers to teach them separately so I have to double up). I teach English Chip Level 3. English Chip is the lowest group, so it's the most draining to teach because you have to entertain 10 year-olds who are tired because they have already gone to school, the music academy, math tutoring, etc. and then they come to the English academy from 7pm-10pm. Some of my students say they don't go to bed until 1 or 2am!!! EC classes meet 2 times a week and I teach four of them, so out of my ten 3-hour slots, 8 slots are EC3. My other two slots are Interactive Listening and Interactive Reading Level Par (for Interactive they use golf terms, so the lowest is Par, then Birdie, then Eagle, then Albatross. Yay! I know golf talk!). Par is the highest level for my school and I love teaching it! Listening is easier because you just have to play sound clips and then discuss them with the students. Reading is the other class and it is harder than Listening, so only five students (all girls, haha) are in it. It's nice to have a small class but it's harder to get them talking. They are getting more comfortable now, so it gets better each week. Most of my favorite students are in the Listening and/or Reading classes.

These are some pictures of my EC3 students, being crazy with the Photobooth on my awesome new computer!!! I had to bring it into work with me the day I bought it. (The picture on the left is supposed to be them on a rollercoaster. You can kind of see it above Billy's left hand. The other biy is John and the girl is Julie.)








Here are pictures of the classroom. The girl in the front of the right hand picture is my favorite student! Her name is Sally and she is SO cute and sweet. Another teacher, Phil, tries to take her from me, but she loves me too much to fall for his tricks. John from above and Sally are cousins. I want to hang out with their family. They must be cool and a little crazy.

Play Time:
There has been a lot of fun times had. Unfortunately there is little photographic evidence to support that claim. But the norebangs ("singing rooms") are amazing. When I went to visit my friend Debbie, we stayed at one until 6 or 7 am without even realizing it! People stay out so late that there are just as many people singing and walking around at 6am as there are when you start norebanging at midnight. (Sidenote: Sheila, I need your help dealing with pictures! Right now they always paste into the top. Do you know how to fix that or if Blogger just has photo albums? Thanks. :) ) So here are some of the highlights of playtime since I have been here...

Here are people from work. Every Wednesday (we get off early on Wednesday because we start at 2pm instead of 4pm) we go into Hongdae or Shinchon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hongdae_area and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinchon) to "revel" as wikipedia put it. Left to right: June, Phil, Eric, ME, Sandie, Fabienne and Androuche. I don't know how to rotate the photo... :(


This is from the nght that our boss to everyone from our branch out to eat, drink and nore! Mr. Lee is the one dancing around and making everyone drink tornadoes (beer and soju, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soju)


Here we are eating silk worm larvae, called bundaegi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundaegi) which looks like roaches or something. That kid Ben bought some to challenge people to eat it. I accepted, of course. I think this youtube video captures the experience pretty well: http://www.ifood.tv/video/korean_food_silk_worm_larva_bundigie


This is us digging for sweet potatoes. We think it was really just slave labor...


But I kicked ass and got lots of sweet potatoes to take home. We made them with chicken, apples and cinnamon. yuuuuummmm...

Well, I have to go see fireworks. It's only about 1:15pm, but we have to get good seats and alcohol to occupy our time while we wait. I'll post about it!