Small Town Life

There is a magical quality about my hometown that is hard to describe.  To an outsider it may seem just a sleepy college town with nothing particularly noteworthy about it.  After all, it does not have a mall, there is one bowling alley, and only one movie theater with subpar seating and surround sound to see the latest films.  It does not show the latest in fashion trends or have 5 star restaurants, but it has character and charm that cannot be found in a big city.

I think it is a lack of things to do there that made it such a special place to grow up.  I learned to appreciate everything that little town life had to offer.  I can’t tell you how many nights of my youth were spent in my grandmother’s yard with my brothers and cousins playing tag and hide-and-seek or trying to catch lightning bugs in the summer.  We would play until it got too dark and then retire into the house for delicious food and some TV.  Of course the candy dish was raided each time we went inside. 

Countless evenings were also spent walking around the neighborhood with my mother and brothers, down streets full of shady trees and colorful flowers, past parks and creeks that were always at a different water level, and often stopping to talk with someone we knew from around the neighborhood that happened to be out enjoying the evening as well.

Our university’s cross country course offered countless trails and hidden paths to play in at all times of the day and night.  It is a gem that few people know about or appreciate.  It is a place where nature abounds and you can go for peace and fresh air.  The fields are covered in wildflowers of all colors that dance and sway with the grass as the wind blows, and it being Oklahoma, they are always putting on a good show.  Birds and other critters chirp and chatter happily from unseen places off the side of the trail.  From time to time people can be seen out there hitting golf balls or flying their model airplanes.  It really is a marvelous place.   Even up into college I would take my books out there, sneak off the trail, and study hidden away by trees where I could focus and enjoy nature at the same time.

I really don’t think there is anything more wonderful than being out for a walk in a small town in the fall when the leaves begin to change and the smell of a woodsmoke fire fills the air. When you have nothing to do but enjoy your walk and look forward to a birthday dinner with family at the end of the day.   Nothing is better, unless, say, it is a spring day where the weather is nice and warm with a promise of an Oklahoma thunderstorm in the evening.  It might seem strange to an outsider, but I think most Oklahomans enjoy the excitement and energy of a spring storm.  We get a thrill of checking our intuition about the weather with the latest reports of the state famous meteorologists.

Downtown gives off a feeling of times gone by and lazy days spent out with family and friends.  Old downtowns like ours are a glimpse back to a different time in America. A time free of Wal Marts and chain restaurants. In our town you can still find the American Legion, an old barbershop, furniture stores, cafes, jewelry stores, thrift shops, and restaurants of all sorts.   I can spend hours just wandering the alleys of downtown and stopping in for a drink at the café where I almost always see someone I know.  I have wonderful memories of having a good drink or two at the pub with my brothers or friends, and then riding bikes around until dark without a care in the world.

The university has always been a very special place to me.  It is a timeless place where you can feel the years of accumulated knowledge and dreams in the trees, grass, and buildings.  I have grown up hearing the library’s bell ring daily, in a way acting as the soundtrack of my life.  I used to roam the campus as a child, fishing in the pond and feeding ducks that call it home.  I have never stopped appreciating the university and all that is has done for my family and I. 

I now live in a big city across the world from my hometown, but I often find myself still daydreaming about the walking the streets I used to roam and thinking back to simple nights spent with family and friends just enjoying each other’s company.  I don’t know where my fiancée and I will end up living after we get married, but I hope that at some point I can give her the chance to experience life outside of a big city, even if it just for a few years.  Big cities may offer more in the way of shopping and things to do, but I think that small towns can make us more appreciative for the small things in life.

Big City Life

Having come from a fairly small town, living in my second megalopolis has been quite an experience.  I was used to being called a "city boy" back home by some and that is because I lived in a town of nearly 46,000 people.  A sizable city you may think if you were to compare it to the smaller ones that surround it with populations of 3,000 people or less.  Believe me, there are some with less than that back near where I am from.  The kind of towns that you drive through if you roll through the four-way stop.  The kind of towns that have that similar layout of a gas station (serving as the local watering hole and hangout joint), an old self-wash car wash (if it is a fairly 'large' town), and a few houses of varying states of decrepitness.

I used to think my hometown was fairly large as well until I moved overseas and into the heart of Seoul.  Seoul has a city populations of over 10 million and a metro over over 25 million. Yes, you read that right. Slap on six zeros behind that 25.  If you think of your local Wal-Mart as being crowded on a pre-holiday evening, I can assure you that you haven't seen anything yet.  The cartloads may be bigger back home, but until you have elbowed your way through a store, you can't really say you have experienced being somewhere crowded.  Riding the subway is generally fine in terms of space.  Often times there are plenty of open seats even on the busiest lines, but, and I mean but, wait until you hit rush hour when everyone is getting off work.  Those Discovery and Travel Channel shows about Tokyo where people are nicely shoved into trains that are overflowing with people are a reality.  Take it from me, the best way to get on is to just lean against the people and sort of just lay back.  If you can manage to do just that you have successfully boarded the train.  Human osmosis would have happened and you would have been sucked into the crowd without problems.

Bangkok is also a monster of a city.  Sporting over 8 million people in the city proper and over 14 million in the entire outlying area, there are a lot of people everywhere.  I have seen traffic jams within the city itself that would cause your blood pressure to rise just by looking at a snapshot of it.  Being unemployed I have become sort of an export mall wanderer.  Scoff if you will, but these malls are big enough to get lost in.  The Siam Paragon near where Soojeong works is one of the biggest shopping malls in Asia. It has everything you could want from Rolls Royce, Lamborghini, Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Givenchy, Lotus, Mazeratti, restaurants, cafes, movie theater, 8,000 square foot gourmet market, and the largest aquarium in Southeast Asia.  To navigate a behemoth like this requires skill and stamina.

Don't get me wrong, big cities are great for entertainment and shopping.  It is so nice being able to have such a variety of shops and restaurants to choose from when you want to go out for the day.  My town boasts one movie theater (maybe two now), one bowling alley, and not a single full-sized mall.  I have become more of a city person than most of my fellow classmates who moved to bigger cities in America are.  Los Angeles and New York City might be large with their 4 and 8 million people respectively, but Seoul still dwarfs them and my time in Tokyo (with 13 million people in the city and 35 million in the metro) set me up for the win. I have been to almost every type of cafe you can think of, hit countless museums of various sorts, spent time wandering palace grounds, and seen the latest and greatest technology being implemented in buildings and other public institutions.

When all is said and done though, I would much rather live out my days in a smaller city.  Sure I may not have all of the options for entertainment and food, but there is something magical about streets lined with big shady trees, parks that have creeks and lots of grass to play on, and little local restaurants where people really get to know one another.  Besides, I can always hop on a plane and go and visit one of the big cities that I have called home in the past.  I have the experience and know how to survive in a bustling city where there are plenty of people and more buildings than trees.  I may be a 'city boy' these days by virtue of circumstance, but I would like to think that I still remain a small town boy living in a big city. Call me a city boy if you will, but as for me, all I can say is 'thank God I'm a country boy.'

Asiatique

Our destination for last weekend: Asiatique.  Asiatique is a fancy shopping, dining, and entertainment venue located just up the river in Bangkok.  There is a free boat that shuttles visitors to the pier there every fifteen minutes.  The whole area is laid out in an American fishing pier/wharf style.  The shops were varied and interesting, the food was delicious, and the beer was ice cold.  It was pure bliss.  Salted potato wedges and fries with ranch dressing washed down with a nice cold wheat beer....It was a snack to be remembered for years in a posh little restaurant with my beautiful fiancee.  Asiatique is the perfect place to spend a few hours relaxing and enjoying all of the little things that make life wonderful.  If you go, hit up the 'doctor fish' foot massage.  It is worth the six dollars to experience.

Job Hunting in Bangkok

Being unemployed now for the first time in years, I have had time to sit back and think about employment in general.  Up until now things have always seemed to work in my favor in regards to jobs.  Put in an application, do your work, and get money.  Simple.  I have held various jobs throughout my 24 years of existence.  I began as a paper boy, worked as a yard hand at my family members’ home, worked fast food, manufactured electronics, and taught English in Korea.  I may have not been the star player in any of my previous jobs, but I always got the work done and received praise by managers and co-workers alike.  Hard work does pay off.  Bank accounts grow (if you are wise with money) and new skills can be added to a resume

As I spend hours scanning job websites in Bangkok, and sent out countless e-mails with my resume, I can’t help but think that something must be off in my tactics.  One would think that if twenty e-mails were sent out, at least a few companies ADVERTISING OPEN POSITIONS would take the time to respond to an inquiry about EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES with them. 

Going to and fro in the city, I often notice people who appear to be my age wearing business suits and fancy lanyards with name tags attached.  What is it that these people do?  How did they find these jobs that I search for restlessly?  What is it that sets me apart from them?  Were they a member of a Alpha Gamma Beta Sigma fraternity with a pledge brother worker at the top of a company?

 I can understand that some jobs want a candidate with a more specialized skill set (doctors, engineers, programmers, etc.) but for an average entry-level position for marketing or management, what really sets people apart?  It must come down to who can make a fancier and blown-out-of-proportion resume explaining about all the things they have done.  From past experience, I know that nearly any entry-level position can be learned on the job.  It is entry-level after all.  .  They do state 0 experience is fine.

What twist of fate makes it to where my resume is sent to the bottom of the never look at list?  It must be karma for things I have done and am not aware of.  I was never the top student in school, but did put in the time and effort to graduate with a great GPA while working 25-40 hours a week through school. I am a native English speaker, speak upper level  Japanese, conversational in Korean, graduated with a high GPA and numerous honor roll awards, good past performance for every company I have worked for, no criminal records, and I get along well with nearly everyone on earth. What skills do people possess that I do not?  It is these questions that I must ponder as I continue towards the path of employment.  

The Grand Palace

This past Saturday, Soojeong and I decided to head to a different part of the city to see the famous Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.  We took the sky tram, transferred to a riverboat, and then walked in the blazing sun until we came at last to the Grand Palace grounds.  It was stunning.  It is a rule that everyone entering must be wearing pants that cover their legs, so there were men wearing dress-like skirts, and anything and everything in between.  We paid our money and set out exploring the buildings on the grounds.  There were so many to see.  The level of detail in the design is simply outstanding.  The columns of many look like mosaics made of glass.  Some of the buildings were gilded in gold, and the sun really shone off of them brightly.  We walked around for a bit, entered the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (where photography is prohibited) and cooled off by having a drink and touring a few museums on the grounds.  It was a fun day and I was glad to get to experience the history and culture of Thailand.

First Adventure: Koh Samet

I have officially moved to Bangkok, Thailand.  My fiancee Soojeong took a job here in March and after my contract ended in Korea, I headed out here to start our new life together.  Our first trip together in Thailand was to the island of Koh Samet.  It was a 3 1/2 hour bus ride to the pier where we caught a boat, and then another 30 minutes to our weekend retreat.  The water was nice, the food was delicious, and the beaches were beautiful.  We swam, snorkeled, and sat in chairs next to the water as we drank and ate fried bananas by candle light.  It was a great way to shed off the stress of teaching children for a year.