OT: any forumers in Seoul?

[mattalofs]

If all goes according to plan I'll soon be moving to Seoul South

Korea to teach English. Are there any forum members in that area?

I've got a couple questions about the availability of B&W chemistry

and film, color film and developing etc etc etc.

[subpopstar]

Leaving Columbia, eh?! Will your girlfriend be moving too? What will you do for a model if not!?

[mattalofs]

Yeah, we are both going; 7 years in Columbia is enough.

[stephen_w.]

Mike Dixon may be there, do a search. Seoul can be fun. The food is great, as well. Watch the Soju, it goes down easy, but can kick your butt.

 

Good Luck

[min_kim3]

Hi, Matt,

 

I'm originally from Seoul, but I've lived in New York for ten years and haven't visited there for quite a while. So I'm not so sure how the situation would be like there in terms of the things you are wondering about. There is a Korean Leica users' club (http://www.leicaclub.net). I believe you can leave your questions in English there as well. Or if you can't find a way to navigate on that Korean site, let me know. They seem to have off-line meetings frequently so it may be good for you to make friends. Good luck and say hi to Seoul for me. :)

 

Min

[mattalofs]

Thanks Stephen. Everyone seems to warn me about soju . . .

 

Min, I'll take at that forum, and I might take you up on your offer. Thanks.

[mike dixon]

I used to live around Seoul, but I moved to Busan in March (though right now I'm back in

Nashville for the holidays). My info on Seoul is about a year old, so don't be too shocked if

things have changed. There are a couple of camera shops near the Sinsa subway station

(line 3/orange line) in Gangnam where you can get developing tanks/chemicals/etc,

though their selection of developers is limited (I brought Xtol with me from the US). Don't

remember the exit number, but it's the northeastern exit. On the north side of the of the

main street that runs east/west, go east about 20 to 50 meters (depending on the exit you

come out of; one of them was under construction last time I was there). A store called

Photopia is on the left, right after a convenience mart. There's another camera shop, also

on the left, down the road another 20 or 30 meters. Photopia has excellent, cheap , and

fast E6 development for slides. Never tried their color print developing. There a tons of

little color print places all over, but the quality is hit or miss (often miss).

 

I think there are also some photo supply places in Shinchon (near Ewha and Yonsei

universities), but I haven't been to those.

 

A word of advice regarding teaching jobs in Korea: be sure to talk to a few of the people

who work at your prospective place of employment before signing any contract. Ask

about the work environment, the schedules, the students, your housing, how reliably

you're paid, and whether your boss is a standard-issue weasel or a full-blown criminal

scumbag. There are plenty of latter to be found in the English teaching industry there.

[mattalofs]

Thanks for the photo info Mike, and for the job warning. I have friends in Seoul that have offered to visit schools before we sign anything.

[stephen_w.]

I have fond memories of working in Korea, even the shock of being in an Ulsan (1-hour from Pusan) jail where I lost 15 pounds. Sauce chicken, Kal-Bi, Kim-Bob, Chicago Pizza...good eats. More accessible than Japan, IMHO.

 

Enjoy Matt

[mattalofs]

I'm looking forward to it. My girlfriend taught there for about a year a couple of years back; she enjoyed it enough to convince me to give it a shot. I figure if nothing else it will be good eating and fun photography.

[paul_neuthaler]

Colombia? or Columbia University in NYC?

[mattalofs]

Columbia, MO.

[subpopstar]

Good luck to both of you Matt! I look forward to seeing Seoul through your eyes. I'm sure I'll enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed Mike Dixon's postings. (And I understand about too much time in Columbia!)

[andrew_lee2]

Wow, quite a change- that oughta be fun. Good luck to you both. Be sure to check back here with plenty of pix.

[yong_shin1]

You can find pretty much anything that is in production except for some odd ball items like gigabit film. One that was missing was Kodakchrome but I understand that that one also went out of production. There are many professional photo shops, labs dispersed around Seoul area. When the worst comes, you can always mail order items from overseas anyway.

[mattalofs]

Thanks for the info Yong. I'm not looking for anything too bizare. TMY, Tmax developer, neopan films etc. Looks like shipping to Korea from b&h would cost me an arm and a leg, but as a last resort I guess it's there.