Originally posted by Paint Horse
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You'll get a thorough TR from there as well, naturally. I actually plan to go round a bit in the next couple of years (well, that's not a surprise any more, is it?) visiting Stockholm, Hamburg, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, etc.
The time I spent in South Korea was absolutely appalling with respect to the life there (and not with work). Work is work wherever you go, and as far as shipbuilding is concerned, South Korea is at the moment the 'Premier League' of the industry. It is just that there was no life there. I was approx 4 hrs away from Seoul by car, right on the south coastline. I have thought about writing a 'South Korea impressions of an expat' TR, as I have a pretty extensive set of pictures from all those years, but I haven't got down starting that yet...
One of the largest container ships in the world, delivered to her owners few months ago. South Korea, 2009.
What I found out is that no matter how much money you may be making, some things just cannot be replaced, like normal social life and inner balance (yes, God damn normal social life, being able to go out and see and really talk to a few people, meet with friends that you don't have a huge cultural difference with, etc.) After a point onwards I was there but simply not really living there at all. As the months were going by, the feeling of suffocation was increasing. My health was affected, and I was pretty lucky that a spot opened up in Europe, a spot that career-wise was the right step up as well. So I went for it and got it.
No matter how technologically advanced your nation's industries may be, if you do not offer the chance of people living well freely and enjoying the fruits of their efforts, all that is worthless.
World's second largest shipyard, South Korea, 2009.
Europe of course comes with a paycut, as the 'expat' status of Asia in most cases does not apply in the E.U.-member countries, but if you're one of those that follow the 'mobility is promotion' concept, then you know that after northern Europe it'll almost certainly be Dubai, Singapore, Shanghai, the U.S. or something like that anyway. Personal life, of course, in the midst of all these is another story. But I've promised myself not to neglect that so much any more. Fortunately for me the place I'm heading to now reportedly has the best or second best beautiful women in Europe; almost everyone (when I tell them where I'm going) says I'll return back home married pretty soon. I don't know about that, and I'm not thinking of it either. If and when it comes, it comes. You can't plan these things. There are more important things at the moment, like establishing a solid foundation with staff and clients at my new working location and having the ability to fly at an instant anywhere in the world for fun (can't stop that addiction at the moment).
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