I am washed over by a sense of relief, happiness and extreme gratefulness now that I have left Seoul/Korea after close to a seven-week stay. Aside from the trials and tribulations of the actual fieldwork, let me list some of things I am glad to see the back of:

Posted on November 18th, 2007 by jl
Filed under: Fieldwork | 2 Comments »

This is a quick update (to my previous post): MJT made it to Seoul as expected but just barely. His flight from Sydney arrived in Hong Kong 90 minutes late and he was left with 40 minutes to connect on to his flight to Seoul. Cathay Pacific deployed staff specially to round up the connecting passengers and herded them quickly onto the following flight. In the process of rushing, MJT lost his iPod…

The past couple of days have been super busy. In between spending time with MJT and some sightseeing, I’ve had one research-related meeting a day for which I also had to snatch time to prepare. I’m exhausted.

We’re both leaving Seoul on Thursday, 15 November. I’ve just spent a couple of hours sorting out my departure and now I really need some rest.

I’ll update again when I next find a moment of clarity.

Posted on November 14th, 2007 by jl
Filed under: Fieldwork, blah blah | No Comments »

After weeks of separation and a delay in travel plans (thanks to a health scare), MJT is expected to arrive in Seoul this evening for the beginning of a 2-week holiday (cum-work for me) through three countries. I have been looking forward to this moment for the longest time. I can’t describe to you how much this means to me other than to say that six-weeks of fieldwork has emotional and physical effects. For the past week or so, I have felt as if I have been living in a very inflated pressure-cooker and I’ve had a slight break-out of acne. Matt will know perfectly well what I have been going through based on our experiences last year.

However, as I am writing this, I have a suspicion that Cathay Pacific will botch up this reunion royally. In fact, if my experience with Cathay Pacific is anything indication, they will certainly fuck it up.

Posted on November 11th, 2007 by jl
Filed under: blah blah | 3 Comments »

When I travelled from Kuala Lumpur to Seoul almost six weeks ago, I chose to fly with Cathay Pacific. Having previously travelled with Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airlines, I wanted to experience the only other Asian airline that many rave about. Sadly, while it made an impression, it wasn’t a good one.

I wrote the following to Cathay Pacific - it should be self-explanatory. It has been over five weeks, and four submissions via their online contact-form, since I first contacted Cathay Pacific and they have still not given resolved my complain satisfactorily. In fact, I have not received any response, bar an automated one, to the following report which I lodged with Cathay Pacific over three weeks ago (on 17 October 2007).

Cathay Pacific’s markets itself with the tag “It’s the little things that move you“. Well… the little things have certainly moved me - in fact, they’ve aggravated me greatly - but Cathay Pacific does not seem to know how to move me back.

Not impressed. At all.

Posted on November 9th, 2007 by jl
Filed under: Fieldwork | 3 Comments »