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83 HigH timEs Throughout the 2000s, the foreigners arrived. As upper-middle-class Korean families moved to Ilsan, scores of hagwon (after-school acade- mies) opened up. Officetels were built between Madu and Daehwa sta- tions, at the end of line 3. LaFesta — a now-crucial pedestrian arcade and shopping mall — opened up near Jeongbalsan Station. “The biggest root of change was LaFesta,” Morrissey says. “It offered a place where people could spend a Saturday afternoon having coffee or something, instead of going to Seoul.” The Don’t Go bar opened at the far end by the subway station, and became a magnet for foreigners. Though not the first foreign bar in town — the Underground and Adventure Korea preceded it — it was the first in the LaFesta area where most foreigners lived. The beer was cheap (if flat) and the owner was always willing to play requests. By 2005, there were rumors that he cleared over 1 million won every Friday night, serving the 100 or so drunken foreigners pass- ing through. “Holy shit,” Morrissey recalls. “It was just wild on a Friday night.” Moronic behavior became a problem. There were instances of sex in the stairwells, as well as pube burning and weed smoking in the electri- cal room. An anti-foreigner hate group, the Anti-English Spectrum, got wind of what was going on and famously started stalking foreigners in the area, as well as other communities. In 2007, the police busted a marijuana ring; the AES claimed it was with their help, but it was more likely brought on by incautiousness on the part of the smokers. Brazilian-Korean Sid Toledo Lee remembers the bust well. “We were just going down to Itaewon to pick up schwag from the Nigerians and the Ghanaians,” Lee says. “One morning I woke up to a pounding on my door, and I assumed it was a drunk ajeossi. When I opened the door it was plainclothes detectives, with (a friend) in handcuffs. The second I saw that, I knew what it was about. I didn’t resist.” Five foreigners were fined and deported. Lee got to stay because of his Korean citizenship, and a Canadian was also allowed to stay because he was married. He committed suicide four years later, leaving a wife and two sons. Expat Enclaves offers a snapshot of the communities that expats in Korea call home. — Ed.
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