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Notes -
It depends on what you want out of life, really.
I lived in Iksan, Jeollabuk-do for a while, and played on an amateur soccer team. The other players were all middle-aged guys who worked in various trades or for small manufacturing companies.
They seemed happy with their lives. Iksan has plenty of places to like... have a grillout and drink soju, or whatever you want to do. It's not a high-status place, and I'm sure strivers would find it miserable. But the world is not made up entirely of strivers. Some people just want to raise their kids, and play soccer with the boys on the weekend. I guess the user you mentioned would not be satisfied with that life.
I also spent time in other large cities there: Daejeon, Jeonju, Busan, Incheon and some others. But not enough to grasp the differences. They were all, you know... large. If you need to be surrounded by a million people, those are places you can do that.
So what do strivers do on the weekends?
This is Korea, so the answer is probably "work overtime".
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I think they all move out of Iksan as soon as they can, and never return. As for what they get up to in Seoul, I can only imagine.
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Train for an ironman, work on side projects, play golf with executives.
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