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37 It wasn’t always so. In 1997, Koehler had little inter- est in Asia, let alone Korea. A yearlong stint with the Peace Corps in Tanzania had gotten him hooked on Africa. The corps, however, had other ideas. Reject- ing his request to stay in Africa, the program instead offered him a chance to volunteer in Southeast Asia. Reasoning that being paid as a teacher somewhere that didn’t excite him was better than working for free, Koehler signed up to spend a year Korea before he’d presumably return to Africa. Nearly two decades later, the executive editor of SEOUL Magazine and man behind the Marmot’s Hole is still here, speaks Kore- an fluently, wears hanbok every day and has become one of the most influential voices in expat media. And he can’t imagine being anywhere else. “I do feel like a lot of trends that are going to be shaping the future will be happening in this part of the world, whether it is not necessarily Korea, but it is Korea, Japan, China, somewhere,” he says, speaking in quick yet deliberate bursts. “In a way, this is where the future is, and it is an exciting place to be.” Since 2003, Koehler’s outlet, the Marmot’s Hole (www.rjkoehler.com), has been an oasis of Korea-re- lated news, polemics and gossip for foreigners whose information sources involve a toss up between the limited English-language media and impenetrable lo- cal press. His fluency in Korean allows him to trans- late stories from the local media that might otherwise pass by English speakers. The blog has also been the source of news tips for international journalists and a platform for other people with a public profile to respond to queries and controversies. Photography is one of the major tools in his profes- sional arsenal. It’s also a personal passion, a way for him to channel his fascination with his adopted home. Through his lens, Koehler often seeks out charm where obvious beauty is lacking, such as in a gritty, overlooked Seoul neighborhood or an aging bridge spanning the Han River. “I love looking at the world. And Korea is a fasci- nating subject to photograph. The deeper you get into photography, the more you realize the world is a remarkably beautiful place. It’s easy to forget that sometimes, but picking up a camera helps me re- member. It also helps me focus and it gives me a bit of discipline in life. And it’s not like I don’t need the discipline.” Koehler is humble about the Marmot Hole’s influ- ence. While his website may be a staple of many expats’ daily routine, this particularly irreverent expat finds the suggestion that they might rely on it for news “disconcerting” — especially when he usually prioritiz- es stories by whatever makes him “laugh most.” In particular, he hopes his coverage of the Korean media’s stories about foreigner crime and other al- leged deviancies doesn’t cause some foreigners to harbor skewed views about Korean society. “But because I post a lot about that, some can come away with the assumption that the only time foreigners are talked about in the news is when they do something negative, which is not true,” he says. “There is plenty of positive news about foreigners out there. I just don’t find it amusing, so I don’t post it.” The perception among some foreigners that Korea is far from welcoming is apparent in the site’s live- ly, often caustic, comments section — a highlight or hazard of the Marmot’s Hole experience, depending upon your preferences. Searing complaints from foreigners about their host country are rife, often matched by the defensive reactions of ethnic Kore- ans overseas. Ad hominem and withering scorn are routine. Koehler, though, scoffs at “they gave me a fork” racism. In fact, he insists he has had no more than a handful of negative experiences as a foreigner in Korea. “We are dealing with a people who are proud of their identity, who are proud of their culture, who want to protect that and, yeah, sometimes they are not used to dealing with the ‘other.’ But there is also, ‘This is where you are, deal with it,’” he says. “I have been here 17 years and I can count the number of really, really unpleasant experiences on one hand. But for some people, it seems to happen all the time.” He also argues that a lot of negativity about the country from foreign residents is inflated on the In- ternet. “How much of it is true, how much of it is true but they kind of deserved it, how much of it is literally, actually horror stories of woe befalling perfectly inno- ‘ W h e n I s t a r t e d t h e b l o g , I t h o u g h t I k n e w e v e r y t h i n g . E v e r y b o d y ’ s l i k e t h a t , r i g h t ? I w a s y o u n g e r , y o u k n o w . I k n e w e n o u g h a b o u t K o r e a n p o l i t i c s t o b e d a n g e r o u s , b u t n o t e n o u g h . ’ R o b e r t K o e h l e r