Back in Seoul

Yes, after a brief sojourn in Canada I have returned to the Republic of Korea. I spent my first week in Seoul doing training for my new school. It sucked. I would be pulling 14-16 hour days for 6 days in a row, and have a 45min commute... on the busiest subway line at the busiest time of day. However, I passed everything, which was a big big relief. A number of people didn't and had to go back for some... re-education.

I was supposed to spend two days the next week in Japan, but it didn't happen. I was going to be heading over there to get a proper work visa for Korea. I don't exactly understand why, something along the lines of my school forgetting to confirm my ticket. So I've started working this week without the proper visa, my school tells me it isn't illegal, but I'm not quite sure how this is possible. So I'm going next week, and it'll cost me $200 in lost wages. Welcome to asian bureaucracy.

I'm one of seven teachers at my new school. There are four guys; two Korean-Americans, a white guy from Maryland and myself; there are also three girls, two Korean-Americans and a Korean-Australian. I get a pretty good vibe from everyone so far; they seem to have a good combination of professionalism and craziness.

It's been good to be back and see some friends. Bora met me at the airport, and has been very helpful getting me setup in a new apartment, new cell phone, etc. I paid a visit to my old school and was begged to come back; apparently one of the new teachers is generally regarded as something below a pond lily on the evolutionary scale. I obvisously declined, my visa belongs to another. I've also been able to spend some time with Peter and Trevor, back into the off-hours routines that make teaching here a lot of fun.

My schedule is a bit different than it was before. I used to work Mon-Fri 3-9 (app.), now I'll be working Mon, Tue, Thur, Fri 4-10, Sat 2-5 and have Wed and Sun off. It should be interesting, I think I'd perfer to teach 3hrs on Wed. and have Sat. off, but we'll see how things work out. That's about it for now, I'll write more when something interesting happens.

Wow, A Blog From... Canada???

Yes your eyes aren't misleading you (assuming you read 'Canada'). I've been back in the homeland for a month now, and it has gone by very quickly. Everything is exactly the same... but not quite, there are subtle changes in many things. I've spent some time in Kelowna, Ottawa, and of course Victoria. All these places are great, and I enjoyed my time in all of them (especially catching the Canucks/Senators game in Ottawa).

Now for the news, I'm heading back to Korea on Feb. 9th. This is sooner than I would have liked, but I got a very good job offer that I didn't feel I could turn down. I'll be in Seoul again, working near Seoul National University (the Harvard of Korea as I'm told). Also, I get a free trip to Japan out of the deal... because I was lazy! Take note children, laziness DOES pay off. But seriously, this job offer developed so quickly that there wasn't time for me to get the proper visa in Canada. This means I'll be sent, all expenses paid, to Japan for two days to get my visa; so if anyone knows of anything good to do in Fukuoka speak up!

Finally, I have a tracker attached to this blog that allows me to see where every hit comes from. Most of them I can figure out, but I'm curious about what people are looking at this from the lower mainland, India, and So Cal. I've gotten a bunch of random hits, but these have been persistent 'viewers', so please leave a comment! I'm very intrigued to hear what people I don't know think of this blog.