Haengbok-han keuriseumaseu

Christmas greetings to one and all from Korea. As you can see the title is Happy Christmas in Korean, with Christmas broken down into Korean consonent/vowel pairs as Keu-ri-seu-ma-seu, but it's just the English word.

The pic of the week shows me with Joan from Scotland and Stephanie from Kilkenny. We were attempting to do the 12 pubs of Christmas, but didn't make it beyond 7!

University applications
-----------------------
Well, I've been put back in my box regarding the university applications. I was so impressed with my own CV, but I haven't been called for so much as an interview. I was even wondering if the postal system is working, but I did get two calls for clarification! Talking to people, I realised that there is a lot of competition for university positions. People who are in Korea for a few years often want to transfer, or people from universities in the country want to come to Seoul, and obviously they will have Korean or university teaching experience, or both, which I lack. There are still ads being put up, and I'm still applying. I'm not giving up yet, but I think I'll have to resort to plan B after Christmas if I still haven't got anything.

The 12 pubs of Christmas
--------------------------
Two of Clara's friends, Joan and Stephanie (in the picture above), have returned to Korea, and now live close by. We decided that the four of us would do the 12 pubs of Christmas around Itaewon last Saturday night. I was surprised when the plan was to start at 8pm, because I thought we'd need to start earlier. By the time we eventually got going, after wine in Joan and Stephanie's, it was 9pm. We all managed to get to six pubs. At that stage people were phoning home to Ireland and Scotland, there were tears, and a lot of slurring and falling. Only two of us managed to get to the seventh pub, and then we abandoned it when we couldn't find the others. We were hopeless.

Adultery case
--------------
I was surprised to learn that adultery is a criminal offence in Korea, punishable by up to 2 years in prison. I discovered it this week, when there was a case reported of a well-known actress Ok So-ri (I know that name looks like it's made up, but it's true) who was sued for adultery by her husband. She challenged the law, saying that it's original intent was to protect the institution of marriage, but is now in effect just a method of revenge. She lost her case, and was sentenced to 8 months suspended, with her lover, a pop singer, sentenced to 6 months suspended. Apparently there are in the region of a thousand cases prosecuted a year, but jail sentences are very rare.

White Christmas
-----------------
We've had snow a few times over the past month, and when it started snowing last night we wondered if we might have a white Christmas. But it's unlikely. The weather forecasts here are very accurate. Coming from Ireland I usually avoid planning anything around a forecast, but I've learned that they have a high degree of accuracy here. Christmas day is forecast as 'breezy and colder with sunshine'. The forcast high is -4c (that's the high!), and the low is -14c. So it'll be a cold and sunny one.

Christmas plans
----------------
Clara is in full Christmas planning mode. She's planned a traditional dinner, and we have a turkey, ham and all the trimmings for Thursday. There are between 8 and 10 people coming over for Christmas day. The biggest difficulty will be not having an oven. Most houses here don't have one. Clara has a little one that looks like a microwave, and is way to small for the turkey. So we'll be off over the hill to Joan and Stephanie who have a full Irish-sized oven in their apartment.
-----
Well, that's it for now. I want to wish all of you a great Christmas. I know the weekly emails have of late been weekly only in name, but rest assured they will continue through 2009.

Nollaig shona daoibh.

Éamon

Today's headline from The Korea Times: Shipbuilding, Construction Firms Targeted for Restructuring

University Application Edition

Greetings from a lovely sunny and mild winter's day here in Seoul.

The pic of the week is the last of my backlog photos. It shows Sellinne (left) with her friends, Anna, and I'm afraid I can't remember the other girls name, it's Korean. These are taken here in the apartment at the party for Sellinne's birthday.

University Application
-----------------------
There seems to be some confusion as to whether I'm applying to universities to study or to work. Relax, it's to work.

Most English speakers I've met here are over here as teachers, and the vast majority are working in public or private kids schools. I'm not mad on teaching kids, so I'm currently applying for a university job. There are different pay rates, depending on the university, but the hours are good, and you get paid holidays with 3 to 4 months off during the year.

They start their 2009 semester on March 1st, so that will hopefully when I start a full-time job.

Visa situation
--------------
You may remember that I realised when I got here that there may be problems with the application for a teaching visa, because they insist that you do an interview with the Korean embassy in your home country. Now when I thought this was going to happen within a month of my arrival this seemed a disaster. However, now that the months have passed, it's not so bad.

With the new semester starting in March, and my sister Sharon expecting a baby in February, a trip home in the New Year would be quite welcome.

Meeting the Ambassador
--------------------------
One item of documentation required for my job applications and visa is a police report from home stating that I didn't have any criminal record. I got this from the Gardaí when I was home earlier in the year. But it turns out I need to get it apostilled (some legal verification process), and that's not possible here in Korea. I contacted the embassy, and they said that they can certify it's authenticity, and that that's been accepted by Korean immigration so far.

So I went off to the embassy during the week. It's in Ireland House, which is in reality half of the 13th floor of an office building. The first secretary verified the form, and then came out for a chat. While we were chatting the ambassador arrived back from the dentist, and bumped into us. He's a really nice guy, very friendly. He's been here for 4 years, and loves it, but it's his last posting and he leaves in March.

He previously applied for a job in Irish Life, and was interviewed for a job as a trainee actuary, but decided to join the civil service, and he still isn't sure if he made the right decision!

Dynamic Korea
----------------
The tourist slogan for Korea is 'Dynamic Korea', and one area I can agree with it is in the speed that shops close down and reopen. You can go out in the morning walking past the hardware store, and come back in the evening and it's a boutique.

There are roadworks going on outside the apartment, and on a recent Sunday we went to the local bar at 11pm. The road was completely dug up and in a state of disrepair. There were no workers around. But when we left the bar (admittedly some hours had passed!), the entire road was repaved with tarmacadam. There were still no workers visible; the road laying, beginning, middle and end, had taken place while we were in the pub.

Tensions with North Korea
---------------------------
Tensions are slowly increasing between the two Koreas. The new government here in the south, who came into power in February, have a more hardline approach to the communist north than their predecessors. And the uncertainty over Kim Jong Il's health doesn't help. This week the north have begun restricting the already restricted traffic flow between the two countries in retaliation. Our Korean friend, Sellinne, helpfully told us that if anything kicks off between the two, we're not in the best location, given that we live beside the Korean Army finance administration headquaters, across from the US Army base, and a stone's throw from the Department of Defence. Ah well.
-----
That's it for this week. Hopefully I'll have some developments on the job front by next week.

Until then,

Annyeong haseyo,

Éamon

Today's headline in The Korea Times: S. Koreans’ Real Income Makes Biggest Drop in a Decade