It's Daejeon

It's been a while. My excuse is that I've been busy setting up home here, getting classes up and running and just getting used to everything. That, plus going to Seoul for the past three weekends left me without much free time. I stayed home this weekend, and have done a big catch up.

The pic of the week shows a poster for the World Student Plan of the Woosong University Business school, where I have most of my classes. This billboard is outside the mainline train station. This programme aims to attract students to Woosong from around the world.

It's Daejeon
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The University is in the east of the city, in a relatively poor neighbourhood. There are many buildings spread around the 'dong', or neighbourhood. There is the University itself, the Language Institute, the Information and Technical College and the International Business School - Solbridge.

The city has two downtowns, Eunang-dong - old downtown, and Dunsan-dong - new downtown. We're much closer to old downtown here. There is a subway, but with just one line. The nearest station is called Woosong University, but it's about a kilometer away.

My apartment is tiny, but 3 minutes walk from the office and work. It's a small clean apartment on what we'd call the second floor. There is one main room, with a double bed, a couple of wardrobes, a TV with cable and a TV unit, a desk, and the fastest internet connection I've ever had.

Off the main room is the tiny kitchen, which is also the entrance. There is a big fridge, a sink and draining board, some cupboards and a two ring gas hob. There is no counter space at all. All food preparation has to be done on the draining board! As is usual in Korea, there is no oven. Just a hob.

There is also a small but comfortable bathroom. With a sink! (which I didn't have in Sinpung.) Again as is usual in Korea the shower head is just on the wall. The whole room is the shower cubicle effectively. When the floor is wet you wear plastic slippers to use the bathroom. The bathroom tap has a switch to redirect the water from the sink to the shower head. I realised the importance of remembering this on my first day when, having dressed in my shirt and tie ready for work I turned on the 'tap', only to be drenched from the shower overhead.

Everone in the building is a teacher from Woosong.

The University
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My office is based at the language institute, which is where I have one of my classes. Another of my classes, my Woosong University class, is actually located in the Technical college, and the rest of my classes are in Solbridge. The Solbridge classes are all for Chinese students whose English isn't at a high enough level for college yet, they start with just English and Korean classes until their language skills improve. All the rest of my students are Korean.

I have 15 class hours a week, 8 in Solbridge, 4 in the Language Institute and 3 in the University. Monday is my busy day with classes from 1.30 to 5.30. Tuesdays and Thursdays I have a split shift. The University in the morning from 10.30 to 12, and the Language Institute - a middle school kids class - from 7 to 9pm. Wednesdays and Fridays I'm back at Solbridge, a 10 minute taxi journey, from 3.30 to 5.30pm. There has been a good bit of preparation required also as we started up, but that's reducing now that I know what I'm doing!

The Social Side
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There is a very large English department, about 90 people. There were about 20 of us on training together. The profile is very mixed in terms of age, but is predominantly male, and before our class was predominantly from the US and Canada. Now there are teachers from the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. I'm the only one from Ireland.

Because of the variety of buildings, departments, teaching locations and teaching hours, there are a lot of people you never see when you're working. So there is a regular drinking night on a Thursday in a local bar. It's called 901, because the last classes finish at 9pm, so we meet from 9.01. There is a social core of teachers that I've met there. There are also events organised from time to time, like bowling, nights out to different parts of the city, and going to soccer and baseball games. Because I've been in Seoul for the past few weekends I've missed some of these activities.
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Well, that's it - in as much of a nutshell as I can make it. I'm happy. I like it. I have a good feeling about both work and Daejeon, and I'm looking forward to making the most of my time here.

Until next week,

Anneong-hi kaseyo,

Éamon

Today's headline in The Korea Times: 'Queen Yu-na' Makes History