Non Easter

Well, there was no sign of Easter here. I mentioned it to a few people, even Westerners, and most didn't even know it was Easter. It's not marked at all, and classes continued as normal.

Meanwhile, the weather has continued to improve. We seem to have leapfrogged through Spring and to be in Summer already. Maybe wishful thinking, but it's 24 degrees as I write, and I have the windows open.

The pic of the week shows some of my students from the International Business School, Solbridge. They are standing, Jamshid from Uzbekistan, and the rest are Chinese, Furun, Dirk, Brad, Jerry, and seated, Coral, Doris and Jason. We had a class excursion on Friday so the photos were taken on the Campus of the Woosong Information and Technical College, just across from where I live.

Easter
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Clara invited me up to Seoul for an Easter dinner. My niece Robyn was being christened in Clare on the same day, so that was the theme of our celebration. We had friends from Belfast, Mayo, Kilkenny, Scotland, England, South Africa and Korea.

Woosong Social Life
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The social life in Woosong is still increasing, as I'm getting to know more people and places. A few of us went to a Korean restaurant for barbecued ribs on Friday. When we went to pay a waitress came over and, without saying a word, doused us up and down with Fabreze, to get rid of the barbecue smell. But how it went with my Ralph Lauren Polo I'm not sure.

Afterwards we met some of the other teachers who had been to a baseball game. We went to a really trendy bar in the heart of the neon of old downtown, although it was expensive by Korean standards.

KTX
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With all my trips to Seoul I've become very fond of the high-speed Korea Train Express, KTX. Daejeon is a bit of a transport hub, and there are high speed rail lines in all directions. You can get to Seoul in 50 minutes. There are trains about every 10 minutes, and with 18 carriages they carry about 1,000 people, so it's a pretty efficient transport system. The cost is expensive for here, but works out at something like €11-€12 each way. I really think it's worth it for the convenience. I'm told we can get a university discount, but I haven't checked that out yet.

Sometimes I've used the time on the train to make phonecalls, but one weekend I was ordered out by a very surly attendant and had to finish my call in the little area beside the doors. That was when I realised that the carriages are quiet zones.

The trains travel at 300kph, and there is a TV displaying the speed. Although it was on the blink on Sunday, and told us we were travelling at 1,789kph!
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Well, that's it for this week. I'm definitely staying here this weekend. I've hardly spent a weekend in Daejeon since I got here.

Until next week,

Annyeong-hi kaseyo,

Éamon

Today's headline in The Korea Herald: N. K. vows to quit six-party talks