Apologies for the lack of mails recently. I've been having computer problems, and I'm close to the end of my tether with my Dell laptop.I don't even want to talk about it, but I don't have access to my photos at the moment, so this weeks photo of the week is a photo I got from the internet. It shows a typical Korean barbecue meal. I've become very fond of these. You have to go with friends, because it's not a meal you can have on your own in a restaurant. They put burning coals into the barbecue in the centre of your table (or it's gas in some restaurants), and you cook the meat, onions, garlic, kimchi or whatever on the barbecue. As you can see there are loads of side dishes, and you wrap the meat with vegetables and side dishes in a lettuce leaf to eat. It's delicious.
Work life
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Things are going well in work. I'm well into it at this stage, and we're not so far off the end of the first semester. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. We're through the mid-term exams, and on week 11 of 15.
On a sad note, one of the new teachers died of a heart attack. We were having our work spring party in one of the accommodation sites which had a yard. In the middle of the party the police arrived. I was surprised, as it was the afternoon and we weren't that noisy. But it turned out that a new teacher, Randy from Canada, had died of a heart attack in the Homeplus supermarket. I had heard of Randy, but we hadn't met. He arrived a couple of weeks after me, and missed our orientation training. He was in his 50s, and had had heart problems before, apparently. They had a collection for his family to repatriate the body to Canada. It was all very sad.
Social Life in Daejeon
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And then life goes on. There is a good social life with the teachers from the school, and we've been exploring Daejeon. We have discovered some restaurants and bars downtown that we like. Closing times are very flexible, so late nights, and arriving home in the bright, are not unusual. We're getting into the good weather now, so we've had a few barbecues. Some on the roof of an accommodation apartment building, and this weekend in a river park on the other side of town.
901
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I can't remember if I've written about 901 before. It's an Woosong institution. It's the bar we go to on a Thursday night after class. The bar is run by Betty and her sidekick, Wilma (a Flintstones theme). When I arrive I'm greeted by Betty with a hearty 'Sláinte, Éamon'! A couple of weeks back a friend, Justin from the US, went to the loo and didn't arrive back for ages. You don't like to draw attention to such things and nobody said anything. Until someone else went out, and realised that the door was locked. Justin had been inside knocking for ages. We tried everything, but there was no budging the lock. Betty had gone home early, so Wilma was trying to sort it out, and had the Golden Pages out ready to look for a locksmith. She rang Betty who arrived back in her pyjamas, and once she'd checked the lock she came back with a large hammer, and proceeded to break through the door. That was a few weeks ago, but the door is still smashed. I can't help feeling I've found the Blacks of Korea.
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Well, that's it for this week. We've had some days hitting the 30s during the week, but slightly more overcast today, currently 24 degrees, but with a real feel of 29, or so accuweather.com tells me! I'm despairing of getting my laptop fixed at this stage. I'll never buy Dell again! I feel I'm going to have to buy another, despite this one being less than 18 months old.
Anyway, enough of my trouble. How are you?
Until next week,
Annyeong haseyo,
Éamon
Today's headline in The Korea Times: Korea to Be Surplus Country Till 2014
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