Korean website rant

Well, I'm writing from the balcony of my hotel room at Sun Moon Lake, the largest lake in Taiwan. It's Tuesday, and I'm here until Thursday, then back to Taipei for two nights, then Seoul for Saturday night. I'll be back at work on Monday.

The Taiwan pics are on my camera, and I don't have a cable to transfer them to the computer. So the pic of the week this week are three of my TOEIC students from last week. Part of the TOEIC exam is to describe a picture for 45 seconds. So I put them into groups, and they had to decide on poses for 3 pictures, to be described later in class by another team. This is the green team's idea of an 'action picture'. It shows three of my students in what I call their boyband shot.

Korean Websites
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I mentioned before that I hate Korean websites. It might be a cultural thing, but they're extremely busy, with lots of flash components winking and blinking, and bouncing around as you scroll. Every site seems to depend on Internet Explorer. But they don't tell you that until you're well through the transaction. You can choose the English option, but as sure as eggs is eggs, when something goes wrong up pops a box written entirely in Korean and you can go no further.

Booking the ticket to Taiwan with Korean Air was a case in point. I went through the transaction on my browser of choice, Firefox, and eventually got the Korean pop up box with 'Internet Explorer 5.5' in the middle of the text. So I realised the problem. I use Ubuntu as my operating system, so I have to log out, and log back in to Windows to get at Internet Explorer. Then I have to repeat all of the same procedures. Only this time every screen comes up prompting me to install some ActiveX component. When I got to the same stage as I had got to earlier in Firefox, everything went dead. Nothing happened. So I went through the troubleshooting guide, and it asked if I had pop-ups blocked. I didn't think so, but as I never use Internet Explorer I wasn't sure. When I checked, they were blocked. So I turned off the block, and went through the entire transaction again,. Same problem. It turned out that Internet Explorer had toolbars installed from Yahoo, Google and Ask all with their own pop-up blockers.

So I turned all that off. Then it asked me if I wanted to pay with my Korean bank card. I said yes. It popped me up a Korean language window, which by trial and error I managed to navigate. But in the end it wouldn't validate my card. At this stage I decided to phone them. but the 'freefone' number ate up the remaining credit on my phone while going through the recorded introduction.

So it was back through the whole transaction again, this time selecting Visa. It popped up a different box (in English!) to authorise my MBNA Europe card for credit card transactions on the internet. Even though I've used it countless times before. In the end it refused, saying that it wasn't an MBNA Europe card. Even though it clearly says MBNA Europe on it. I repeated the entire transaction again, which was at least the fourth time, and was finally successful with my Mastercard credit card. Even though it was also an MBNA Europe card, and I'd never used it online before!

The whole transacton took 3 hours from start to finish.

Multiple-Entry Visa
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You'd think I would have learnt my lesson, but I went for a Korean website again. My teaching visa is called an E-2 visa. I'm allowed stay in Korea and work for the year. But if I want to leave in that time I need to get a re-entry visa, which is like an upgrade. For W30,000 (€17) you can get a single entry visa, and you can make one trip out and back. For W50,000 (€28) you can have a multiple-entry visa, and can leave as many times as you like. I need a multiple-entry.

I had planned for weeks to go to immigration, but then someone told me you could do it online. I logged out of Ubuntu, into Windows, into Internet Explorer, set up an account with Korean e-government for foreigners. So far so good. I applied for the visa, it found my alien registration, showed all my details on screen, and deducted the money without a problem from my Visa account. The transaction would take 3 days.

The second day the status changed from submitted to received. And for the next 4 days it stayed received. That brought me to Friday, and I was travelling Saturday. It said that the application was with the Daejeon immigration office. And gave a number. I called, and got the message that 'this number is not in the directory'. I looked their numbers up online, and got about 12 phone numbers. Same message with each of those numbers.

I had to go to work to the personnel assistant, who handles these sort of issues. He phoned them, they said that they hadn't processed it, but to print off the certificate of application, and to show that to immigration at the airport. So I did, and they told me that that was just the application, and that it hadn't been processed. I told them I knew, but that they should have finished on Thursday, it says 3 days. At the airport they told me they had no authority to change it. The only solution was to pay the €17 for a single-entry visa, in addition to the €28 paid online!

Happy birthday
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After all the hassle of the bureaucracy in Korea, going through immigration into Taiwan was a joy. Saturday, my day of travel, was my birthday. I hadn't remembered it at all (4am starts do that to you), but I remembered filling out the paperwork at the airport. But when the immigration official was processing my passport and immigration form her face suddenly lit up. "Oh," she said with the brightest smile, "today's your birthday! Oh, have a really happy birthday in Taiwan". And so I did.
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Well, that's my rant for this week. I'll write about the trip next week.

So until then,

Goodbye in Chinese, which I don't know how to say.

Éamon

Yesterday's headline in Taiwan News: Jackson family orders new autopsy

Summer schedule

I've had a week now on the new summer schedule. My schedule changes every few weeks, but it was fine last week, just 13 hours. And just 11 this week, because my kids class finishes tonight.

The pic of the week was taken at a fundraiser we had the week before last. It was for one of my colleagues who was hospitalised with a tumour, and is facing some heavy medical bills. As a photo I really have to say I think it sums me up. I partcularly like the serious face.

"Vacation"
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I have to say vacation here, because if I talk about holidays, they think I'm talking about Christmas or Halloween. Anyway, I get 5 weeks vacation in my first year, and six after that. They can be requested for any time within the 'intersession'. So I requested 3 weeks in the summer, one at the end of this month, and two in August. I'm holding onto 2 for the winter break.

I am going home in August, primarily to see my neice Robyn, who I only briefly got to see when she was just a couple of days old. She'll be almost six months by the time I get home. I arrive into Shannon on 9th August, and will be in Dublin for a few days around the following weekend.

I hadn't really decided what to do with my other week, but vaguely thought I'd go to Japan, as it's close. But when i did a search on airfares, China and Taiwan are cheaper. And I know they're a lot cheaper to stay in. As the visa process for China is slow, I didn't want to cause complications by booking just a week ahead. I'll go there again, but for now I've decided on Taiwan. I know nothing about it, except a lot of things are made there. And there's an ad always on TV "Ilha Formosa, Taiwan will Touch your Heart", which makes it look good. Either way, I'm going to have a good break, and I'll report back.
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Well, that's it for this week. I have a party with my kids tonight, and then just two TOEIC classes and a day off on Thursday. I head to Taiwan on Saturday,

So until next week,

Annyeong-hi haseyo,

Éamon

Today's headline in Segye Times: S. Korea, world's second developer of anti-submarine torpedo

Ch-ch-changes

The pic of the week shows a big change, my new apartment in the block of apartments on the bottom right. Because I'm over the hill (which the Google Maps photo doesn't particularly show) people think I've moved miles away. But as you can see, I'm right beside the university, (top left where the blue markers are).

New apartment
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When you start in Woosong you're given the most basic accommodation, and then put on the 'housing seniority list'. When better accommodation becomes available as people leave, they're made available to the highest person on the seniority list that wants it. Being very new, I was number 42 on the single people's list. There was nothing wrong with the apartment I had except it was very small. I had no place to eat really, except on my bed. But it was clean and modern.

When an offsite apartment was put on the board I didn't even apply, because at number 42 I didn't think I had a hope. It was only when it was put on a 2nd time, and they said that if nobody wanted it they'd have to give it to another department that I thought I might have a chance. It was described as 'a corridor-style apartment. Old, but neat and tidy, and with a bit of space'. It had been married accommodation, but was now available to singles. I enquired, and was told to get the key and have a look.

I wasn't impressed when I saw it first. It's in an old shabby apartment building, and it was absolutely filthy. I felt dirty even sitting down when I visited. But it's quite a bit bigger than I had. Not so big that I can understand how it was married accommodation, but a lot bigger than my tiny room before. There is a kitchen that's big enough for a kitchen table and chairs, and a bedroom that's at least as big as my old apartment. There is a desk, TV and TV unit in the bedroom. There's a bathroom with a bath (almost unheard of in Korea), a little washroom, and an enclosed balcony, where you hang your washing to dry.

I really didn't know whether to apply or not, because the clean up was going to be intense. I the end I did apply, because I knew at least it could be cleaned, there was nothing I could do to make the old one bigger. I still didn't expect to get it, but to be honest, I don't think anyone else wanted it.

I've been here 3 weeks now, and I'm really happy with it. There's been a lot of cleaning and tidying, with a lot more to be done, but it's nice to have a bit of room, and I think I'll be happy to stay here for my duration at Woosong.

The university is built on a hill, and this apartment is over the brow of it, so when it gets into high summer it's going to a difficult walk up and down, so I'm going to buy myself a little scooter.

Summer schedule
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Last week was the end of our 15-week semester. I can't believe how quickly it went, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Particularly my Korean university first year student class. We had our end of year exams, and now I'm marking and updating the system with their results. Every mark has to be explained so that the papers can be verified in the event of a recheck being required.

Last week we were given our summer schedule. A lot of universities finish totally in the summer, and teachers are paid through the breaks even though they're doing nothing. Unfortunately, that's not the case at Woosong, where there are many courses run during what they call the 'intersession'.

My schedule is a mixed bag. My children's class continues until next week, so I just have one extra class added this week and next, an intensive course in TOEIC speaking. TOEIC is an internationally recognised Test of English for International Communication. There are 32 classes starting with between 30 and 40 in each. That's over 1,100 students. We don't know where such an enormous amount of students are coming from.
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I'm sure there are another few things to catch up on, but I'll leave it there for this week. I haven't even had time to mention the former president's suicide or the nuclear threat from north of the border. I start at 1pm with the TOEIC class for 3 hours. Priorities!

So until next week.

Anneong haseyo,

Éamon

Today's headline in JoongAng Ilbo: Intelligence authorities identify 11 possible spots for 3rd nuclear test