Weekly email - Brrr

A happy new year to everyone. We've had a great Christmas and New Year's here in Korea.

The pic of the week shows Namsam, meaning the south mountain. The N Seoul tower is on top, which is where we went to the revolving restaurant. If you turn right at the green roadsign you're almost at the apartment.

Christmas
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We had 8 people for dinner, from Ireland, Scotland, South Africa and Korea. Clara went the whole hog with a full turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Like most Korean apartments we don't have an oven, so we had to cook it on Christmas Eve in Joan and Stephanie's, and I had to carry it home in a rucksack on my back. We tried to get ham, but they don't have it here. A fact we didn't realise until we put it in the pot and we realised it was pork. It was a good day, and we finished up in the Irish bar down in Itaewon.

New Year
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Both Clara and Norah decided to stay in on New Year's Eve, but I decided to head in to meet friends in Itaewon. We had a great night, went to several bars, and ended up at a house party. Well, two of us ended up where there was to be a house party, but everybody else had sensibly gone home. I arrived home about 9am.

It's Cold
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The weather gets quite cold these days. It's minus one as I write, but it's been down to minus 13. It's a dry cold, and you're fine once you wrap up before heading out. It's difficult to get things to dry on the line because they freeze into boards as you're putting them up. The other day I washed my trainers and put them out to dry. When I was going out on Saturday night I went to put them on, and realised that they had frozen solid, encased in ice. I nearly broke the tongue trying to get them on. They're the only shoes I have (apart from flip flops, and I wasn't going to wear those!) so I went out effectively wearing two lumps of ice. At least they thawed fairly quickly.
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Well, that's it for this week. The application process has started again, and I'm ready to buy another job lot of envelopes!

Until next week,

Annyeonghi kaseyo,

Éamon

Today's headline in The Korea Times: Seoul-Incheon Canal Construction to Start in March

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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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

Korean Age

The weather has improved this week. We're back to 10 degrees as I write. Although tomorrow is forecast as windy with a high of 4 and a low of zero degrees.

The pic of the week shows Vio from my school in Sinpung. It's a while since I was there, but I realise that I hadn't used any pics.

Party for Sellinne
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Sellinne is Clara's friend. She had her birthday during the week. We had a party for her in the apartment last Saturday. She's been so helpful to us. For anything that requires Korean we get on to Sellinne. Booking a visa run, getting cable and internet, translating Korean websites or booking concert tickets - it's a phonecall straight away to Sellinne.

It was a great night. We started about 6pm, and over the night a lot of people came along. Clara made a Thai curry and a vegetable bake, and we had a good laugh. Afterwards, we headed down to Itaewon where we got the tail end of the Ireland Argentina match.

Korean age
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Korean age is different to western age. When you're born you're 1. They count the time in the womb as your first year. You 'age' at the new year, not on your birthday. So on the next new year you're 2. It's possible for a baby 2 days old to be 2. Clara works with a girl whose baby was 2 within five days of birth, because she was born at the end of the year. So Korean age is 1-2 years older than western age.

It used to be based on the Chinese New Year, called Lunar New Year here, but now they're increasingly using the calendar new year. Also, some younger people are now using western age.

Piano Man
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I forgot to mention last week that I went to see Billy Joel in concert the previous weekend. He was playing 2 nights in Seoul, in the Olympic Gymnasium in Olympic Park. It was a great gig. He played all the old favourites, and the crowd seemed word perfect. They have little shops inside the venue, so you can pop out to buy a few cans of beer during the gig. Very civilised.

University applications
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The university applications continue. I've dropped some applications to the colleges by hand, so I can check out the campuses, and most seem quite nice places to work. Some others have been submitted by post, and there are more going this week. I should know if I'm called for interview by Hongik, my university of choice, from their website on Monday. So wish me luck.
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Well, that's it for this week. The final applications will be sent during the week, and hopefully I'll have some interviews scheduled. It's hard to believe it's almost December. Most people here are staying for Christmas. It's not a big holiday here, and a lot of people just have the 25th off work.

Until next week,

Annyeong haseyo,

Éamon

Today's headline in The Korea Times: Prosecution Raids Home, Office of Key Roh Sponsor

Enda's holiday

I'm going a little back in time with this mail, and recalling Enda's two week visit.

I'm also working on my university applications. There is a huge amount of supporting documentation required, so I'm waiting on receipt of university transcripts from Dublin.

The pic of the week shows Enda, Clara and myself having a wonderful meal outside the city of Wonju.

Tourist Seoul
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It was Enda's second visit to Korea. He was over with Clara to visit my father four years ago. He hadn't seen much of Seoul on that trip, and so we started off by doing the tourist spots. Mostly the palaces.

Enda also wanted to see the headquarters of the World Taekwondo Association, which is here in Seoul. We went over one morning, and were lucky enough to catch a demonstration show. It was really impressive, I hadn't seen much Taekwondo before and I was amazed. At the end they asked if we wanted to come forward for photos. I assumed they meant to take them, so myself and Enda moved down to the floor of the gym. A guy there took the camera, and gestured for us to go into a group photo. As we took our places we realised that all the others were international delegates, wearing suits and delegate badges. I can imagine them all going through the photos wondering who the two imposters in shorts and t-shirts were.

Travelling
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My father has a 12-year old Jaguar car that he never uses, it has just 20,000km on the clock. We took it out of storage to travel around the country. Our first journey was to a restaurant owned by one of his students in Wonju. We were made good time. At 3.30 I remember Michael saying we'd be there by 4pm. Unfortunately, we were again dependent on Korean directions. We drove hither and yon in the vicinity of the restaurant, sometimes within metres. Every time we phoned we were told how close we were. We drove over roads, boreens, dirt tracks and through motorway building works, eventually arriving at the restaurant sometime around 8pm.

Over the next few days, we visited the largest cave in Asia, Hwanseongul, and the historical capital, Gyeongju.

The Seoul of the Party
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What an old pun! When we got back to Seoul, we concentrated more on the night life. Seoul is a city where you can find a open bar at any time of the day and night. I was the one not working, so I was out with Enda to 5, 6 or 7am. Even 9am on one occasion. By the time he left I think we were all in need of a week of sleep. Preferably at The Priory.

University applications
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I've spent this week getting my university applications together. The application process is very bureaucratic, and I had to write essays about my teaching philosophy. However, once the first one was done the rest have been pretty straight forward. Three had closing dates this week, and there are more next week, and more in early December. Hopefully I'll get something from one of them! I should know if I'm called for interview in early December.
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The temperature has really dropped in the last few days. The night before last it was minus 5, feeling like minus 11. And it only seems like last week I was sweltering in the heat and humidity! Today the temperature seems to have risen, but there was a little snow earlier on.

Well, that's it for this week,

So until next week,

Annyeong haseyo,

Éamon

Today's headline in The Korea Times: S. Korea's Subway, Railway Strikes Averted

Halloween

Folks,

I'm getting back into my routines. I'm currently preparing my applications for a number of universities which are now recruiting.

The pic of the week shows the motley crew that prepared for the Halloween fancy dress in the Wolfhound on Saturday. Back: Clara, Sarah, Norah. Front: Sean, Sellinne, Brian and Elmer. I'm behind the camera in an amazing costume. Pity you missed it.

Finishing in California Language School
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While we'd agreed on September 26 as my final day in Sinpung, it wasn't until the Thursday that my departure was confirmed. I was happy enough. I enjoyed my time there, although it was difficult being the only non-Korean on the staff, and I never warmed to teaching kindergarten.

On my final night they took me out for a Korean meal. It was in one of the traditional sit-on-the-floor restaurants which are everywhere. We then cook the food on hot coals in a bucket in the centre of the table, as I explained before. It was delicious. We also had beer and sojo (the local poteen). I was so full at the end, and then they decided that we'd go somewhere else for seafood!

Back to Kyeong Li Dan
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The following day I moved back to Clara's. It's a much more lively area than Sinpung, and it's so close to the nightlife of Itaewon, a ten minute walk away. We have a large selection of restaurants and bars within easy reach.

Enda's holiday
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My brother Enda arrived on October 5, and was here for two weeks. I'll write about it in more detail again, but it was great that I was off work and available to spend time with him. We had three parts to the holiday. The first was sightseeing around Seoul. Then we travelled around the country for a few days. Finally, there was the party phase back in Seoul. Enda took full advantage of the fact that you'll find bars open around the clock. By the time he left we were all wrecked, and we nearly had to pour him onto the plane. We had a really great time, but I took nearly a week to recover.

Halloween
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I always seem to celebrate Halloween more away than I ever do at home. Halloween isn't a Korean celebration, so Itaewon, as the main foreigner hub, was full of people in a variety of costumes. We went to The Wolfhound on Saturday, and it was a thronged. First prize went to a guy who dressed up as a mad cow being carried around on the president's back. A throwback to the protests about American beef earlier in the year. It was excellent.
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Well, that's it for this week. The weather has got a good bit cooler, and the trees have taken on beautiful autumnal shades. The days are mostly sunny and we've had hardly any rain. Top temperatures this week range from 13 to 18 degrees centigrade.

Until next week,

Annyeonghi Keosayo,

Éamon

Today's headline from The Korea Times: S. Korea to Hike Fiscal Spending by $10 Billion Next Year

Normal service will be resumed shortly

I'm terrible when I break my routine! Since the last mail I finished up in the Elementary School, and so moved back to my sister's apartment. Then my brother arrived over on holiday, and we had an action-packed two weeks. Now my PC has given up the ghost (again! I've had nothing but trouble with that top of the range Dell). I get it back today, and hopefully normal service will be resumed this weekend.

Cheers!

Eamon