Gongju

Not much new of note although it looks like we may have finally seen the end of the rainy season. The only problem is that it is truly the dog days of summer with temperatures being in the high 20s or low 30s. Only one more week of the summer schedule and then back to sleeping in and hitting the gym in the mornings.

I went to Gongju today and visited the Gongsanseong Fortress(see above pictures) which takes a good couple of hours to walk around and wouldn't you know it but I had a chance encounter with a Korean priest there I guess that's karma or maybe fate since I wasn't in church on Sunday. The rest of the pictures can be found on Facebook.

CHOENAN DUDE

Halfway Through Summer Schedule

I haven't blogged anything over the last few weeks as the rainy season not only affects your ability to get out and see Korea but it also leaves you feeling very lazy. As of today the summer schedule is officially half finished. I hate these 9 am starts in the morning. It also looks like it's going to be another rainy weekend. During our summer vacation I did manage to get to Hwaseong City which is just outside of Suwon and went to Yung-Geolleung Tombs(see first three pictures) and Yongjusa Temple (see next three pictures). All pictures can be found on Facebook.

This past Sunday I went to Bongeunsa Temple in Seoul. It was quite busy since it was a Sunday and a really nice place right in the heart of Seoul(see pictures above). The rest of the pictures are on Facebook.

CHOENAN DUDE

Buyeo

         It looks like we finally have an end to the rainy season at least for now as they are forecasting good weather for the next ten days or so. It was a pretty uneventful week at work and I'm dreading the summer schedule which will start soon for about a month where I'll have classes starting at 9am in the morning. I'll be finishing by 3 or 4pm in the afternoon but I think it'll be harder to be motivated to go to the gym then usually I just go to the gym when I first wake up in the morning so I'm still half asleep which prevents me from finding excuses not to go. I went out Saturday night and had a good time but getting home at 4am in the morning is less and less appealing as I get older.

         Anyway got up about five hours later at nine and headed to Buyeo. There are a lot of places to check out in the Buyeo area but I only went to one today, Busosanseong Fortress. You can check out the rest of the pictures on Facebook. I'll also finally have health insurance starting next month. I've also started going to a new gym which is much better than my old one although it's a little more expensive. Everything else is great except that I'll have to start using my alarm clocks for a month. Our summer vacation starts at the end of the month which is 5 days long plus we get a long weekend in August so lots of time for sightseeing mixed in with an occasional beverage or two.

CHOENAN DUDE

It's Raining Cats

               The rainy season just refuses to go away. More rain forecast for this week and it looks like it's going to rain into next weekend as well. At least the weather cooperated for me on Sunday and I went to Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul. You can check out the rest of the pictures on Facebook. Starting July 20th our schedule changes for about a month and I'll have classes starting at nine am. I guess I'll have to go to the gym after school that month instead of before school. We get a five day vacation at the end of this month well technically it's only a three day vacation for me as I have Saturdays and Sundays off anyway.
               After I got back from Seoul I went to the movie theater and watched Go Yangi (The Cat). It just came out this weekend and I have to say it was a great Korean horror movie. I'll have to check with some of my kids tomorrow so I can clarify a few things about the story.

CHOENAN DUDE

End of the Rainy Season?

     It is Sunday afternoon as I write this in the pouring rain but thankfully we get a reprieve this week from the rainy season as it looks like the weather will be a lot nicer this week and most importantly next weekend is supposed to be clear and sunny. Is it next weekend yet?

    We have a couple of new teachers at the school so the boss took us out again this Friday night after work. I`m hoping by the time this Friday rolls around I`ll be obligation free. I got home Saturday morning a little after 3am. I woke up Saturday morning and took advantage of a one day break from the rainy season and went to Sinjeongho Tourist Resort in Asan where they have a huge manmade lake. It was about 32 degrees Celsius on Saturday so while there was some pain involved with a bit of a hangover, sunshine and sweating certainly speeds up the process of removing alcohol from your system. You can check out the rest of the pictures on Facebook.
    With all of the rain we've had lately it gave me a chance to finally finish watching Season 1 of Game of Thrones. If you haven't seen this show you don't know what you are missing. I guess that's it for this week. Time to kick back and watch some UFC.

CHOENAN DUDE

Murphy's Law is not a Myth

        Another week of work has been completed. I had to go to Seoul early Thursday morning for a workshop/seminar at JLS head office. I woke up early Thursday morning and couldn't find my apartment key and started freaking out after I searched the apartment over and over again with no luck so I called my boss at about 7 am in the morning and explained that I had to leave for Seoul but couldn't find my key so he sleepily replied that he would take care of it. Afterwards while leaving the apartment as I was walking to the bus stop I felt something in my shoe which turned out to be the apartment key so I scurried back to my apartment, called the boss to let him know everything was okay and locked up. I still had to go to Seoul but somehow I had a feeling that this was a day I should have stayed in bed.
        I arrive at JLS headquarters in Seoul for a ten am workshop at about 9:15 am but head office is not open yet and there are no other foreign teachers there. At about 9:50 am head office opens up and I find out that this workshop is only going to be attended by one other teacher so there will be a grand total of three people. The workshop lasts for about two hours and I then leave Seoul and head back to Choenan and get back at about two pm. I go to work and accidentally end up deleting the powerpoints for my classes. Thankfully, I manage to redownload and get 95% of them back by the end of the day. It doesn't matter that much anyway as they are introducing all new books by this September so now just when I think I'm finally getting everything all figured out I go back to square one again.
        Friday was the last day for one of the Korean teachers at school as he has to quit and do his 18 month MT (military training) which is compulsary for young Korean guys. We went out to dinner at a great galbi restaurant and afterwords went to a noraebang (singing room). Of course soju was involved and the boss actually talked to me a lot that night which was great since he is so quiet and reserved unless he's drunk. I got home about 3am early Saturday morning. It's late Sunday afternoon here now and thankfully the rain has stopped and we are now only supposed to get a couple of heavy rainy days in the middle of the week and the weather is supposed to be nice next weekend so I won't be apartment bound like this past weekend so more pictures to come next week.

CHOENAN DUDE  

 

Rainy Season Is Almost Here

Everything has finally fallen into place. I got my ARC (Alien Registration Card) this past Monday at the local immigration office. Apparently the reason why it takes two weeks now is that the cards are now processed and made by the Korean Mint. The cards do look quite a bit different and are apparently now harder to counterfeit.I also went to the bank and set up a bank account on Tuesday. I feel a lot more secure now with almost all of my money in the bank.

I also went to the weekly Teacher's Meeting held on Wednesdays even though I only have to go for the last 5 minutes. I found out that I have been guilty of letting some of my classes leave five minutes early which the previous teacher who was leaving told me I had to do because the kids had to catch the bus home. The kids of course were also convincing that I was going to make them miss the bus if they didn't leave early. I have no idea why they waited for five weeks to pass before I was told any different. There were no problems or fallout as I explained that I was simply doing what I had been told to do and nobody bothered to tell me any different. The NHL season is now over so it's back to the gym full time starting tomorrow. It certainly sucks that the Bruins had to win another Stanley Cup in my lifetime. The last time they won the Stanley Cup was just before I turned two years old!

I went back to Asan today and went to the Oeam Folk Village(see pictures above) which was nice as it wasn't quite as "touristy" as the Yongin Folk Village although I liked the Yongin Folk Village better as there was more to see. You can check out the rest of the Oeam Folk Village pictures on Facebook.

I also went to the Onyang Folk Museum (see pictures above) today which was the nicest Folk Museum I've been to in Korea as the museum that they have is quite large and covers most aspects of Korean life as even I learned some new things there today even though I've been here for 14 years now. You can check out the rest of the Onyang Folk Museum pictures on Facebook. The grounds surrounding the museum are really beautiful as well.

Unfortunately, starting Wednesday here in Choenan we are supposed to get approximately 50 - 80 mm of rain every day for a solid week so I guess I'll spend more time next weekend being a drinker rather than a tourist so these will be the last pictures for a while.

CHOENAN DUDE