New City : New Blog

Here it is.  A brand new blog.  No guarantees that this one will surpass the 8 posts that Dralle and I cobbled together.

A lot has happened since I first came to Korea, and I could spend my first post getting you up so speed.  But I'm not.  This post is about now, in the future when I get bored maybe I'll tell the tale of how things got to be this way.

I live in Mokpo, which is a smaller city on the southwest corner of the peninsula.  

Here are some pluses of my current situation:

- The apartment has a 4 burner gas stove and there's a full size oven.  This is rare.  Very rare.  I'm afraid of losing friends to jealousy.

- I have my own office at the school complete with a computer, tv and a couch (for naps between classes).

- I get 8 weeks paid vacation, which comes in chunks of 4 weeks twice a year.  In Daejeon I only got 2 weeks, and nobody could actually tell me when that would be.

-I teach at Mokpo National University, which will certainly look better on a resume than "Good Morning Language Academy"

The foreigner community here in Mokpo is small, but active.  I've already participated in several all foreigner texas hold'em matches, an Indian food potluck, a book swap, and a hike.  I'm also looking forward to a chess tournament and hopefully some open mike nights or some busking.

When I started I was afraid the 8:30 am classes and 30 minute commute would be taxing, but that hasn't really turned out to be the case.  I'm done with work at 4:30, and I'm only in the classroom for 3.5 of those hours, which leaves tons of time for reading, studying, hiking, napping, and general relaxation.  What?  Hiking?  Yeah.  The University is nestled between a couple gorgeous ridges.  I took this shot on a hike today between classes: