Third week at Uni

Sunday, I went to the soccer match at Daegu World Cup Stadium. I looked up directions online with Google maps. Google translation is a wonderful thing. I took the bus to the subway and rode it to Gosan yeok. After I got off the subway, I asked a guy at the information booth which way to the World Cup Stadium. He leads me outside and gives me nice directions. He says I should take a taxi, but Google maps said it was about a 15 minute walk, so I wanted to walk. So, he pointed in the direction “center.” So, I began my journey. Maybe twenty or so minutes elapsed and I saw the outlines of the roof of the Stadium in the distance. Needless to say I chose to take the bus (see note later) and subway on the way back. Across the street from the Stadium, there were vendors all selling the same thing apparently, either grapes or apples. So, I came to one and asked if I could just buy 2 apples instead of a bowl. At first she was reticent, but she then gave me them for free. I offered her some money, but she refused. By the way, the match was at three o’clock, and I have not eaten lunch. I arrived about an hour early, so I bought a Mountain Dew from the vendor and sat under the shelter and read some in my book Robert Ludlum’s “Apocalypse Watch.” A couple of Koreans were having a pleasant conversation next to me. After awhile I got up and walked around to the ticket booth. Tickets were 6,000 Won, so about $6. The ticket booths were in buildings that looked like silos. I noticed that there was a contest to try to kick the soccer ball in three small holes in a board to win a prize. I saw some foreigners kicking around the ball. And another foreigner comes up to me saying something, I was pretty sure it was English, but quite difficult to understand. Turns out he is from Dublin, Ireland. So, I actually know something about that place. The match itself was interesting, but there was nobody in the stands, it was really embarrassing. I watched with my new Irish friend. I tried to explain how the NFL drafts college players. Come to find out it is much different to European soccer.So, I got a ride back on a middle school bus, with college students it turned out. I guess they felt sorry for a lost foreigner. I was trying to figure out which bus to take from the Stadium.

fans at the Daegu F.C. match

First week of teaching.

Before talking about the new job, let’s finish with the hagwon. My last day was last Friday. And I had new teacher orientation at my university on Thursday. I could only stay for an hour or so because I had to work at my hagwon later that day. Saturday Ben helped me move to my new apartment. I am living on campus in the “Techno Building,” which is professor housing. It is nice and spacious. We took two trips to complete the move, which was a challenge because we took the bus here, two buses actually. So, the bus began to fill up and we had to almost sit on my boxes/suitcases. I arranged to pick up the key from a coworker on Saturday. Kyunpook is a nice university, except when students/professors drive their motor scooters or motorcycles all over the place. People that drive these things do not follow any traffic rules. They drive on the sidewalk, run red lights, weave in traffic, do U-turns in intersections, and whatever else.

The teaching reminds me of my old hagwon. I have a textbook and lead the students on the material. The students know a lot more English than I perhaps thought. But it’s not a bad gig. One day I have two classes, then another day I have three. The other days I have five classes. I am done by 4pm everyday. I share an office with a former army crime scene investigator from San Francisco, and two Canadians. The guy from SF was stationed in Korea for several years, and is of Korean descent. He wanted to come back to Korea to experience the culture and food, as he was unable or too busy during his tenure in the army. I played soccer Saturday night with some people from church. The “foreigners” played a middle school soccer team. They were quite good, but we were a bit rusty as well. We gave up several goals. But yesterday we played much better and were aggressive. My rotating pastor was married on Saturday at 10:30am. It was a traditional Korean wedding. At the beginning of the ceremony, the bride and groom stood at the back of the room and walked to the front of the stage.
After the ceremony, we had a group photo, probably about 100 or so people in various degrees of dress. Then we took the escalator up to our buffet lunch. It was quite scrumptious. In one side of the room there was Korean food, and across the room was French food (snails), Chinese, and other fare. Needless to say myself and my eating companions made several trips.