In Seoul

Guesthouse

Drink Responsibly



Government Cafeteria


Korean Backgammon or something.



The museum of culture, with a diorama of pot making in Korea. I took the picture for all those people in Stoke on Trent fascinated by pots.



Spirit Poles, for something.

Railway to Seoul

Ulsan, crossing the river just north of the Station. Every city in Korea looks like this.


This is how you know you're in Ulsan. The Hyundai cars.



The pretty bits I never take pictures of.


The only city in Korea that looks different. Gyongju, world heritage site. Looks nice.

Ulsan Festival

This is the Ulsan Festival, an open air concert on Ilsan Beach. That night was a Korean Hip Hop act. Kind of like Will Smith, but less threatening.

School remodelling

Fan Death

There is little information about the Korean phenomenon of 'Fan Death' (look it up, you wouldn't believe me if I told you). However, when they have fans this size, you have to wonder...

Around the neighbourhood

The north side of the harbour

The same point, just looking in the other direction. Lots of seafood.

There's a church every few minutes walk.. this hut is next to the allotments.

Yoki

Yoki is a Yorkshire Terrier, I'm told. She's a bit on the small side. As part of Ms. Choi's family, she spends a lot of time in the school. I'm surprised one of the children or staff hasn't accidentally injured here yet. She spends most of her time barking at strangers or begging for food, and has brutally attacked some people, leaving slight dents on their skin.


That's my desk and my boot for scale. Yoki was not harmed.


Yoki leaving the office at the end of the day, just about to take the bus home with Mr. Cho.

Once more unto the beach

So much... black.


Helena showing how the universal translator worked.

That was my day off in June. Thanks to Ingimar, Helena and Christina for arranging a day out. I did reduce the amount of black clothing as the summer got warmer.

Badly Dressed Man Goes Home

My mother wanted to take some pictures to show what kind of place I live in...

Still no life

Still here, still working. The lack of posts is down to laziness (always my defining trait) and a lack of anything you might find interesting here. Leave the pretty photographs to people with transport who are not living in a dull urban wasteland. I wouldn't call this negative, just honest. I'm not sure many people in Ulsan would disagree with me. Nobody came here for recreation or scenery.

If I had to make a prediction, I suspect a steady decrease in satisfaction. My working week is getting more difficult, the weather is getting hotter, and there are mosquitoes.

A trip to Dragon Rock (without a picture of the rock)

Trees, rocks, ocean.

The fornicating dolphins.



Photo from the tip of Dragon Rock, the most easterly point of the mainland (at least nearby). That's the Hyundai shipyard.


It's a very beautiful area, within walking distance of home.

A major Korean tourist attraction

The forest trail up the mountain next to my school is very nice... you can keep walking to Jujeon beach if you have a few hours.

Ilsan Beach

The city's seaside resort. I'll take some proper pictures of the nightlife sometime, that tries to pack all of Blackpool's neon into 100 metres. It's about as classy too. This was a cold Korean New Year's day.

Jujeon Beach

Noted as 'Black Pebble Beach'... I think the Black Pebbles were trucked in by Hyundai to make it look nicer. It's a pleasant little area just over the mountains from Nam Mok.

View from the Lotte Wheel

Does everywhere have a Ferris Wheel now? They built this one on the roof of the department store, it makes it seem bigger. No picture from outside of the actual wheel, since it was actually raining for the third day this month! It's easy enough to find a picture of that on the internet...

And Finally, what you've been waiting for...

...the view from the other side of my apartment.

Food

With a rice cooker and boil in the bag sauces, I'm not spending time learning how to do much else. I should add some extra vegetables to those meals, but apart from that it's a decent diet. Spaghetti and jars of sauce are available, and of course every store has 25% devoted to Noodles. There's some recognisable food spread around the shelves: some sausages, one packet of butter per shop, plenty of milk. At the moment I haven't got more adventurous (I can do pancakes as well, but unfortunately that's not really nutrition). More effort will be needed when I'm back on evening hours at school, and have to prepare my own lunch instead of getting it delivered like I do at the moment.

Even less to say...

No, I haven't got a life. Just tired, or maybe ill. Lessons good, apartment good, had a trip into the city centre and finally got to wander around, took pictures then spent today feeling very under the weather and not getting them transferred onto this computer. Most boring blog ever. Of course, it's not a blog, so that's ok.

The Weekend

I think I'm the only English teacher that lives in this area. The only one that frequents the Korean Union, anyway. I'm very much an oddity here (no jokes please). Met many good and fascinating people over the weekend, but not going to go and repeat stuff on a blog. Except for Lloyd, who pretty much said 'All the English teachers have blogs, and they stop posting in time as they get a life'. I asked his permission to repeat that.

Other things I learnt at the weekend- the cool black-windowed house around the corner from here is a hostess bar, but with Korean hostesses for Koreans so you don't get bother from them if you're a Westerner. Its a very cool looking place.

The row of hostess bars near the Hyundai hotel is called 'The Dark Side' amongst some 'locals', and is a place to avoid on my salary :-) There are good bars and restaurants around there, just know which ones to avoid.

Worst Kitchen ever...

Well, it was bound to happen, a complaint... the main room of my apartment is large enough to play tennis in, but the kitchen is smaller than the bathroom, consisting of 12 cupboards. More than enough storage space since the food preparation surface is about one square foot in area and the cooking appliance is two gas hobs. The plentiful cupboards are also great for smacking your head into as you do anything in the sink. There's not much that can be done to improve the situation, since there's no room to put anything else (except into a cupboard).

Hopefully this doesn't open the floodgates of ranting...

Now, the same view at night...

From my apartment window, at night. Past the spur of land in the distance is the beach area and some nice places to visit, apparently. I lack time, sunlight and Arctic gear for sightseeing up there now.

Look! Me! In Korea!

Old Downtown again. Notice it's 'Marry Christmas' here.

My Apartment

It doesn't have much more furniture in it now.

Nam Mok at night

The restaurant district. I think. I'm still lost.

Korean Love Hotel

Not a Love Hotel in the extravagant form we know and love in those endless 'crazy Japan' reports. It's a very normal motel, but it has the reputation, apparently. I stayed there three nights until my apartment was ready. Hardly anything unusual about the place. Hardly.

No recent pictures.

No, I'm not taking any pictures, too cold for sightseeing. I'm still posting all the ones I took in the first two weeks.

There goes any anonymity

The Top Class Academy. An excellent place, with excellent staff and pupils