Korean Detour

Thursday, February 12, 2015

School year is over

Yesterday was the last day of classes. I still had to come to school today, but I didn't have to do any work. Tomorrow I will go to school then go to the hospital for my medical check, which I need every year for my visa. Saturday I will go to Japan.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Back from the US

I was in the US Jan 20th - 30th. I got back to Korea Sunday morning around 5:00 am and was home by about 8:30am. I flew from Chicago to Hong Kong, spent a few hours at the airport, then flew to Seoul. Whole thing was about 24 hours of travel, not including the time going to and from the airports. I didn't sleep well during any of that time, so when I got home Sunday morning I spent most of the day sleeping.

My trip wasn't very good. I never really got over my jet lag and I didn't have much time to just relax. I was too busy meeting friends, shopping and doing some other things I wanted to do while I was there.

I brought two 50 lb suit cases full of things I don't need back to the US, but looking at my apartment it still seems pretty full.

Today I'm at school and don't have much to do here. Tomorrow classes start. We will have 2 weeks of classes then more vacation time before the 2015 school year starts.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Going to japan again

I have a lot of vacation time this winter, so I decided to go to Japan again. I'll be there for about 10 days next month. I'll be flying to Osaka, but I haven't really planned what I'll do yet. I'm just going because I like Japan and it's easy for me to go there since I live in Korea. Once I'm back in the US it's a $1000+ plane ticket and a 14 hour flight. From Seoul it's about 2 hours and I'm paying about $250.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Visiting the US

I'll be visiting the US this month from the 20th to the 30th. I plan to eat a lot of food and buy some stuff. I'll also bring back a bunch of things I don't need here. I have way too much stuff here.

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

2015 plans

I think this is my last year in Korea. I like to decide a year in advance so I will have time to do the things I wanted to do before I go. I didn't want to just suddenly decide that I'll be leaving in a couple months.

So my plans for this year are to keep learning CAD, keep studying Korean, and to save more money. I was doing those things during 2014, but with this being my last year I want to try to turn up the intensity a bit.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

One more year in Korea

Winter is the most stressful time for me here in Korea because that's when I find out if I can stay at my job another year or not. Twice I have lost my job because of the budget, so then there is the stress of trying to find a new job.

I like this school and recently found out that they will have money in the budget for me next year and I can stay another year. I'm so glad.

I am planning on this being my last year in Korea. I liked living here much better than I ever imagined and stayed much longer than I planned when I first decided to come to Korea. But I'm sick of the stress every year wondering if I will have a job the next year, and getting a little sick of teaching kids. I also feel that it's about time to move on and get back to my metal work.

Monday, September 1, 2014

Japan trip

I went to Japan August 9th - 19th. This was my 6th trip there since 1997 and it was great, as usual. I was going to take a boat from Busan, but it was canceled cause of the weather. Luckily I was able to get a flight for not much more than the cost of the boat ticket.

I flew from Seoul to Fukuoka, train to Kagoshima, boat to Yakushima (an island), jetfoil back to Kagoshima, flew to Osaka (KIX), then took trains between Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara. Flew back to Seoul from KIX.

The pics below are from my phone. I haven't had time to go through all the photos I took with my DSLR yet.

This is what I brought. Each trip I try to bring less than the previous trip. I didn't like that my bag was so full and I didn't have room in my bag for my camera.