here are lots of pics of busan, 2nd largest city in korea, and port city with ferries to japan
http://worldneighborhoods.com/pictures/ busan-f36/
i am 45 mins on high speed train

flight arrived 4am from the oceanside so it was pitchblack except for lots of fishing boats with their lights. got to see korea for the first time by day. went for a stroll to the beach... it was deserted and this is august peak season!!! imagine an entire shoreline to yourself!.. lots of seashells lying around and get to see crabs and other shellfish scurrying which havent seen since southend!.. you can hear the rooster crowing thats how rural this area is.
there are no sidewalks so walking is hazardous

the guy in the hotel is friendly and warned me daegu is very hot.. ooops!
also, i can goto a soccer match for 7,000 won = $7! :-)
youtube is all in korean characters
slept from 10am to 4pm day one after my 4am arrival.
just slept from 11pm to 3am again
i used the hotel toothpaste as shaving cream as i didnt know what it was and actually felt very cool and refreshing afterwards :)

am now in jeonju for the orientation. took the bus they provided from the airport which was 4 hours. lots of farmland along the way, didnt see many towns. when we got here the heat was unbearable. where i was up north on the coast was not like this. the temperature is low 30s but with humidity feels like 40s. you are sweating so much am taking two showers a day.

am sharing the room with the other pakistani guy from vancouver. finally got internet setup. they are not wireless and you have to configure your laptop. the instructions they gave for vista 7 were wrong. the campus is nice, newly built, with lots of convenience stores, korean restaurants and coffee shops nearby.. the campus airconditioning is not all one. luckily the rooms have their own a/c but the halls are all switched off as there are no students here except us.

getting to meet everyone. most are from US (california/chicago mostly so far), canada (mostly toronto), uk, few from ireland, new zealand. yesterday was arrival day so did nothing. today is just opening ceremony and welcome dinner/performances. tomorrow they are doing medical check in the morning. then three days of classes but sunday they do a full day trip to the old historic town centre and a temple.

heat is just too much. today we did a campus tour and everyone just drenched themselves. i dont think uk people are used to it as they are wearing two layers of clothing. not sure how they want us to dress as this is supposed to be job training so i'm not wearing my shorts but i probably will as a lot of others are. had kimchi i think for the first time which was very vinegary and spicy.

i am on the 8th floor and the elevators are terrible going up and down. there is only one elevator for this floor and it takes forever, waiting in a humid hallway with no airconditioning. i want an icecream but i cant put up with the 20 mins it will take to go down and come back up.

last nite during opening ceremonies they did a drum performance, then a taekwondo performance to music, finally a fan dance. today we did the medical check in the morning. one girl passed out after having her blood taken, might be part of heat and being told no water for six hours prior. then my roomate and i took a cab into town to find the jeonju mosque. after we found a tesco supermarket nearby.

some things are really cheap like eggs, bread for $1, other things expensive like oranges $1 each,and orange juice $5.cheese they only have craft singles for about $10! the only electronics you can buy are samsung and LG brand. prices are the same as toronto for electronics. tesco had a good enough selection of things so hopefully there will be one in daegu when i get there. tonight we start korean language lessons for three days. on sunday we do a field trip to the historic town centre. tonight we started korean language classes which will be a real help and the writing is beginning to make sense.... can you believe this is actually a job and i am being paid to be here???!! ;-)))