36/16.

Hello. This is the first blog which is simultaneously broadcast in stereo on both this site and on FACEBOOK. The two giants of the internet (well, one actual giant and one Hagrid) have joined in order to provide links between each other. So now, whenever I update my STA travel blogsite an update will be shown on my FACEBOOK account. If you use FACEBOOK, therefore, but have been ignoring my blog or know nothing about it, then you can't fail to miss it from now on! Unless, of course, you are not interested.. which is extremely possible, Harry.


I have reached the end of my 36th week teaching, and it's another day off (it's a hard life, I know!)

Memorial Day is a chance for Koreans to remember their war dead. Of course, the majority of the casualties which are remembered fell in the Korean War. In South Korea, the war is often called 6·25 or 6·25 War (Korean: 6·25 전쟁), from the date of the start of the conflict or, more formally, Hanguk Jeonjaeng (한국전쟁; literally "Korean War"). In North Korea, while commonly known as the Korean War, it is formally called the Jogug Gaebang Jeonjaeng or Fatherland Liberation War (조국해방전쟁).

I have been having my own small scale battles recently with mosquitoes in my flat. Not as worrying as the pesky, female Culiseta longiareolata of the Tanzanian plain, as these ones don't carry malaria. But they are still a nuisance, so I have spent this morning buying up supplies of spray and burning repellents. I have bitten a lot, but thankfully no major illnesses to report.


I visited the new LOTTE department store, on Friday, which is now open in CITY 7, a brand spanking new complex of buildings, which have featured in my photos and a couple of my videos - mostly noticeably my 'Teaching In South Korea' video, the one with the "unnerving estate-agent intonation." I bought a couple more pot plants to keep Bella Donna company - some rosemary and some marjoram. I have repotted Bella Donna and she is happier now. Stop me if this is all too exciting for you ;-) !


Anyway, it is not pay day until Tuesday and I have run out of cash, although this didn't stop me venturing to Busan today... where I, subsequently, had trouble finding the bus fare back to Changwon. I managed to reserve my ferry seat to Fukuoka, Japan... as thankfully I don't have to pay for that until the day I sail, or is 'hover'? Got lost a number of times as my pig-headedness took over.

The highlight, however, of the weekend was standing up in front of my MS Echo English Study Group and lambasting Korean Society on it's attitude towards Cohabitation. I think I sounded a little bit 'strong' in my criticism of the conversativenes in this country! It didn't stop them inviting me out for Samgyeopsal, and free bamboo soju, afterwards. Although cash restraints prevented me from setting the world to rights with them in the bar after that.


Phil.

xxx