I guess this just isn't going to be a photoblog.
Today nothing happened.
I am happy.
It would appear that my coming may not have been entirely in vain, though that remains unconfirmed. In the words of the magic 8-ball, "signs point to yes". (Those of you who know what I mean, know what I mean).
Tomorrow I'm going to my assigned place. I'll be spending the summer in the hottest place on the peninsula. Not where I would have requested but I'll be happy there. I'm sure I'll be happy to unpack my stuff and hang up my suits (all two of them).

Links for the previous post:
Young Poong Bookstore
My dictionary
The one I want

(Well, there went my goal of a photo a day.) I had quite an interesting day on Tuesday.
I went back to my old stomping ground of Chuncheon. On the way I discovered that subway and train stations have a huge number of steps. Since I don't have problem with my knees, I don't usually notice how many steps I have to climb. With a large suitcase in hand, I became painfully aware.
I arrived at the Institute in Chuncheon and it was like I had never left. It was great to be back, except for one thing, the people I most wanted to meet weren't around. I was pleasantly surprised when a few of the people I was looking for appeared. I was most surprised to see a friend who I had been told was in China (my sources had the date of the tour wrong).
It was good to be back there, I suspect I'll be ending up there pretty often.
On the way back to Seoul I made a shocking discovery, a mostly empty suitcase is much lighter than a full one.

This post should have been written on Monday night. It wasn't. So begins the story of my working vacation. I had a few reasons for wanting to return to Korea (this blog will rarely use the geographic distinguisher, as its author shares the opinion of Cold War political leaders about the number of legitimate governments on the peninsula) but they will become clear to the reader as this experiment progresses. Conveniently, my summer vacation coincided with the teaching schedule of my Institute (that's its name). My plane was scheduled to leave at 7AM Sunday morning (June 26) This gave me the opportunity to stay up all night. Apparently I'm old. I did laundry, packed my bags and went to bed.


In order to do my part to keep the world safe for democracy, I arrived at the airport two hours before my flight. This would have been a more productive plan if the airport personnel had done the same. As it was, everything went well. In fact, I was a little disappointed that Uncle Sam didn't feel the need to perform a thorough inspection of my 'belt buckle'.

There's a reason why cheap flights are cheap. Often, it's because you have exceptionally long layover. On this flight it was probably just as well since it turned out that the departure gate was not only in a different zip code, it was probably in a different time zone. After wandering through terminals 1, 2 and 3 I finally noticed a sign telling me to go to Terminal 5. I asked for directions.
Out the door.
Down the hall.
Up the escalator.
Another hall.
A pedestrian walkover.
A train.
Another walkover.
Pretty self-explanatory I'd say.

The plane as seen from the window of the gate area. Not a 777. I had been under the mistaken impression that I was going to have 14 hours of movies-on-demand.
I meant to get a picture on board. It would have confirmed my argument about the superiority of of flight attendants on non-US airlines (although I like to act enlightened, really I'm just a boor).
The plane arrived around 5PM on Monday (after a 14hr flight starting at midday on Sunday), I got to the Institute at 8.

Well, this may not turn out to be a genius idea after all. Yesterday I went to 영풍 bookstore, a second home to me during previous stays here. There I inevitably bought some books and discovered why progress is bad. I bought an electronic dictionary last year and I've been generally happy with it (the 옥편 is weak, no etymology) I saw that a new model, with tons of new features and, most notably, expandable memory is available for W15,000(a medium priced meal, or three at the places where I eat) more than I paid for mine. I think the industry should intentionally limit innovation in order to promote sales. Otherwise, buyers are going to realize that anything they buy is already obsolete and wait interminably for the 'best' deal.
(The previous post is made in blatant disregard of both economics and human nature.)