Southern Love

The verdict is in. In t-minus 2 weeks I'm headed down to sunny Mokpo to spend the rest of my 12 months in Korea (I'm just showing you some random pictures from Korea since I haven't actually been there yet). It's hard to find a lot of detailed information on the town, but it's about a quarter million people, situated on the Southwest coast (COAST = SEAFOOD!)--a sort of modern fishing and shipping town. To be honest, this is exactly what I was looking for. In my Placement Preference Survey I put Mokpo down as the "type of town" that I might like to go to...low and behold that's where I'm headed; the God's must be pleased. Sure, it would be fun to hang out in Busan, or Daegu, etc forthe year. But Mokpo has everything I need, including 3--count 'em, 3--western bars (apparently for all the Eastern Europeans working in the shipping yards, an airport with domestic flights, and even ferries headed down to Jeju and over to Busan. Best of all though: fresh seafood. Apparently the town specialty is live octopus, I can't wait for that one, but I'll be plenty happy with whatever catch rolls in on the boats every evening.

I also have a few notes on the school I'll be teaching at: Mokpo Joongang High School (check out http://mokpojoongang.hs.kr/ if you're in the mood to read Korean or just want to check out the pictures). It's a private school with only ~450 students. That means class sizes 25-30 instead of the 40+ I'd get in the big cities. As far as I can tell, it's some sort of vocational school--not necessarily wood shop an auto repair, but judging by the faculty list it looks more like computer design, ship building, and plenty of business classes. It seems to be a feeder to the shipping industry. That may or may not bode well for the students' English abilities, but I'm excited either way. Oh yea, and there are 5 other ETAs in the city with me, along with 8 or so more in the province (like an hour by bus to the next major city). As I mentioned, I can take a ferry straight to Jeju Island, and Seoul is about 4hours, a straight shot by express bus. However things turn out, I think I'll have a great time getting to know the city and the area--small enough keep that laid back atmosphere yet plenty big to provide all the great restaurants and amenities that I'll want in the coming year.