Wednesday 2 October 2013

Where are we going?

Welcome. Welcome to Charmingly Chungnam! It's my second day in South Korea, and it's already an adventure, in all the ways you might and might not expect.  Before I move on to the adventure, let's have a rant about where in Korea I'm going.

Daegu. This blog was originally called "Daffily Daegu". This is why the header image is a picture of Daegu. Maybe someday I will change it... but probably not. Man, I was so proud of the name, it had that certain ring to it, it had alliteration, it had an old word people don't much use (daffy) which means one of my favourite things (silly). The subtitle was the dictionary entry for daffy. I was super excited about this master piece of a blog name, and had a post about my visa half typed up, when my partner Wes gets an email from his agency.

Cheonan."We're very sorry," they say, "but the school in Daegu we've placed you with is going bankrupt. We'll try to place you with a new one, in Cheonan." It's not even Daejeon. Daffily would have worked with Daejeon too. It's Cheonan. Oh well. Forget about the blog post. Who cares about blogs, anyway?

Eventually I rename the blog to "Charmingly Cheonan" and move on with my life, after this immense tragedy, this crushing blow. I find it on the map, and am pleased to see that at least Cheonan is close to Seoul. Close enough for commuting, even, if I should find something interesting to do in Seoul.

Asan. Wes inquires and gets to know that the school is located at Tangjeong-myeon, Asan. Asan? Asan is a smaller city, just west of Cheonan. It turns out that Wes' school is located inbetween Cheonan and Asan -- officially in Asan, but in practice slightly closer to Cheonan. It will thus be a commute to get into either city, Seoul has become a day-trip, and the two of us are likely to be the only white people (in addition to whatever other English teacher might be there) in that neighbourhood. Oh, Daegu!

Chungnam.  The school is officially in Asan, close to Cheonan, and not really in either. Asan and Cheonan are both in South Chungcheong province, or Chungcheongnam-do -- Chungnam for short. Chungnam it is, I think, and here I am now, in Chungnam. Chungnam province has 8 cities, ranging from Cheonan, which is the biggest with a population of nearly 600,000, to Gyeryong with only 40,000. I imagine I shall have to visit them all during my 11 months in Korea. =)

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