Friday was contract renewals with the Daegu Board of Education. I am signing again for a third year. The perks of renewing is that you get a $2000 renewal bonus and 10 extra summer vacation days in addition to the 8 regular and August public holiday. The public school system has two hiring intakes in February and August. I am with the August intake. Daegu has 100% placement in all of its public schools for Elementary, Middle, and High Schools, so approx 500 teach...

Biking around in my neighbourhood I've been exploring some of the local temples. The first one opposite Unam Middle School caught my eye originally due to the large statue outside. There are two buildings in the complex. The first one had a large hall filled with hanging lanterns from the ceiling. The front main shrine had two curved walls either side filled with rows of tiny gold buddha statues. The second smaller adjacent building had a smaller version of the s...

Uzbekistan - Heart of the Silk RoadAfter Xinjiang China, this is the second reason I chose to come and work in Korea to half the airfare costs to this historic heartlandTashkent > Samarkand > Bukhara > Khiva

Here are some good links from some of the other bloggers invited on the Yeosu Expo trip Pavilion of Cambodia http://novemberbeetle.tumblr.com/post/2 5425217421/yeosu-expo-2012-pavilion-of- cambodia Pavilion of Argentina http://novemberbeetle.tumblr.com/post/2 5424312816/yeosu-expo-2012-pavilion-of- argentina 10 Tips for the Yeosu Expo http://ditautomo.blogspot.kr/2012/06/ye osu-expo-2012-10-tips-for-you.html reprinted on TheKoreaBlog http://blog.korea.net/?p=1062...

There were a few notable absences from this years Yeosu Expo Canada ------------ My home country did not attend. This was somewhat of a national embarrassment when you look at the efforts made by many of the smaller countries. For an Expo whose theme was the ocean, a country that is surrounded by three oceans on three sides, and who has the second largest coastline after Russia, this was a disgrace The reason cited was lack of money. But time and time again yet a...