3 showers a day

Well it finally happened yesterday - the heat and humidity besieged us. We'd done surprisingly well this year compared to last; June was coolish and considering it was supposed to be the rainy season we had little in the way of rain aside from a few days of downpour. The last downpour was Wednesday, and the moisture just didn't want to leave this time. This means no matter how slowly I walk, I sweat. And it means I really really wish there was such a thing as dimensionless clothing, 'cause aside from parading through my day naked, nothing will feel comfortable or dry until the fall. Joy!

Regular classes ended mid-June. Since June 25 I've had a most interesting gig at Samsung Electro-Mechanics. It is interesting on several fronts. Firstly, the plant is located a good hour from my house on the south-western outskirts of Busan. The longer I've been at my job at Pukyong, the less frequently I leave the surrounding neighbourhood. I mean, why should I? I've got my shops, my gyms, my restos, my friends, my movie theater, my hiking trails and my bar. I leave so rarely though I'm convinced there may be some sort of force field in place around Daeyeon3dong!

But Samsung gets me out, waaay out. The first day I took public transit and it was a disaster. The bus was hot and super crowded so I had to stand, and the way bus drivers attack the road here standing on a bus is strenuous business and requires extreme focus. Thankfully shortly after I learned that Samsung runs buses all over the city for its employees, and there was a stop conveniently located near my house. It is great - the bus is a comfortable air-conditioned coach and I get a seat every time. The downside is it gets me there an hour early but hey beats the alternative.

The Samsung plant is interesting as well. It's of course huge, and in a recently developed industrial park. Nearby is another Samsung plant, Samsung-Renault Cars, as well as various other types of industrial stuff - lumber processing, tubes and pipes etc. At our plant all sorts of weird stuff is made, I guess mainly chips and bits that go into all kinds of electronics. It seems they have extra potent electricity or something too cause check out this sign on the first floor of our building:
I actually teach on behalf of Pukyong, as our university has a kind of relationship with the company whereby employees can take a bunch of classes over a period of a few years and earn some sort of diploma. I really love my students 'cause they are 'real people'. They have to come to class everyday after a full day of work, and despite being so tired participate very well and are very attentive. The class I teach is an intensive 15 day program where they get about 2.5 hours of conversational English every evening from about 8pm till 10:30pm.

Even though the teaching time per day isn't too long, with travel time and sitting around time it still manages to eat up about 6 hours each day. The students with cars are very good about driving myself and my coworker into town each night. Usually I get back to my hood around 11:30pm and drop by 'the bar' for a pint or two on my way home. The other day Canadians were awarded one free beer for Canada Day which was nice. Maybe 'cause it was Tuesday there weren't so many of us Canucks out that night: