BigHominid's Hairy Chasms: campus walkabout

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

campus walkabout

As promised, here's my final pic dump: 33 images from my campus walkabout the other day. Hover your cursor over each image to see its caption.

My apartment from the outside: a view of my front door, the way a guest would see it. Note that the hallway's too narrow for my door to have a complete border around it.

My apartment from the outside: a view of my front door, the way a guest would see it. Note that the hallway's too narrow for my door to have a complete border around it.

Now we move from the third to the second floor. On the landing in between floors, you see my oasis: a water dispenser. As one fellow expat gloomily notes: 'Just wait eight months to see how good the water is when no one's changed the filter.' Right ray of sunshine, that guy.

Our sometimes-automatic front door. It slides. The other afternoon, it was broken: the sensor didn't respond to my presence, so I manhandled the door open and shut. Just another bug that comes with being in a spanking-new building.

Outside the front door, looking wistfully back in.

Standing out in the street, looking back at the front entrance to Healing Town (written in Korean). The signs advertise leasing (im-dae) of still-empty one-room studios.

Now we start forward. I'm tempted to call this an alley, but it's more of a back street, what with the vegetation to my right.

As I mentioned earlier, the neighborhood is still under construction. Here's what some construction workers do with their work gloves.

Note the scaffolding on the left. Most of this short stretch is all new buildings. In the distance, the end of our street is coming up.

Get to the end of the street and turn right, then start walking uphill. Right away, you see our university advertising itself in that crass way common to many Korean colleges.

Cultural center. No idea whether this is part of the campus proper.

The central admin office for the town of Hayang.

Here, we're entering the campus via the 'hu-mun,' or rear gate. It's actually not a true rear gate: it's close to 70 or 90 degrees over from the main front gate.

One of the first buildings we encounter is named for a famous martyr (and infamous book-burner)—the Man for All Seasons.

John Choi Hall is listed on the Korean campus maps as a 'techno center.' But who is John Choi? Don't tell me—I need to look him up.

It's hard to tell, but this is a cut-off view of a traffic circle, or as they call it in some parts, a rotary. This is one of the major landmarks to orient you as you enter the campus.

Looking along one spur from off the rotary.

Choices, choices. Note the Latin names: Amare (to love), Servire (to serve), etc.

Another partial view of the traffic circle.

The walking path that will eventually take me to my destination buildings. It's a nice, quiet walk; I imagine that it'll be gorgeous come autumn.

At last: Building A1, the Admin Building. This is where I met the cute Ms. Kang.

A sign, so that there will be no confusion as to place. Note the un-dotted letter 'i.'

St. Paul Hall. That's where they have the orgies.

The next building over from A1 (Admin) is A2, St. Thomas Aquinas Hall. That's where my office is, and it's also where I'll be teaching most of my classes.

Another glimpse down one of the campus's streets.

A closeup shot of one of the street signs.

...and back to St. Thomas Aquinas Hall. It apparently contains rooms devoted to publishing and broadcasting. Maybe this is where the university press is located. I can clandestinely publish my subversive textbooks here.

The library! I'll be having my first AND second orientations there, in Room 501. Unlike Buildings A1 and A2, the library does have an elevator, although it's been marked for handicapped use only. Hey, fat people are kind of handicapped.

A statue of Ahn Joong Geun, a prominent Korean Catholic who can be found under 'An Jung-geun' in Wikipedia. He learned French and assassinated a Japanese official in 1909. The surname 'Ahn' means 'peace.'

A closeup of the library's name plate. Hangeul readers can see that 'Paul' is generally rendered as the more Latin-sounding 'Paolo.'

Seminar Room 501! (Yes, I took the elevator up.) I wanted to peek inside the room, but the door was locked, dammit.

Finally... taking the stairs back down and walking home. Hope you enjoyed this brief tour of part of CUD's campus!

3 comments:

John McCrareyAugust 21, 2013 at 2:13:00 AM GMT+9
I'd have preferred a full frontal of Ms. Kang as opposed to the library, but the campus looks nice anyway.
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BratfinkAugust 21, 2013 at 3:16:00 AM GMT+9
Nice! Thanks for the tour.
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hahnakAugust 21, 2013 at 4:01:00 AM GMT+9
i appreciate all the photos of the campus and the town. i esp enjoyed the photos of daegu and an explanation of what emart is like.

i agree that yos are comfy. when we lived in l.a. for 5 years, we ended up never getting a mattress. just slept on some yo we bought somewhere in k-town. i know i should put this comment under the other posting but im just adding it here.
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