at KMA

A very quick post to say I've been at KMA, in trendy Yeouido, since this morning. I've been given an entire auditorium in which to work quietly on some KMA-related tasks. I'll be leaving around 5PM and meeting my buddy Tom for dinner. Alas, the mystery-shopper thing fell through, so Tom and I will be going Dutch—probably at a chicken place near my yeogwan.

Yesterday was appropriately hectic, given my two major errands and my dinner appointment. I successfully retrieved the employment voucher from Sookmyung Women's University, then quickly cabbed over to Dongguk University's huge—and extremely hilly—campus and turned the document in, one day before applications would be due. In the evening, I met the director of R&D for the Golden Goose. He's keen to bring me aboard, and he's argued to his boss on my behalf, but for reasons of internal office politics that I hesitate to get into, my entry into his company is not a sure thing. We ate dinner in Itaewon, at a sports bar; he got a Reuben and I ordered a chicken schnitzel—my first-ever such dish. It was quite good. My dinner companion's Reuben looked meaty but a bit strange, as it had obviously been run through a panini press. Afterward, we went out for drinks; I'm a teetotaler, but my interlocutor is a San Miguel man. I sat fairly silently at the quiet bar we were in, listening to my companion hold forth in perfect Korean as he talked to both our friendly bartender and a gentleman who, it turned out, had defected years ago from North Korea. Interesting evening.

Then it was back to my nice, clean, roomy yeogwan for a decent night's sleep, followed by my trip to KMA today. Looking forward to this evening's dinner.


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