off to Ulsan tomorrer

KMA is sending me away to Ulsan, down southeast, for a rare on-site instructional session that'll be going on for two days. I'll be teaching my usual seven-hour persuasive-writing course that I'd designed for KMA (3.5 hours each day); it's not a top seller, but students apparently find it challenging, and instead of requesting a more well-known course, like "Presentation Skills," the company in Ulsan wanted mine.

My understanding is that there may be something riding on whether I can deliver the goods: mine is the first-ever course to be conducted on site and not at our KMA office in Yeouido, central Seoul. My boss is trusting me, despite the fact that his instincts tell him my course should be flashier: Korean-style courses often feature a pile of multimedia crap (think: PowerPoint), whereas my course is very old-school, very meat-and-potatoes and paper-driven. I don't even need my laptop, but I'm bringing it, anyway, because I have to tutor via Skype tomorrow evening from inside my hotel room. Teaching during the day... tutoring at night... you know, for a supposed vacation, this summer has been rather busy.

My KMA boss was very nice; he told me the company would be footing the bill for train, taxi, and hotel expenses; they'd also pay for up to W8,000 for a meal (ha ha: I eat way more than that). My boss told me he found a largish, nicely furnished hotel—not your typical pube yeogwan. I have to pay the hotel bill myself, but KMA will reimburse everything once I show my credit-card receipts. The train tickets, by contrast, have already been paid for; all I have to do is get to Seoul Station on time for the KTX ride south.

So I'm up early in the morning, boarding a train, getting off at Ulsan, taxiing to the on-site location, teaching until about 7PM the first evening, taxiing to my hotel, grabbing dinner, tutoring a student, waking up and eating a complimentary breakfast at the hotel, taxiing back to the company, teaching the second half of my course, then taking the train back to Seoul that same evening. Talk about a whirlwind tour. But it ought to be fun.


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