When in Canada

Date of arrival: July 8th. Alternatively, one day and one hour until we depart to South Korea. These past few weeks have been quite daunting: waiting (anxiously) for my visa to be approved – quite a stressful undertaking! Even filling out the visa application form has proved to be intimidating, resulting in me throwing it into the trash at least three times before it was exactly the way it was supposed to be. I can finally say that everything is coming together. Suitcases are (almost) packed and flights have been scheduled.

So in this limited amount of time left in Canada, I have been pouring over the resources on the World Wide Web (albeit a limited number of resources for this one minute location that I just happen to have found myself going to), in the process of familiarizing myself with a city which I will soon come to inhabit for three hundred and sixty-five days. One entire year. Lying on the southern coast of South Korea, this coastal city is apparently popularly known for its sea wind, warm current, seafood, beaches and marinas. Although not considered an international hub (for example, I have been told that “Western food” will be virtually unavailable), this seems to be a place for those who are interested in submersing themselves in raw Korean culture (and food, ha). I say this, yet I really have no expectations –  for its landscape, its people, the feel of the city, or what my experience there will be like it. Yeosu will also be hosting the three month long World Expo (a media place to exhibit technologies for solutions for global-scale problems, including resource depletion), in 2012, which will bring an interesting set of threatened creatures and eight million tourists, more than twenty-seven times the current population of Yeosu. So there you have it – a brief insight into the extent of my preparations thus far.