Might be a 5 post week!

It is kind of slow here...middle school test are going on at the other middle school in Seochon. So this means there is a high likely hood of me not having my last class.
Seo-chon is very different than Gunsan. Here...it is the countryside. There are no movie theaters, shopping malls, nor are there any crowded districts. Actually it can get very crowded on the weekends...but that is because the center of town doesn't have a good parking system. So loads of cars slowly move through the streets. Seo-chon is the life line to outlying counties in this area. So those people living out there make trips into town during the weekend. Gunsan has that and more. In the city itself you have an industrial district, and new major shopping areas. There is a large movie theater. There used to be 2 movie theaters...but one folded. (the theaters were right next to each other!!)

There is major development that is almost complete, with many new high rise apartments coming in. To the people moving into those over priced apartments....tisk tisk you have been warned. Korea's housing market could nose dive at any time. One student (adult) told me that prices have just recently started to slide. Yet here in Gunsan people are moving in. Here in Seo-chon one of my students families are moving into that area. She was so proud telling me about her new apartment. Her father teaches at a school in Gunsan. So it makes sense to move to Gunsan, but to raid your nest egg for that kind of move makes little sense to me. If I were he I would move into Na-un-dong (the current "hotspot" to live in")

Next year in march people are very worried about the employment situation of many companies. Even now many large companies are cutting back work hours, and shutting down production lines. Americans are buying less of their cars. This means that the subsidiary companies are also cutting back in line with the Big 5 here in Korea (hyundai, Kia, GMDaewoo, Samsung, and Sanyoung). These companies CANNOT be supported by the domestic market...it is just too small. Instead they must rely on larger markets...America being the largest.

All in all the picture looks bleak. However, I think that all this boils down to trust. Or rather the lack of it. People no longer trust the financial institutions. Banks are so trusting either. They are leaning on the "mountains" as described in the book of Revelation. We know "mountains" in this since relates to the governments. Governments worldwide are trying to push the public to trust in financial institutions. The key word on how they are doing this is.."bail out". Prior to the last few months, the words bail out drew images of people going to jail, and trying to "post bail", after finally getting "bailed out by someone.

Now the words bail out make me think of these HUGE banks running to the government for help, and wall street needing the government to buy poorly performing stocks.

We are all in for something that will bring about change. Something that will herald in a new era. There is hope just on the horizon...maybe much closer than that!

tata!