Maybe A Library For Bybee: Erewhon University

The job-hunting saga continues apace. Tomorrow, I have an interview at Erewhon University. I emailed a query letter and my resume, and the program coordinator responded promptly, emailing back that yes, she wanted an interview. Even better, she got on the phone with my director and he said kind things about me.

I'm not exactly sure for which position I'll be interviewing. It could be teaching university students, or it could be a gig in which I'm farmed out to an elementary school or two, but still a university employee. I guess that would be an excellent opening question. The university is not in Seoul, where I truly wish to be; actually, it's out in the sticks. On the upside -- if I get this job -- once I get to the nearest big town, I can take the subway into Seoul on the weekends. Ah, yes...weekly spending sprees at What The Book? and Bandi & Luni and Kyobo...! Damn, almost forgot. I'd better work in a question about salary.

These are all important things to consider, but as always, something else looms larger. I'm fortunate to have a contact who attended Erewhon as a foreign exchange student:

Dude,
Got an interview at Erewhon. They let me pick the time and day, so I chose Tuesday afternoon because of that Moody Blues song. But never mind all of that. What's the Library Situation like? Please tell me they have novels, etc.

Hey:
Yeah, it's the Dewey Decimal system. They have books in English. I checked after [a former Erewhon professor], talking out of his ass, said they didn't. The books are mixed in with Korean books, but you can tell which books are in English from the title. They had some graphic novels and some books on the history of film. I remember seeing an edition of The Catcher In The Rye that was printed in both Korean and English. You know, page one is the first page of the novel and page 2 is the first page translated into Korean. They let you check out movies as well. You can even look through their DVDs; they don't hide them away like [your university] does. Lots of older and contemporary Hollywood films to choose from. No Korean stuff, though.

I forgot to ask my contact if one has to navigate a thicket of turnstiles and security systems, but it doesn't matter. I won't have time for a reconnaissance mission tomorrow; I'll need every bit of time for travel both ways. Having a partial report is fine. If things go well, I've got multiple trips to the library to look forward to in 2009. If things go pear-shaped, as has been the trend, then I won't have the image of multiple shelves of books in my mind's eye and their lovely scent in my memory's nostrils to torment me.