Korean Goodness - Part II

And so I continue on my ramblings about some of the things I love in Korea...

• The Korean people. The good: Now, I'm a bit sad to say that in all my time in Korea, I didn't really make a lot of Korean friends. I let the 'Church of God' ladies hang around a bit (haha that's an adventure in itself!), and occasionally I went out with a teacher or 2 from my schools, but other than that I didn't really meet anyone. I have to say though that I really enjoy Korean people. I found most people to be friendly, welcoming, excited to see me or talk with me, and full of surprise and giggles when I tried to speak their language. The people at my favorite restaurants always took really good care of me, my local shopkeeper was always friendly, the chicken-on-a-stick couple were so lovely I hated to leave them behind, and my sock truck man always saved me a couple of pairs of my favorite patterned socks at the end of the month. People were always happy to share their few English words, and put up with my bungling through Korean - taxi drivers were my nemesis, but I could usually even charm them.

• Another thing I love about Koreans in general is their heart, their spirit. Whether it's a sporting event, a pop concert, a new corner store, or the cheapest-best-freshest oranges in the city, people in Korea seem to go at things with their whole hearts. Maybe it's just from the perspective of an outsider, but Koreans really seem to be passionate about the things they care about, the things that are important to them. It's easy to get wrapped up in the joy and energy of a moment when everyone around you is charged up and giggling, laughing and yelling at the top of their lungs. Their joie de vivre is much easier to see and to feel than it is for me with everyone here at home, and it's something about the energy of Koreat that I really love!

• The bad: Now in the same breath I will also tell you that I have been: Asked MANY times (particulary by my friendly neighbourhood taxi drivers) if I was a prostitute (aka "from Russia"); Told "You teacher? No, I think you are a Russia people, no, not a teacher, really now... pretty girl, pretty eyes, haahaa, haahaagh" (TWICE, by 2 different men in 1 week!); Told by a female shopkeeper (after discussing it with her workmate) that I was "too fat" to buy women's clothing from their store (pronounced right before she literally shooed me out of her shop!), with "man feet" too big for ladies shoes (I'm only (?) a women's size 8, but the shoe-man just laughed and me and said, "no, no, no, you have man-feet!" before waving me off). Taxi drivers at the airport will try to tell you that there is no bus to the town or city you're going to ("Where you go, Suji? Oh, no, there's no more bus for Suji, gone - you take my taxi!"... Liar, liar pants on fire!!), and in the city they would occasionally 'take the long way home,' though that didn't work once I had a favorite route that I could direct them back to as they snorted or rolled their eyes and laughed at me in the rearview mirror while saying "okay, okay, we go this way lady."

• In Busan once I was (almost) refused a room in a yogwan because the owner didn't like Americans (he told his wife in Korean to tell us there were no rooms because he didn't want Americans in his hotel). By this time I understood quite a bit of Korean, and told him, in by really-quite-bad Korean, that he was a 'bad friend,' and that anyway, I was a Canadian, so he grudgingly allowed her to show us to a suite, lol. Aah, I'd almost forgotten about that, lol, good times, good times... I'm sure my American friends put up with a lot more crap than I do in Korea... it's far easier when they just assume you're a Russian hooker! Oh, and there's also the fun propensity for Korean women to ask outlandishly personal questions in front of lots of other people, or make comments about my impending spinsterhood (You're 30? You're not married? Ohhh, no man will want you now, that's a bad mistake, you're so old!) that I also loved, ahhhh Korea... Love it!

• The ugly: The occasionally annoying (sitting next to me on the subway and non-responsive to "hello" or downright ignoring... "Hi teacher! hi teacher! how are you? hi teacher how are you teacher? how are you teacher I'm fine thangyu and you? hi teacher are you fine teacher...?") or rude person (once in the train station after I'd waited 15 minutes to work my way up to the front of the ticket line in Seoul a tiny old grandmother slugged me on the upper arm (they're tough old biddies over there, don't mess with them, I mean it!) and then poked at me with her umbrella and hissed at me through her 3 teeth when I was at the ticket window because she had thusly shoved her way to the front of the line (budder budder peanut butter!) and wanted to go ahead of me - she slugged me!!!). Wacky! They don't sway me though, the rudies or the gnats, I love Koreans!
  
  And yes, in case you're wondering, I sure did let the little grandma go first... anyone brazen enough to scuffle up to a foreigner 2 feet taller and an easy 50lbs heavier and smack her up with an umbrella without fear shouldn't be trifled with my friends: you just wait and let 'er shuffle away, lol....
  
• 
  
  The job, teaching. Man, teaching little kids is a fun job. Granted, I have always worked in the same type of school (a hagwon where you teach 4-6 year olds in the mornings and elementary students for a few hours in the afternoons), but I freakin' L*O*V*E* being a teacher. There were certainly days when I required frequent reminders of the fact, but overall teaching English to teeny Koreans is by far the best job I've ever had! Korean kids are SO friggin' cute!!!! 
  
  Some people might tell you that teaching overseas, or teaching ESL, is mindless-brainless work that doesn't require any thought or inspiration. I pity the kids that those people taught, because in my eyes it's all in your approach, and how much you're willing to bring to the table. I loved making up songs and games, putting interactive puzzles and word cards on the walls, creating routines that the kids loved and engaged in - but it is HARD work!! Those little buggers take every ounce of energy I can muster on most days, so it became really important to make sure I was taking good care of myself and charging my batteries so I could keep going! Going to the spa, seeing movies, travelling, going out with friends, all make the workday easy to get through (so long as you don't forget to do some of it!).
  
  I have to say that it was life-changing to watch these little people timidly come into my room on the first day of class knowing very little of the English language, and leave a year later gregarious and fluently (mostly) English speaking - life changing! I think it's what pulls me back to it so often, seeing the change you can effect in such a small time on such a big scale, it's really wonderful.
  
  
  

For now I think I've covered many many many of the things I really love about living in Korea. There are (of course) things about the place and the people that I don't like, but really I feel like people gripe too much about these things, and forget to celebrate the things they enjoy. Why live there or spend time talking about it if you don't enjoy it? Once I make it back again I'm sure I'll be sharing plenty of gripes, haha, but I'll always have something to remind me about the good stuff! 

Have a wonderful day... do you hear the Land of the Morning Calm calling your name yet?

Korean Goodness - Part I

Whenever I am feeling particlulary homesick for Korea, I always find myself surfing the job boards looking at jobs I could be doing in Korea (or Taiwan, or Japan, or Thailand) if I just got off my keister and put an application in. Though I do often look at what's available in other countries, it always comes down to money. I have to say that in my opinion, anyone interested in teaching ESL in another country is always best off if they choose Korea. Now after spending more than 3 years in the place I am definitely biased, and I would always recommend it first (barring any strange quirks in the person I'm talking to of course!).

These are a few of the things that I love (and look forward to again!) about Korea:

• Schools will often pay for your airfare to get to Korea, meaning that you don't have to have an extra $1,000 put aside just to get there. At the very least they will reimburse you once you arrive, but most are willing to pay up front. If you apply and are told that they won't pay for your ticket up front, try to convince them that they should - what's the worst thing that can happen? For me, it's a condition of hiring - it's just easier, and I feel better about it.
  

• There are not a lot of bills living in Korea. Your school (in most cases) will pay for your housing, which means that $650-$1,000 you're paying to rent here at home suddenly floats into your pocket (or your savings account!). Granted, the apartments are really quite small compared to what most of us are used to, but it's really easy to make even the smallest spaces comfortable if you put a little bit of love and attention into it.Couple that with the fact that you won't have a lot of 'stuff' and you'll most likely find that you have lots of space, and you quickly get used to living in a dorm-sized place that's all your own.
  
  Regular bills that you will have to pay while you're in Korea include cell phone, utilities, house phone, cable TV, and internet. Utilities (if I remember right) used to run me between W50,000 and W100,000 per month depending on how high I kept my floor heat, and how much hot water etc. that I used. In winter there was definitely an increase - then I learned how to use the timer on my thermostat better!! Utility bills aren't an option: you have an apartment, you pay utilities, though the total is usually reasonable. The rest are really your choice, which you would prefer to use.
  
  Myself, I always chose not to have a house phone because it was easier (and cheaper) to manage one phone - it's what I prefer here in Canada too. Long distance cards can be bought fairly cheaply, and I always use these to call home. Cell phone bills run (roughly) between W50,000 and W80,000 depending on your package, and can often be set up with help from your school (at least according to last time I was there). Internet in your apartment is a personal choice (rather than a necessity) at home, as there are computer rooms (PC bangs) on EVERY corner (and I do mean EVery), but they are often smokey and filled with loud kids (I'd rather use my computer at home and pay the additional expense!). Cable TV is another choice if you plan to watch a lot of television (there are English movies etc on some channels, as well as USFK (US Army) channels if you live near Seoul). Myself, same as in Canada, I find that there are many better things to do with my time (and my brain!), and I go without that particular luxury. When I did have cable in Korea I found myself watching a lot of B-roll (and C-roll) movies that I would never have watched at home, along with mindless crazy Korean infomercials and pop videos... I feel I can safely say that I had enough of each to last me a lifetime!
  
• General living expenses in Korea are really low. Everyday things like going to the movies, grocery shopping, going out for dinner, visiting parks and museums, taking the bus or train long distances, staying in a hotel, are all much cheaper than at home (depending on choices you make). If you can't tell already, anything that puts more money in my savings account makes me happy! Of course there are some things that are more expensive (especially foreign comforts), but in the end I think it definitely tops out in favor of Korea.
  
• Your monthly salary is much higher than in many other countries. While in Thailand, for example, you make about $800US/month teaching, in Korea you can easily make between $1,500 and $2,300USD/month. This is just with teaching regular hours in a regular private language school or hagwon. Even if you estimate your utilities to be around $125, your cell phone bill to be $80, and your internet to be $50 (all a bit high in my mind), you are still left with anywhere between $1,245US and $2,025US to save or spend how you choose over the course of each month! As well, at the end of your contract your school pays you a 'thank you' bonus of one month's salary - that's whether or not you renew your contract with them or you choose to go home! I would never turn down a free lump of cash!
  

• It is cheap and easy to travel within the country. Taxis, buses, trains and ferries are all cheaper and more accessible than here at home. Touristy signs are often in English and Korean, lots of signs are complete with pictures (heehee) and most places have someone at the counter who can muddle through with you (I did say most!). Compared to Canada, where I have to pay about $300 just to fly the 1.5 hours to Vancouver (or $270 and 20 hours on the bus), $500 to fly the 5 hours to Toronto (or $370 and 2 days 6 hours on the bus), Korea's KTX express train can take you from one end of the country to the other and home again for about $100, and buses are waaaaay cheaper than that even. Granted, Korea is MUCH much smaller than Canada, and the distances are much shorter, but trains and buses are clean, usually air conditioned, and (in my opinion) so reasonably priced. That shorter distance is an advantage as well because on a regular weekend you can travel to a new town or city to explore for the day without emptying your bank account in the process - there's always something new to see if you look for it! Now you do run into trouble travelling in Korea during some of the Korean holidays, but if you plan ahead (as Koreans already know to do!) you can still do what you want for travel.
  
• The food, ohmygoodness the food! Now before I left to Korea the first time I had only tried Korean food once (literally the same month I was leaving for Korea the first time!). The food in my local Korean restaurants turned out to be very authentic, though at 200% the price! So the food itself in Korea is amazingly good, cheap, and plentiful. For me, it doesn't matter if I grab a snack from a street vendor, lunch at the mall foodcourt, or sitdown at a nice ordinary Korean restaurant - it's ALL good. Even my lunches at school (yes, the schools usually feed you lunch for free too!) were usually surprisingly good! Now since coming home I still go out for Korean food, and a lunch that includes some dolsot bi-bim-bap (very popular hot rice and mixed meat and veggies$12), dwen-jang jigae (bean paste soup/stew with tofu and seafood $11) and a small braised tofu appetizer ($10) and green tea or a coke ($2) runs me about $35 without tips or tax - add another $10-$15 to that if you actually want to go out for Korean BBQ: CrAzInEsS!! Yet, I do it anyway, because wow, the food is so good! In Korea, a lunch of dolsot only costs $4 or $5, dwen-jang-jigae comes with BBQ for free, and all KINDS of different sides and appetizers accompany the meals at dinner, all for the cost of the meat (usually around $10/person to pig-out). So compare the taste and my thusly-inspired bottomless pit with the fact that I can be completed satiated on 10 bucks, and once again I'm a waaaaay happy camper! A gym membership or other fitness activities is something I'll talk about another time, haha, cuz I certainly need that in Korea too!!
   

• Another cool food thing about Korea is that you can buy fresh right-off-the-truck eggs, seasonal fruits and vegetables all times of the year. At times you hear the grocery truck go your window at 6am with a recording squawking loudly about how his onions or oranges or apples are the best, the cheapest, and worth getting up early for. Sometimes you pass the ladies on the streetcorner when you're just out for a walk, and once a week many apartment complexes have 'markets' in their parking lot where vendors bring seafood, fruits and veggies, plants, dollar-store-type household goods, etc., and just set up in front of the building for the day - I love that too!! While you can go to farmer's markets at home (at least in the summer!) to find many of the same things, they're often much more expensive that the local grocery store - not the case in Korea! I'm *so* a foodie, lol.
  

Okay, I think I need to take a break (and give your eyes a break) and come back later, I have a feeling I'm going to go on forever!!  More Korean goodness to follow...

Get a Real Job

I'm 32 years old. I have been 'granted' a 4-year degree that gets me into lots of career doors, and I am in the middle of a master's degree that will open even more. I have yet to find a job that inspires me here at home. I love school and learning new things (though I'm less-than-enamoured with my current program). I started the master's degree because after coming home from my last trip to Korea I thought it was probably time to get a 'real job', do something with my life that the rest of the world thinks is worthy of my intelligence and abilities. "Leaving your friends and family behind so you can go caravanning around the world, living in a foreign country, travelling to yet different countries on long weekends and holidays - this is for kids," says the World. "When are you going to grow up and make something of yourself?"


Well World, I've taken your words to heart. I've spent a lot of time in the past 2 years thinking about what kind of footprint I want to leave behind, what kind of impact I want to have on the world around me. I'm aware that I'm a good counselor, and that I will make a fabulous child psychologist (thanks for the reinforcement there by the way!).


Here's the point for pause though: Who says that teaching in a foreign country can't be a career too? Who says that it isn't a valid contribution for me to go to work every day in order to teach children a skill that can hugely impact their future? What part of the scenario in which I wake up happy and excited to go to work every day is not in my best interest? Who says I have to do what everyone else is doing at the same time they're doing it? Can you answer me any of those questions while you're telling me what to do World?


Here's what I think: My happiness is important. Who I am is not the same as what I do. If I can wake up every day happy and excited about the adventure that has become my life, why shouldn't I choose that over "putting my nose to the grindstone," "doing what I have to do to get by," and sleeping my way through life until I get to a more exciting part?


It seems that there is only one answer if I am to be true to myself. I know that it may disappoint some other people in my life, but how can I do what makes them happy if it means that I can't be true to my own heart? I can't. It's time that I figure out how to make my happiness come first again in life, for me to remember who I am, what I want and where I'm going. It's just that time... so look out World!

Why on Earth...

For some, travelling to a faraway country where the people, the language and the culture are all different than your own, is just a ‘lark,’ something to do before they force their square-peg-selves into the round-peg-lives that home holds waiting. I say this because it seems that most people I met travelling (save for those 1 or 2 I can think of that rushed back home after hating every second of living abroad) are definitely square-pegs. They don’t necessarily fit in with, or agree with, the paths that life sets before them, (graduate, go to school, graduate again, get a job, keep the job, get married, get a new job, have kids, retire, buy a motorhome, blahblahblah) and they go off in search of some kind of adventure or excitement, leaving friends and family behind to make a mark of their own upon the world.


It seems to be considered pretty normal for people to stay a year, mayyyyyyyyybe two in Korea, before returning home to their normal lives. Once you've been there more than two years you start down that road where people call you a lifer, and there are some hushed conversations about you with new teachers that come over about  how you prefer Korea to living in your own country.


Now most people seem to manage to return home after their teaching experience to find life is pretty damn unchanged for everyone who stayed behind (other than the occasional new hairstyle/boyfriend/tv show). The biggest group seems to be able to jump back into it all, either one foot at a time or both feet at once. There are many of us though who return home and feel a bit lost, a reverse culture-shock that you never really seem to get over, always homesick for the land that was every so briefly considered to be home. Me - I'm one of the lost ones.


I loved my time in Korea, both trips. I loved life there, and every day was out of the ordinary, even after being there for a couple of years in a row! I enjoyed the people I worked with, my jobs, the kids I taught, the moms I taught, the grocers down the road, the dude that owned the pet shop, the Saturday morning bus driver – all of it! But don’t get me wrong here, it wasn’t all roses and candy apples! I didn’t love the smog, the pushing and shoving in the crowded grocery store aisles, missing my friends and my mom (and taco bell!) – but other than that, I loved every friggin’ minute of it.


Now I think I've already discussed the fact (I think) that I didn’t come home for myself from either trip. During my first trip in 2003 I got myself involved in a really yucky (hindsight being what it is!) relationship with a New Yorker who was living in Seoul, got engaged (more bad choices), and came home in 2005 because he was ready to. The second time I went in 2006, and I had to come home before I was even gone a year because there were family issues and my mom needed me. I've been home now for just over 2 years and I've wanted to go back ever since.


After I spent the required amount of time at home with my Mom I moved back to my 'old' city, applied for grad school (got in), got a job (and then a few more along the way as I tried to find something to do that I could love), started grad school, got involved in a few community groups, found a decent job, and tried to buy into the life-at-home. I worked on ignoring the loud voice at the back of my head that chattered on and on about going back, about skipping out of this version of life that feels like a grind, and returning to the speed of life that made me happy. I think mostly what has kept me here is graduate school, and the idea that I'm getting older, and it's getting time now to choose a career, have a grownup job, do right by the family, and all that crap. I call it crap because it seems that no matter how I try to make it fit and make myself believe it, it doesn't and I don't. I don't want to buy a house. I don't want a new car. I don't care if I can go up to visit family every month or so, I don't care if there's a taco bell on every corner, and I don't care that my post-post-secondary education is going to help me make the world a better place. The thing I keep getting hung up on is this - how am I to make the world a better place if I can't even be happy in it myself?


So here I still sit in small town Alberta taking classes, working in a good full-time job, visiting my family, hanging out occasionally with friends. Why on EARTH am I still here?

In a Holding Pattern

So it's obvious to anyone with a calendar that June has passed, and we still remain in Canada. That may change, but for the time being, the Korea-plan

is

on

hold.

Things I Want to Do in Korea

• Continue studying Korean
• Visit the countryside
• Try some kind of art class (maybe painting?)
• Visit a few of the small farming islands and spend time with a couple of farming families
• Go to Everland and Caribbean Bay
• Take a martial art for 6 months consecutively
• Cliff dive over near ChiriSan, if I can find the spot
• Practice yoga
• Take a digital photography course
• Spend my weekends outside of my apartment doing things, not sitting at home in front of the computer/TV
• Make Korean friends, and not just hang out in the foreign community
• Participate in the Vagina Monologues again
• Work as a counselor in one of the schools
• Reconnect with old friends that are still in Korea
• Join a hiking/climbing group and go out with them regularly
• Let go of my attachment to converting Korean Won to Canadian Dollars everytime I want to make a purchase
• Do a run (maybe 5km?) just for the fun of it
• See the Broadway shows that visit
• Go to at least one international concert a year
• Climb a mountain
• Go to the mud festival
• Keep in touch regularly with friends and family back at home by email and bloggin'

The list is much longer, so needless to say I will continue to add to it!

141...109...

I came home from Korea the first time, after 2 and a half years, because I was engaged. My fiance (from NY) was ready to come back and start life at home again. I had been accepted into grad school in Florida (farther from 'home' I could not get), and he was applying to law school in the same area (and needed to be home to do it). Our families were both happy we were coming back.


Bad decision (on all counts). Once the engagement was off, I spent the full year+ at home wishing I was back in Korea. Everytime a plane passed overhead, my heart was on it. It was as though I had come home a bit emptier than when I left. My last day in Korea, spring of 2005, I remember walking down "my" street in tears because I wasn't ready to leave. Lesson Number One: Do things for yourself, because you want them, not solely to make others happy.


Positive side of coming home; met S, fell blissfully in love, and did the dating-engaged-married thing between June and September '06. We would never have met had I not returned to Canada the summer before. But, with Korea still nagging on my mind, it was mostly all I talked about and thought about. When (I can only assume) I had worn her down with all of my longing for Korea, she suggested that we move to Korea together, give it a try. Woohoo!! I was SO ecstatically happy I can't even really comment about it.


Though our families were not as thrilled as we were, we picked up in October and headed to Korea. Our plan when we left was to work for two years, travel and teach, and then to save enough money to have an around-the-world trip for a few months. The first morning back in Korea, it was as though pressure had finally been relieved from my chest and lungs, and S remembers that I was lighter and brighter when we awoke in our hotel room. That first morning we went for a walk down the street to orient ourselves to our surroundings, and I really felt like I was home, I was so happy.


We were loving our time in Korea. S was considering a contract renewal, and I was happily bobbing along doing my thing. In August a panicked phone call from home informed me that my father had just been diagnosed with a double dose of cancer, and I needed to come home. They said three to six months. Within the next 2 days the doctors had said less than a month - I had to leave right then. I told my poor principal, and he did everything he could to make it easy, such a great man. S decided to stay in Korea (no reason to come home, it would be weird, she would stay and make some more money), and return home later. I returned to Canada mid-August, and decided to stay (for my mother's sake). To prevent divorce from filling the widening gap between us, S returned home at the beginning of October, and we agreed to try to make things work so we could stay back in Canada.


Problem at this point is that now there were 2 of us unhappy to be in Canada; wrenched out of our comfy spot in Korea, where we had truly started making ourselves at home, for someone else. Goals abandoned, unable to afford travel and the things we had planned while we were away. Now, you do what you have to do for the people you love. I love my mom, and S loves me, and we needed to be at home. But this Spring, after several jobs, a couple of moves, and continued recycled unhappiness and unidentifiable discomfort (like ants-in-the-pants), we have finally decided to go back to Korea again.


We haven't told our families yet. Our friends know, they are always less judgemental (and there is MUCH less drama!). For the most part our friends are excited for us, and I dare say that they are also unsurprised. Our families will also likely be unsurprised, but likely significantly more unhappy about it (especially my mom). I'm not looking forward to that conversation, though we will have it, next weekend when we make the 5-hour drive to visit. I'm not sure how I'm going to help her see the bright side of things, but hopefully she'll come around.


For now, what was "141 days and counting" is now "109 days and counting," and it is almost time to start getting ready to move. There is sorting, selling and packing to be done. Jobs need to be found, and travel arrangements need to be made for us, the 2 dogs and the cat. Notice needs to be given at work and with family members, and we need to start stocking up on deoderant, shoes, and claritin (haha). Though I don't look forward to the mom conversation, I am undeniably excited that we are going, and I CAN'T WAIT!! Now, I should go and put lunch on for S, she'll be home for lunch in half an hour. 109 days, 108....