First few days

This is what the title of my next post is going to be when I sit down longer to write. For now, I’ll just use this space to let you know I made it over.

[Continued on 7/22]
Ok, well, at this point I’m close to needing to call this post "the first week".

Anyway, hello from the other side. I meant to write something sooner, but, you know…settling into a new country and all that. It’s lucky I can post something this soon (hooray for wireless internet being everywhere).

So, yeah. I made it over alright. And now that I’m finally sitting down to write about my first few days [er…week], I’ve forgotten what I was going to say. [At least, I had when I started writing this post.]

But allowing about a week to by makes it easier to pick out the big things that have happened since my arrival, instead of a bunch of small things that seemed (although some were) big at the time.

Korea is still doing the quarantine thing (because of the H1N1). But it just means you can’t go to the school and you need to stay near your apartment. If you go out, you’re supposed to wear a mask…blah, blah, blah. I was supposed to wear a mask on the plane ride over as well, but…ok, let me tell you what I did do. (I don’t want to spend too much time on this because, really, this is one of the small things.)

First of all, I did end up wearing my mask on the plane, not because I wanted to follow procedure, but because of all the places I could be seated on that big ass 747, I got placed between two people who were sick (not with said flu). So I wore the mask so I wouldn't get sick from them.

Secondly, the quarantine was (and still is, until I’m finished with it tomorrow) welcome because it let's me get over my jet-lag before I start teaching and because I always get sick when I first arrive in a new country. And Korea was no exception. Plus it’s giving me time to explore my area and furnish m apartment. (Yes, it comes furnished, but in a bare bones sort of way. I want it to be more furnished.)

As for me getting sick, I was starting to get better last Saturday, but then made the mistake of eating some “mild” Korean hot-pot for lunch. It kind of felt at the time that it was burning a hole in my stomach, but I was hungry, and my co-teacher bought it for me. Anyway, later that day when I ate dinner (that I made), I became aware that that hot-pot had given me an ulcer. The awareness came in the form of the worst nausea I’ve ever felt (that I can remember). But I’ll not go into this more. I survived the night so let’s move on.

Before I talk about other, more positive, events that happened in the past 6 days, I’ll just say a few things about my general feeling of being here.

So far, I like it. Since I’m not naïve about honeymoon phases of culture-shock, I’m aware that’s part of why I like so far. But there are some things that are beyond that. I mean, like I said before, I’m not here for the same reasons I went to Japan and Taiwan. I’ve done this before, so I’m not stupidly excited.

On the other hand, after having spent two years in the US trying to find work, borrowing money from my parents, and not being able to stay in one place for more than several months, I’d say I have other reasons to be happy here in Korea that have nothing to do with culture.

Which brings me to my next point. When I saw that I was not going to be able to stay in Seattle like I had hoped, I thought, well, if there is somewhere else I can live where I don’t have to own a car and can use mass transit, that’ll be fine by me. If Korea is the place where I can live that life and be employed, then I’m not sure there’s a life in America that I can’t live here. But I won’t go to deep into that.

Um…let’s see. I can’t talk too much about work because, I haven’t started work. But I’ve met a few of the teachers and the principal and they are quite nice. One of my co-teachers has been really helpful with me both in explaining the school system and basic expectations for students’ learning. Unfortunately, he’s just a temp teacher and will be going to Busan (about as far from Seoul as you can get) to start his teaching there (he just graduated from college and this temp teaching for my school was his first time teaching since graduating. He was subbing for the actual teacher I’ll be working with, who was on maternity leave).

My quarantine time ends tomorrow. Then next week I’ll be teaching English Camp. I’ll be co-teaching this with my go-between (I think she’s my go-between…seems like I ought to know who my go-between is). She’s new to this school, too. And, the interesting this is, she’s been a teacher for 10 years, but this only her second year teaching English (and teaching it with an ALT). And she’s never done an English Camp…nor does she know what English Camps in Korea entail. So she and I are kind of going into the English Camp thing kind of bind. Should be fun.

Aww…I mean, I’ll think of something. The temp teacher has been helpful because he’s been working with the students that I’ll be teaching. So I was able to ask him about the relative abilities of the students and he had some examples of things that can be used for English Camp. I’ll try to integrate them with the activities I did in Taiwan (since that’s where I worked with elementary kids). I did do an English Camp in Japan, but that was with high school students, and the set-up had long been established before I got to the school. Anyway, I’m sure it’ll be fine.

Ok, this post is getting long. I’ll write more in the next post.

“…if he had the smallest sense, he’d understand that his punishment is actually a reward. He’s being sent to an island. That’s to say, he’s being sent to a place where he’ll meet the most interesting set of men and women to be found anywhere in the world. All the people who, for one reason or another, have got too self-consciously individual to fit into community-life. All the people who aren’t satisfied with orthodoxy, who’ve got independent ideas of their own. Every one, in a word, who’s any one. I almost envy you…”

- Mustapha Mond
(Brave New World)

Packing

Still hasn’t sunk in that I’m going. I’m packing and it hasn’t sunk in. I doubt going to the airport and being on the plane will help either. Maybe when I actually get there... :)

Got the visa…got the ticket.

So there. I’ll be in Korea in a few days.

Contact established. Wheels turning faster.

I got emails from a couple teachers at the school I’ll be working at to welcome me and establish my ETA in Korea. Just that contact in itself made it more grounding that I’m actually doing this.

They wrote to me a day or two before I received my paperwork that got forwarded from Seattle. I told them that I would be going to the consulate this week and buying a plane ticket once I got the visa.

I was hoping I’d be leaving for Korea next week, but found out at the consulate yesterday that the visa will take a week to process (which means I’ll be making another trip to D.C.), provided they have all the paperwork they need. Well, I’m not going to buy a plane ticket until I know for sure I’ve got the visa and there are no other documents they need.

But I imagine it’ll be fine. I’ll be looking to leave for Korea sometime the week after next.