"When are you going back to Korea?"

That is the question people have been asking me for the past 3 1/2 months. And for the past 3 1/2 months my answer has usually been, "soon."

Most people who I talk to on a regular basis and know nothing about teaching English there probably now think getting a job in Korea is really difficult. Finding just any job is easy. Finding a good job can be difficult. Or if you are like me it can be really difficult if you are both very picky about the job and don't put much effort into finding one.

So the reason I am still here is I just haven't tried very hard to find a job. I'm trying, but what I mean is, I think for as picky about jobs as I have been I have not been trying hard enough. If I had lower standards, I could have had a job by now, I have turned down several job offers for various reasons. I don't mean low standards, just lower.

Some people may be interested to know salary was not one of the things I was being so picky about. Most schools have offered about the same pay. The biggest things I was looking at were location, location, location, working hours, and the age group I would teach.

But now it's August and I am really starting to feel restless about getting back. So I have to relax my standards a little and start putting more effort in to the job hunt.

no new job

Last week I got the document I had been waiting for, and sent everything to Korea. The documents would be arriving yesterday, so I was expecting an email telling me the next step. Instead I got an email telling me that the school couldn't wait for me and they hired some one else. So now I am back to fucking square one, looking for a job.

new job?

I've been in the US since April 23, but I really haven't done anything constructive so far. I have been exercising, I have done some metal work, but I haven't finished anything, and I just got back from a one week trip to San Diego. I really don't know what I have been doing the rest of the time I've been here.

I guess I have found a new job in Korea, but I am a little worried about it working out. I was hired, and I emailed them the signed contract and a copy of my passport info page, now I am supposed to send the rest of the documents by Fed Ex to Korea, but I am still waiting to receive one of the things I need from the US government. I told my recruiter from the start that I was still waiting on one document, now the school keeps asking him when I will get it. The document should be here any day now but I'm not sure how long the school will wait for me.

Korea 2010-2011 review

I did my one year abroad, like I always wanted to do. It doesn't feel like it was one year, but I guess it was. One year was nothing. It was too short. I keep saying how I can't believe the year went so fast because that's how I really feel. I've been in the US almost 3 weeks now and I still can't believe I was in Korea a whole year.

So I will do a second year. I would have preferred it be 2 years at the same school, but that wasn't possible. I'm a little worried the next year won't be as good. Either get a bad school or bad location, or something will be bad. My last year wasn't perfect, but it exceeded my expectations in most ways.

It's hard for me to say exactly what it was that made my year there so good. I wanted to experience a new culture and I feel that I did. It's not like being on vacation for a year, cause I had to work, but living in another country made daily life much more interesting than when I am living in the US. What I really wonder about is how long living in Korea will stay interesting?

My students were not too difficult to deal with, except for a few of them and my co teachers were usually helpful.

The only occasional problem at my school was lack of communication. Not knowing what was going on, what I am supposed to do or what was expected of me.

There were a few things about my time in Korea that were a disappointment, but they were all my own fault...

-I didn't put enough effort into learning Korean. Trying to do it on my own just didn't work, I'm not motivated or disciplined enough. I think I have to take a class if I want to learn it. I studied somewhat mostly just vocabulary. I kept procrastinating with starting to study seriously, and before I knew it the year was over and I hadn't done much at all.

-I put of weight cause I didn't exercise enough and ate too much junk food. I ate so much junk food cause there isn't much Korean food I like.

-I didn't really do any jewelry work. I brought tools to carve wax, but I didn't do much work.

-I wish I would have taken one more international trip to Japan or Hong Kong. I mostly wasted my summer vacation.

-I didn't travel much in Korea. I only took two trips to Busan, and stopped in Daegu on the way to Busan one time. Actually I don't really care that I didn't travel much, I just feel kind of like I should have since I had the opportunity.

There were only a few things I didn't like that were out of my control:

-My city was pretty small and far from Seoul. By the end of the year I was really getting sick of having to take the train to Seoul to meet friends or for shopping.

-My apartment didn't have AC. It's too humid in summer in Korea not to have AC.

The good things were far more significant than the couple bad things and the disappointments I had with myself. The negative things are just easier to pick out. Overall it was a great experience. I just wish I had done it 10 years ago.

Last post from Korea

This will be my last post from Korea (but not the last post in this blog), I'll fly back to Chicago this afternoon. The year went really fast. I had a good experience here. I'm happy to be going back to the US, I just wish I had another job lined up in Korea. I won't be coming back till I find one. I am hoping that will be in June.

PC bang

My internet was turned off the other day, so lately I have been going to an internet cafe, or PC bang (bang means room in Korean). They are everywhere in Korea. Theres so many of them I don't know how they all stay in business. They only charge around $1 an hour. These places are mostly for playing computer games, so I guess people come here for hours and hours to play games. One person I know that used to play games a lot said she once played for about 50 hours straight. When I would ask my students about what they do in their free time one of the most common answers, from both boys and girls, is "play computer games".

I've only been to a few PC bangs. They are ok, except they stink from all the people smoking, and its always too dark.

office depot

Last week I noticed an Office Depot right by my apartment. I don't know if its new or if I just never noticed it before. There have been several times I have needed to go there.