Well I woke up at 6am today (Friday) for no good reason except that I went a little heavy on the soju last night and passed out early. I should probably be packing now seeing as my plane leaves in about 9 hours, but I've found it's hard to pack when you're hung over. So, I thought it might be fun to reflect upon the last 18 months I've spent in Korea before my triumphant return to Canada in a little under 20 hours.
I arrived at the end of January 2002. With five days off over the Lunar New Year I managed to teach myself to read Korean and I thought, well I'm fairly intelligent and this language seems easy, maybe if I study it for the next 3 months I'll be able to pick it up. No. Turns out it's a little more difficult than I had thought. Actually it's kind of a nasty language with grammar that is backwards from English and the majority of words having no association with anything that's easy to remember. Unlike French, Spanish, Italian, etc. But, I've been plugging along picking it up here and there. I even spent 400 hours studying in a University while still teaching full-time(or as full-time as you get out here). After 18 months I do speak basic everday conversation fairly well , but still can't watch the news and keep up with what's said. I will continue to study as long as I live here, but I think that I've come to the conclusion that it's really not worth it. If I had known how difficult it was I probably wouldn't have started in the first place. My advice to anyone who is thinking of starting to learn Korean is to treat it as a hobby. Don't try to learn too much too quickly or you'll get overloaded. However, I do find that basic speaking does help immensely with the day to day shit such as getting food over to your place when you're too lazy to go out.
I was here for the World Cup. Now that was an adventure. It was so much fun that it makes me want to try to be in Germany in 2006. At times I felt like I was Korean when I was celebrating the wins with another 50,000 Koreans partying in the streets of Seoul.
I manage to live 30km or so from the North Korean border much to my mother's dismay with the ongoing nuclear threat. I don't think about it much because the leader there has been making ongoing threats for many years, but I wonder if I were in Canada now if I'd still make the trip with all that is going on. I swear I woke up to air raid sirens the other day, but I haven't been able to confirm that I wasn't dreaming as no one else seems to have heard them.
I've found that Korean people, while some having a particular disdain for Americans and most assuming that every while person they meet is from there, are extremely kind and helpful people. As well, I've met many different people from a variety of cultures while here: Aussies, Kiwis, South Africans, Canucks, and Yanks who are here, like me, teaching English and learned a lot about different cultures from them.
Although not knowing much about the Korean educational system I managed to find myself an excellent school with a generous owner who has helped me to feel at home. It hasn't always been a picnic, but I realize that you're not going to love any job all of the time.
I will be in Canada for almost 3 weeks, but I will be back at work on August 17th. After that I couldn't tell you for sure what I will do when my contract expires in February. I'd like to travel some more, but with the lifestyle here, excellent pay, and the fact that Korean food is most likely my favorite in the world, I don't know if I'll want to go.
I also managed to find my brother a job for the 6 month that he was here. He enjoyed himself and will be back after the wedding. It looks like he'll be working at my school. Yesterday my boss offered him a job and although I'd rather not work at the same school and live together, he's not going to find a better or even equivalent offer somewhere else. We'll get on each others' nerves, but we're adults after all and we do get along swimmingly 98% of the time. But the 2% does concern me...
Overall I have really enjoyed my time out here. I'm looking forward to being home although it's sounding like it'll be a whirlwind trip. I'm spending 4 days in Penticton, 5 days in Winnipeg, then taking a trip with some friends for 5 days to Edmonton, Jasper, Banff, and maybe Calgary if there's time. Then flying back to Winnipeg for another 6 days and then flying back to Korea. Although, I arrive back in Korea five days before I work again, so i could potentially extend my time in Winnipeg. However, I'm concerned about the amount of money I'm going to spend having already spent about $2300 just on airfare....
I should get back to packing, cleaning, and finding souveniers so I can get out of here soon. Looking forward to seeing you all!
Brent
