Instead of shoving two months worth of travels and mishaps down your throat, I will try and break them off into easily digestible morsels. Delicious and Nutritious.
If at any time you feel as if I am shoving a verbose fruitcake down your esophagus; Take a break. Go to the kitchen and pour a glass of wine, take a PeptoBismol shooter and start where you left off. Or don't do that, I was never one for giving sound advice.
I'll include some pictures, because who doesn't like pictures.
This journey starts and ends in Korea, like a sandwich. Two pieces of bread with enough in the middle to satiate... someone who is difficult to satiate.
The final two weeks of my 2nd contract finishing at the end of July was filled with new things, old things, and too many KXT trains to Seoul.
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| EunHye and I looking smart. |
EunHye and I were destined to work together, it would seem. A few years ago she was my friend's Co-Teacher where she taught in Korea (a year before I arrived), then she was a TaLK coordinator and helped me retrieve my laptop when I had mistakenly/ stupidly sent it to a province of Korea in which I had no plans to actually be in pick it up (see Sept 2011 entries). Then she got a job teaching in another school in my city. So, really it was bound to happen.
She asked me to help her talk about roles of Overseas and Korean Scholars in my program, in addition to a demo class on co-teaching. This is something I like to do and is a progression to teaching teachers, something that I could see myself doing in a few of the infinite number of futures that I can see/realize for myself.
The lectures were fun, and even though I had to trek 3 hours from my town into Seoul a few times it was worth it to juggle the lectures and English Camp at my School at the time.
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| Public transportation at it's best. |
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| The Golden Age of Yeongcheon-Chilgok Relations |
Saturday:
-3am alarm wake up
-4am train
-5:30 transfer
-7am arrive at Seoul Station
-7:30 AREX train to Incheon Airport
-7:35 to ~8:30 chocolate break
-9am check in for flight/security mojo
-10am last meal in korea before vacation
-11am board flight
-Time travel
-2pm, Land in Chicago after 13hr flight
-4pm land in Detroit
-4:40 let lagged hello to family
-6-10pm Food, Family, Confusion, and Bobby
-10 to forever... Coma
I had only a few expectations and "to-do" items for my 3 week vacation back in the States. They were:
-4am train
-5:30 transfer
-7am arrive at Seoul Station
-7:30 AREX train to Incheon Airport
-7:35 to ~8:30 chocolate break
-9am check in for flight/security mojo
-10am last meal in korea before vacation
-11am board flight
-Time travel
-2pm, Land in Chicago after 13hr flight
-4pm land in Detroit
-4:40 let lagged hello to family
-6-10pm Food, Family, Confusion, and Bobby
-10 to forever... Coma
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| See ya in a bit, Korea. |
1. Eat all the food without reservation.
2. Drink all the beer, but with at least a little more restraint than what I showed when I demolished that bowl of guacamole...
3. Don't miss my return flight.
I'm going to skip the daily log of what my vacation entailed. Which, had I included it, would have added a volume of writing that would put Tolkien's un-edited version of Lord of The Rings to shame. Suffice to say, it was nice.
Before I knew it, I was in Chicago having my last meal (bbq pulled pork) with my Aunt Jan the evening before my flight. It was a good vacation, I didn't see everyone nor did I do everything but it was time to go back. Back home? I've said that before, but it was easier to say this time.
I had thought about separating this entry in two. But, then I thought that people might read them out of order, then I thought that people might not even care. My penultimate thought was that the people who might read this probably know me at some level and have already realized that I am a bit aloof (see: idiot) and have accepted me for it (or at least tolerated it). My final thought was that I was thinking too much and that make my head hurt.
Anywho...
...Chapter II: 2nd year in Korea
As appearances go not much has changed; I am in the same City, same school, same apartment, and many of the same students. What has changed is what is on the inside.
I remember a year and a month ago when I was a fresh face in Jochiwon at TaLK orientation, our Group supervisor Kevin said something to this effect... "You will look back at where you were a week from now and be amazed at what you have experienced, same for a month from now. Imagine how you will feel when you look back on yourself a year from now."
I can finally do this, look back on my year in Korea. Change from day to day is gradual in the same way a single step climbing a mountain is largely unremarkable, but when you take the compounded days, weeks & months you get something unique and stunning.
I would be a different person had I spent the past year playing Minecraft in my parent's basement, but I'd like to think I've made a more positive metamorphosis spending the past year as I did, teaching abroad.
I like to look at this as if an evolution of sorts is taking place day-to-day. I have my ideals & goals, and as time passes certain aspects or traits of my life are either strengthened or eliminated.
It is a little odd loosening my mental grip on ideals and goals that I have had for years, it almost feels as if I am taking my foot out of a door that is closing on me. After some time passes I loose my myopic view of things and begin to see a new set of opportunities in the distance. This is how I am beginning to see things.
What I have realized
I love teaching. Nothing is as simple, or as cerebral. It is dynamic, and tiresome. It is what I make it, and maybe the most profound; It is everywhere. I get paid for what I do in the classroom, but being a teacher is so much more. The more time I spend with students interacting, and socializing. The greater the returns are in the classroom.
I still believe very much, that education not what is assessed on exams, but more on how an individual is socialized and how they interact within their society. Education is natural, learning is natural, We get holes in the process when we isolate learning without an acceptable base. We are most comfortable with tangible goals, something visible to strive for. A number to aim for; it could be a test score or a dollar amount, it is ingrained into our global society. To play the game, you have to follow rules. I see people associating happiness with attachments of these goals and failure for not reaching them. Enter the quintessential phrase "money can't buy you happiness", maybe happiness has more to do with my perspective on life than societies opinion on my wallet. I think I was talking about teaching elementary school students before that little tangent. Summary: Teaching is good.
Do I miss teaching music?
Something inside me tells me I should, it is what I have studied to do for nearly 7 years before leaving for Korea. I think I could love teaching music too. I am sort of dancing around my own question here... I don't regret continuing to teach English rather than going back to the states to teach music. I can't regret such decisions. If at some point in the future I find myself teaching music, then so be it. I can't go down both paths at the same time. I am in a place I had not foreseen, although I never felt trapped I wanted out of the box that I was building myself into. I jumped out the window and left the GPS at home, I'll know where I am when I get there.
Do I miss home?
As my mother has pointed out to me, it is humorous to imagine that I would take to living abroad as easily as I have when you realize that I was the kid who couldn't sleepover a friends house the whole night until 5th grade because I would get homesick. Home is not dead to me but I realize that missing home does little good to me. Sure, I wish that there were more than two Taco Bells in Korea. Sure, I miss my dog. America is where I grew up and I'll have those memories forever, but I'm not bound to it like Gollum and the Ring. If anything I am a bit like Bilbo, and my thirst for worldliness is Gandalf's prying influence.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?...1 year... next week... tomorrow... what are you having for dinner?
I am hesitant to communicate in finalities because I am all too aware of the constantly changing nature of my life, and, in a much greater sense, the universe. But, if I talk about my plans and convictions with hesitance and conditional clauses, I might as well equate the progression of my life with the amount of sogginess that accumulates in a bowl of graham crackers after you spill, say, a gallon of milk on them. You get the picture... Life changes, adjust, reflect, grow, reassess.
If you stayed tuned until the end, thanks. Hope you enjoyed a bit of everything. You're probably satiated, but take some leftovers home until next time...
I had thought about separating this entry in two. But, then I thought that people might read them out of order, then I thought that people might not even care. My penultimate thought was that the people who might read this probably know me at some level and have already realized that I am a bit aloof (see: idiot) and have accepted me for it (or at least tolerated it). My final thought was that I was thinking too much and that make my head hurt.
Anywho...
...Chapter II: 2nd year in Korea
As appearances go not much has changed; I am in the same City, same school, same apartment, and many of the same students. What has changed is what is on the inside.
I remember a year and a month ago when I was a fresh face in Jochiwon at TaLK orientation, our Group supervisor Kevin said something to this effect... "You will look back at where you were a week from now and be amazed at what you have experienced, same for a month from now. Imagine how you will feel when you look back on yourself a year from now."
I can finally do this, look back on my year in Korea. Change from day to day is gradual in the same way a single step climbing a mountain is largely unremarkable, but when you take the compounded days, weeks & months you get something unique and stunning.
I would be a different person had I spent the past year playing Minecraft in my parent's basement, but I'd like to think I've made a more positive metamorphosis spending the past year as I did, teaching abroad.
I like to look at this as if an evolution of sorts is taking place day-to-day. I have my ideals & goals, and as time passes certain aspects or traits of my life are either strengthened or eliminated.
It is a little odd loosening my mental grip on ideals and goals that I have had for years, it almost feels as if I am taking my foot out of a door that is closing on me. After some time passes I loose my myopic view of things and begin to see a new set of opportunities in the distance. This is how I am beginning to see things.
What I have realized
I love teaching. Nothing is as simple, or as cerebral. It is dynamic, and tiresome. It is what I make it, and maybe the most profound; It is everywhere. I get paid for what I do in the classroom, but being a teacher is so much more. The more time I spend with students interacting, and socializing. The greater the returns are in the classroom.
I still believe very much, that education not what is assessed on exams, but more on how an individual is socialized and how they interact within their society. Education is natural, learning is natural, We get holes in the process when we isolate learning without an acceptable base. We are most comfortable with tangible goals, something visible to strive for. A number to aim for; it could be a test score or a dollar amount, it is ingrained into our global society. To play the game, you have to follow rules. I see people associating happiness with attachments of these goals and failure for not reaching them. Enter the quintessential phrase "money can't buy you happiness", maybe happiness has more to do with my perspective on life than societies opinion on my wallet. I think I was talking about teaching elementary school students before that little tangent. Summary: Teaching is good.
Do I miss teaching music?
Something inside me tells me I should, it is what I have studied to do for nearly 7 years before leaving for Korea. I think I could love teaching music too. I am sort of dancing around my own question here... I don't regret continuing to teach English rather than going back to the states to teach music. I can't regret such decisions. If at some point in the future I find myself teaching music, then so be it. I can't go down both paths at the same time. I am in a place I had not foreseen, although I never felt trapped I wanted out of the box that I was building myself into. I jumped out the window and left the GPS at home, I'll know where I am when I get there.
Do I miss home?
As my mother has pointed out to me, it is humorous to imagine that I would take to living abroad as easily as I have when you realize that I was the kid who couldn't sleepover a friends house the whole night until 5th grade because I would get homesick. Home is not dead to me but I realize that missing home does little good to me. Sure, I wish that there were more than two Taco Bells in Korea. Sure, I miss my dog. America is where I grew up and I'll have those memories forever, but I'm not bound to it like Gollum and the Ring. If anything I am a bit like Bilbo, and my thirst for worldliness is Gandalf's prying influence.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?...1 year... next week... tomorrow... what are you having for dinner?
I am hesitant to communicate in finalities because I am all too aware of the constantly changing nature of my life, and, in a much greater sense, the universe. But, if I talk about my plans and convictions with hesitance and conditional clauses, I might as well equate the progression of my life with the amount of sogginess that accumulates in a bowl of graham crackers after you spill, say, a gallon of milk on them. You get the picture... Life changes, adjust, reflect, grow, reassess.
If you stayed tuned until the end, thanks. Hope you enjoyed a bit of everything. You're probably satiated, but take some leftovers home until next time...
