Soul to Suwon to Seoul

Here I am again, at Incheon Airport. 

I think the airport is a beautiful place. People embarking on new journeys, others returning home after a long adventure. Families reuniting, lovers separating. It’s a gateway to a new change in each passenger’s life. 

And here I am. I just had coffee with a complete stranger with a completely different story, going to a completely different destination.

I keep forgetting that I’m only one person in the whole world and I am by far the most interesting person…

Okay, I can’t finish my thought it’s boarding time! I’m coming home! 

If you had one shot, or one opportunity 
to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip? 

The last few weeks have gone by in a flurry - so much has happened. I’ve been caught up in my own drama, fun and games and completely lost in touch with reality. 

The flurry: First, a very important class was deliberately sabotaged by someone I thought was a friend, then I was yelled at for being too lovable. Second, I had a near-death experience conquering the tallest mountain on the Korean peninsula - but it was totally worth it. And lastly, I’ve been trying to see everyone who has become an important part of my life before I go. I’ve been shamelessly too honest with one of them - knowing I’ll never see him again. It feels good to be transparent - knowing that if you come off as a crazy maniac there’ll be no consequences because you’re leaving anyways. 

The reality: First, I need to work on my relationship with the boyfriend. Distance has left us in tatters, and it’s time for some TLC.  Second, I need a job. I better make it career related. Crap, I hate job hunting. Third, I need to pay back my loans and save; no-life Lynda! All this while I figure out how to harmoniously live with under my sister’s crazy house rules.
 

The clock’s run out, time’s up over, oh!
Snap back to reality, Oh there goes gravity.

(Eminem lyrics taking out of context to make it work with my post)

I will be on the Korean Airline plane that will land around noon, May 14th, albeit I might change it to leave on May 16th. (Teachers are telling me I don’t want to miss sports day this year!) 

All this packing and closing affairs is overwhelming. Should I leave the money in my Korean bank account and wait for the exchange rate to move towards my favour? Will customs give me trouble over my dried basil and powdered vanilla if I put them in a plastic bag?

Before I come back, I need to cross some things off my Korean bucket list:

• I’m gonna climb the tallest mountain on the Korean peninsula - out of shape and everything starting at 3 a.m. (so I come back down before the sun sets)
• I’m going to get an old ajjuma in a black underwear exfoliate my naked body and feel like a million bucks (or so they say)
• I’m going to, apparently, the most beautiful part of Korea, to view the green tea plantations, drink tea fresh, and then take a sea water green tea infused bath by Yulpo Beach. 
• Organize an English school-wide competition that everybody must participate in. Kind of like a legacy. 

I know a lot of you will fall in love with this country (if you took the time to learn a little bit of Korea.) But what I won’t miss? 

• squat toilets 
• superficial conversation topics: plastic surgery, jobs and how much money they make, looks, reputations 
• my co-workers obsession over instant coffee *barf*
• the fact that I don’t have an oven
• not being able to wear sweats in public unless I want stares and horrible service
• people who budge 
• to not be able to have a casual conversation with someone you see (slut or  weirdo, they will think of you as they refuse to respond)

I’m coming home! 

The best English students in the school competed in a writing contest yesterday. I’m the judge. Here are the best of the best (my coteacher took the essays away from me before I could complete the collection, but here are the first few):  

“My friends are also enjoy watching porno video. It is nature to us.” 

“I will send a letter to the President of Korea because nowaday students are very booly. So, several students cannot enjoy life. The President of Korea must catch the booly students. Then, the serveral students can enjoy their life.”

“Having brand name jackets are so harmful…due to upper grades steal my or someone’s brand name jacket, so I am scared and nervous. So recently, I hardly wear my brand name jacket.” 

A letter to mom: “I want to eat more different kinds of food. Yes, I know that you are exhausted in your job and very hard to make food for my family. But I don’t want to eat same meal for 5 days! If you make more different foods than now, I will love you more and more.” 

It’s been an intense week for me.

On Monday, blood was spilled in my classroom as a result of the bullied having enough of it. Their parents were notified, but they were let off the hook. No detentions, suspensions or counseling.

Today, I’ve been reading essays for the writing contest where I’m learning my students don’t feel safe in their own schools. They’re telling me they get picked on for not having a designer jacket, and when they finally succeed in begging their parents for the 300 dollar jacket, a senior will literally steal it from them. There were other things, too.

No counselling. No helplines. No CAPP class telling them they are not alone, or the very least, how to cope with their aggressors. 

As a result? They kill themselves, as one of my students tried to do last semester. 

Can teachers do anything about it? Maybe not. Schools here are about saving face, and keeping out of the media. That way, their reputation is in tact. The richer students and their parent’s donations don’t pull out of the school.

I give so much props to the kids that go to school every day and face their agressors while maintaining their grades. I am so sorry that they have to live in fear for 8 hours of the day. I have been so extremely frustrated that this is all happening in front of me and I can’t do a single freaking thing but go home and cry. 

Anyways, more reading: 

Eat Your Kimchi: Bullying in South Korea

Middle School Student Raped By 4 Teenagers in Busan

Group Rape Case at Daegu Elementary Shocks Korea

Two Teenagers Forced Girl, 12, into Prostitution

2 Teens Sent to Prison for S. Korean Bullying Suicide

It hit me when my boss told me to buy a plane ticket back home. 

It is soon time for me to leave South Korea. 

Am I excited to go back home? they ask me. I’m not sure. I miss red velvet cupcakes and Nandos, and Joon, and Honda. 

But I like my time here. I like walking to the school, the grocery store, and to the orphanage instead of taking the bus or asking for a ride. I have time, sweet time.

I like seeing things on my walks. I like walking by Adjoshi’s wobbling down the sidewalk with a bottle of soju in their hand. I like kids chasing stray dogs and being mesmerized by little insects. 

I like the little relationships I’ve made in my neighbourhood too. I like the ajumma at the convenient store and the young girl at the local mart. They always ask me where Joon is. I’ve been bowing to this traffic guy at another school for almost 11 months, and he finally came around to speak to me last week. There’s a cat by my place that comes up to me when I meow at it. 

It’s saddening that now I’ve made a little home for myself, with so much time to do everything I want (read, meditate, cook) - I have to go back to my actual home where I have really little time to myself. Well, I guess it has an oven! 

I was looking on shippings rates from Korea to Canada (yup, I’m preparing for the big move back!) and I found a page titled Don’t Teach in Korea, and found it seriously, seriously, wrong and outdated.  I hope that no one is turned off by the job prospects here because although I do get home sick from time to time, I don’t regret my decision to come here at all. 

It was written in 2002, based on an ex-teacher’s experience in 1998. Ultimately, the writer did save enough money in two years here to pay for graduate school in the states and put a down payment on a car and condo - yet he tells us that the savings are next to nothing. It’s true that the Korean won went wonky during the Asian financial crisis - but that news is old. They have long recovered since.  The fact is, for teaching English abroad, Korea has the best wage to living cost ratio (aside from Arab nations which are ridiculously difficult to qualify for).

Unfortunately the writer had a difficult experience in work for two reasons: 

• He was working illegally in Korea for private companies. His employers were sketchy and surprise, surprise, they refused to pay him money because they weren’t legally entitled to.
• He didn’t do any research in which private institution to work at and ended up working at a nightmare hagwon. Not everything is rainbows and unicorns -but it’s soo easy to avoid such places: google.  If you look through forums and institution reviews - you should be able to separate the terrible ones with the reputable ones.

Also, for qualifications, contrary to what is written, you do need a TOEFL certificate of 100 hours or equivalent for all public positions, and you will very likely receive training/orientation before your begin your position. If you don’t, you need to re-evaluate the institution you’re applying for. 

About the teachers here, this is what the writer said they’re like:

 The only people I met that liked Korea were the Mormon missionaries or 
       members of other conservative religious groups, people with absolutely no 
       social and/or economic prospects in their own country, or people who were 
       running away from something at home and had found a place where they 
       could almost completely hide from the Outside World

Okay, I’ll admit, the English teachers here are usually different from the average joe. They are usually less superficial, more laid back, more open-minded, and definitely more curious. Most likely, they don’t follow a faith. Best of all, compared to the average person, they are not afraid to leave their comfort zone. Yes, they’re unique, but calling them sideshow freaks is so off. 

As for living conditions, I think it’s a bit insulting and totally wrong to be calling Korea (and Taiwan) a developing country (albeit I’m glad he used the politically correct term). Korea has one of the most efficient transit systems in the world, one of the fastest internet connections in the world, top notch plastic surgery and the cheapest cellphone comes with free TV! And very clean public toilets! They are part of the OECD, and the G20. 

One last thing: I don’t know what he’s smoking, but Koreans have beautiful teeth. They leave their second toothbrushes at work so they can brush after lunch. I only know a handful of people who do that in Canada, and a handful in Korea that don’t. 

Overall, don’t come here if you have no interest in Korean culture. You’ll get screwed if you try to screw around with their law.

I do agree with one thing with John, the writer on one thing; If you wait at a busy restaurant or drive a cab and live really frugally you can probably save just as much - maybe even more. But what’s the point in that if you aren’t two hours away from Shanghai and Osaka? If you can’t do a temple stay or enjoy ridiculously cheap and tasty Kimbap? If you can’t get hip checked and elbowed by an Ajuma and have hundreds of students bow to you every day? 

My task this morning was to interview a group of first graders for the English Helper positions. English Helpers will take part of extra-curricular activities and represent the school in province wide English competitions. It’s a prestigious title that will look well on their high school applications. 

Some of them had studied abroad and went to prestigious private academies. Others clearly couldn’t afford to do this, and they improved their English by sheer interest and enthusiasm. Still, they couldn’t compete against students who have lived abroad, and have had a proper education.

My job was to offer only the best students of English the position. That meant the rich kids. 

But what about the not-so-rich-kids?  Don’t we want to level the playing field for them? Don’t we want to give them the job so they can improve their skills and have a chance at getting into a good high school? The rich kids already have other resources they can use to ensure a good education! 

But our school as a reputation to maintain, they tell me, only the best of the best should be selected. 

After giving them few speeches of equal opportunism, we came to a compromise. I can pick the best “poor kid” as one of the helpers, but the other four need to be, well, the best. 

I already knew who I was going to choose. He looked like an ordinary kid, but he had a speech impairment. I asked him why he wanted to be a helper and he said, as his eyes twinkled, he wanted to make other students love English as much as he did. I asked him what his biggest weakness was, and he said his speaking skills was weak, but everyday his mother has been helping him overcome that. He responded quickly to my questions with the correct grammar, as if fluently. He just had a lisp. Nothing else. 

He can go big. I believe in him.

Yup, it’s one of those days where I feel mighty proud of myself for contributing to humanity.