The 3rd month (ish)

ah, so many things to say. the hardest part about these emails (i think) is condensing all your thoughts and feelings over several weeks down into one essay (basically). LET'S TRY!

So I'm into my third month here at this school in friggin South Korea. I have been told by many that this is when you enter the low point of your career here. You get depressed and/or homesick, you question your reasoning for coming here...you basically turn emo. I HAVE DEFIED THE TREND! It's not to say I'm particularly happy here. In fact, there are many things about Korea that make me plenty unhappy, namely, old people and disgusting habits. But all things considered, when I reckon that my only other real option was to go to more school and or do some menial job back in the states I feel pretty fortunate. Some days are pretty hard but I realize that has as much to do with not getting enough sleep as anything else. I guess people always wonder why you'd want to be a teacher, hell i still do. but every now and then I get that flash of understanding as to what it's like to teach a kid. It's very fulfilling though it only lasts until the next class that refuses to pay attention. I have a very thin skin and my days are made good or bad based on how attentive the students are that day. I actually prefer this, it means i'll stay involved both mentally and emotionally. The teachers who are thick-skinned have, in many cases, mentally checked out, they no longer care. I don't understand what keeps them coming back to work honestly. Money?

The job itself is pretty easy, i only have to prepare around 4 lesson plans a week and i get most of my ideas from a site called bogglesworld. This is totally legit and it's what most of the foreign language teachers here do. But that just means it's really easy. I have a lot of free time and as of yet I haven't been very constructive with it. I watch movies on youtube, spend a lot of time online in general, just surfing the web, trying to stay up to date with whats happening in the world

Korea is also "not so bad". I actually feel bad for Korea. The nation has basically spent it's entire existence fighting to keep even a minimal form of independence going all the way back to it's creation. They fought like hell to keep the chinese out but were basically autonymous region of china. Then Japan kicked the shit out of them in the 20th century and occupied the entire country until 1945. Then the US sat on them and has continued to do so to this day. And under all that they went from a dirt poor nation to the 11th largest GDP and a democracy in only 50 years. Not stinkin bad. But you never hear about anything related to South Korea with the exception of somehow being related to North Korea. It's either China this, Japan that, North Korea is doing something crazy. Never any mention of South Korea. A damn shame really, especially when you consider that korean's make up a fairly large minority group in America. It's going to be really cool to go to one of these enclaves in america and shock them with my Hangul prowess.

I think the key benefit for me has been that the lifestyle fits into my lifestyle. My apartment is decent and i don't have to pay ANY living expenses other than food. I end work at 5 and have the weekends and numerous "school holidays" off. Because I don't speak the language I can maintain my hermit like ways in relative normality and I really enjoy hanging out with people on the weekend (rather than simply trying to find some solitude). I get to workout again! I'm learning a new martial art, kumdo (kendo), which also includes learning nunchucks, staff and some throws and the like. I'm already pretty good with the chucks. i can do a flip, a kip up, AND i'm working on my handstand. So in that manner I'm having a great time! It's basically like being a monk. Speaking of which, did i mention most koreans are atheists? that's pretty cool.

The only real disappointment for me has been lack of friends. I have my solid, amanda, but i really thought I'd make a large number of new friends. I figured anyone who would want to travel to another country to teach would be kinda like me. WRONG! so i haven't made a lot of new friends, some, but not many. It doesn't bother me much but it is kinda lame feeling sometimes.

Right now I'm actually fairly happy with where I am in life. I'm learning a lot about education systems and foreign cultures and that's what I'm interested in doing with my life. If i stay in the US it's going to be either as a professor of sociology or as an education reformist. Otherwise I'll go international and use my foreign skills to be a badass lawyer.

So that's kind of my update in a nutshell, it's long and rambly but there ya go, hope you made it this far.

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