The last week

Hi everybody,

It feels weird to type that title for this post. Last week. 3 school days left, before our contracts end. That is utterly, utterly, bizarre. I've gotten used to Korea, started picking up bits and pieces of the language, I can read Hangeul fluently, now (still don't know whether I'm seeing signs for a newspaper or a karaoke room, though), have become addicted to kimchi, fell in love with the madness of Seoul, and now I have to say goodbye? It's mildly depressing.

Here's a link to our latest exploits.

We saw Sky, an old friend of Jen's from her days as an ESL teacher in Canada, in Seoul on Saturday. We insisted on buying the dinner, since he snuck off with the bill last time. Korean etiquette on payment is funny, in a good way. In Canada, everybody argues over it, and usually we chip in together, right? Well, in Korea, the oldest person pays. Of course, people might offer to pay, but the oldest person (or the most senior in the company, the only married couple, etc.), pays. Period. Of course, if the older person is there, you have to stay out with him or her until they go home. This can, as you can imagine, lead to some rather epic moments if the older person wants to drink with you.

I'm not sure that Sky is older than Jen, but it was an interesting commentary on our time here to see him protesting when we basically took the bill and told him we'd pay this time.

From his perspective, he was paying the first time because that's what's done, in Korea. From our perspective, we insisted on paying him back for the last time. Getting back into Canadian thinking, I guess, and, besides, he did pay last time. It was our turn.

We then met the new teachers, Thomas and Claire, and showed them around Yeongtong, before going out to our last Suwon Bluewings game in town. Suwon lost, and the crowd was dead. One suspects this is due to the recent passing of former President Kim Dae-Jung. Alternatively, it may have been because Suwon is out of the running for the Championship this season. Either way, it was odd, but still a fun experience. We got stared at for being the only people starting the cheers, but then a dozen or so of the Koreans sitting nearest to us got into it, which was awesome.

We're down to a mere 3 days. I mentioned that earlier, but it still feels weird. I mentioned, in my last post, that I have fallen in love with this country. It has bizarre mood swings, but its an amazing country. I remember sheer culture shock threatening to overwhelm me in my first week, to the point that I was almost crying, and wanted to just say to hell with it and fly back home.

And yet, here I am, a year later, saying goodbyes to friends and students whom I've become accustomed to seeing every day, every week, or at least every month.

I will miss this place, but more importantly, I will miss the people. One of my students was sad last night, after class. He said "Teacher, I was in your class for a year. A year, teacher!" And then he smiled, sadly, and said goodbye.

This is one of my favorite students, so it hurt to hear those words coming from him. I know it is not 'goodbye' for some of my fellow teachers, since I'll see them again in Canada, or in the States, I'm sure. I know that for some of my students, this is not goodbye, either, since I'm already getting emails from some of them--one with pictures of Lee Min Ho, a soap-opera actor who is obviously my students' newest crush--but it still feels weird, and sad.

At the same time, I am looking forward to seeing Canada, again, and family and friends. It has been amazing, frustrating, and fun, to be in this part of the world. For what few bad parts that have come my way, I've found a dozen more things that were worth every moment of my travelling here.

I came here thinking I would take a year off from University, to work on PhD applications, make some money, and pay off student debts. Lo and behold, I emerge on the other side discovering that I love teaching, period, and that I don't really want to go back to school again. I've earned my TESL Canada Certification, and I intend to make a go of teaching in Canada. I also discovered that I like kids, and that so does Jen.

In short, while some folks talk about coming to Korea to 'find themselves,' and sometimes don't, I came to Korea to work, and end up finding out a lot about myself.

Funny the way things go, eh?

3 more days. I'll have, I hope, time for one more blog post, to make sure that folks back home know that Jen and I are okay, and then we'll be off on our 22-hour flight back home. Quirk of travelling that we'll be leaving and arriving on the same day, and only five hours later, objectively. Subjectively, though, Sunday's going to hurt.

Talk to you all soon!

Chris