Dog House W/ Patio

Here we go

Hello everyone that's found this site. I hope that you all are in good health and aren't wondering if I've been hit by a crazy Korean motor scooter. Well, I have but that's another story.

I've been in South Korea for about ten days now. In an effort to catch up, make your own flashback sounds/gestures now.....

My flight from Chicago to Seoul was fairly uneventful. I slept most of the way so that I could properly adjust my body for the first night. I arrived at Seoul, went through customs without a hitch and checked my baggage for my domestic flight. This would be the last time I saw a western face for forty-eight hours.

I arrived in Busan and was hesitantly greeted by Heyya, Winny, and Wonny (my Korean connection). I say hesitantly because they weren't expecting me to have a beard. On the drive to Ulsan (my future home) I was delicately asked if I shave. This means, “Shave that thing off your face if you want to teach here.” I met my director, a woman about forty who speaks no English. She showed me my new place and through a series of gestures and ticking noises was able to show me how the water heater worked. She gave me her cell phone so I could call her in the morning. Apparently I was to start right away.

After waking at an ungodly hour because my body refused to believe it wasn't two in the afternoon I walked around my new neighborhood and took in South Korea in the daylight. It was right about this time I started wondering, “What the hell have you done?” Nonetheless, I called my director after unpacking and was whisked away to the school I teach at. We took care of some business, getting an alien registration card (that's right, I'm an alien), new bank account, some food for the apartment, and various other errands. I was left to my own devices for the remainder of the evening, as I was fading out from jet lag. The next day was strikingly similar. It was about three days in did I realize I hadn't seen any westerners, nor had a conversation where that didn't leave me feeling like butter spread over too much toast. Anxiety set in. Depression reared its ugly head. And for about four hours I was waiting for my new Northern Neighbors to come screaming over the 38th parallel. But they didn't. And I snapped out of it. That was the extent of my culture shock. (I actually wrote a little something about that time, but have decided not to include it for public viewing).

I finally met some other westerners the next day that are teachers at sister schools of mine. I've since hung out with a few of them and we all seem to get along fine. The first weekend I took a bus out to Gimhae where Dave works. For those of you wondering, Dave is a friend of mine from Cary. I've known him since I was a toddler. As you can imagine that was a blast. I met more people there and had good time overall.

My first week of teaching was very interesting. I've discovered that my purpose here in South Korea is not to teach, per se, but to entertain the kids. I tried teaching with the materials they gave me (which were horrendous) and the director and other teachers asked that I be more cheerful. So I pepped it up a bit but that still wasn't what they were looking for. I asked what I should do and was quickly told that I should play games with the kids. So that's my new job description, “Play games with the kids, make them laugh!” Yes, I'm a clown. Thank you, thank you.

This was perhaps the biggest blow yet. I've had a lot of time to reflect on why it is I'm here. I came here because I didn't know what I was doing with my life. I had a lot of very positive things going for me back in Utah but I still felt like I was drifting. I needed some perspective. I needed my life handed to me on a plate for inspection. So after coming here with intent to teach, and then being denied that, I've started to get the idea that perhaps what I really want to do is teach. I've always looked at teaching as something I could do but not really something I wanted to do. Now I see that I've taken for granted my experiences and that perhaps going back to school upon re-entry to the states would be a good idea.

So that's about where I'm at right now. I hope that helps. I apologize that I haven't been in better contact with a lot of you. I now have an internet connection and a cell phone. Once I get the details of how you can call me from the US I'll post that information. I will try to keep this site up to date, so check often.

cheers,

ryan

Posted by Schaffer at June 13, 2005 01:33 AM