Kids' Camp

Well, it's that time of the week again. For those of you who remember, or have just been paying attention, seven weeks ago I decided to start video blogging. Every week. On Tuesday. And I've been very good about it.

However, I am currently teaching extra classes, yesterday and today we had testing - which meant even more work (11 hrs total each day), and I was gone all weekend at a summer camp.

Summer camp would have been a great opportunity to take videos, right? And I thought I took a few, but I think that a couple of them may have accidentally been deleted (alternatively, I may have just imagined them). Consequently, here it is 11:00 pm on Tuesday night and all I have to share with you is one rather pathetic excuse for a video clip. In the spirit of consistency, I'm going to upload it anyway and supplement it with a few pictures and a blog about the camp, ok?

So here it is, the camp report.

Camp was great. I'm really glad I went, even though I didn't know anyone before Friday. Two weeks ago, I saw a notice in the bulletin saying that they were looking for volunteers for Vacation Sunday School for the weekend of Aug 8-10. I assumed that it was VBS and they just needed someone for a few hours during the day. I tried to talk to someone after church, but nobody was available. So I tried again after church last Sunday. This time I was able to talk to one of the children's church leaders and later, the children's pastor. At this point I found out that it was a children's camp. The leader that I talked with was very excited that I was volunteering and said that they needed more volunteers. They were heading out on Friday morning, but he said I could carpool with some other people who weren't able to make it Friday night.

So after work on Friday, I met up with some other volunteers and headed out to the camp. By the time we got there, it was nearly 11:00 and most people had gone to bed. I was fortunate enough to be sharing a room with three other women, rather than a room full of kids. Don't get me wrong, I love kids. But after teaching all week and having extra classes, then spending the weekend at a kids' camp - it was nice to at least get a break at night!

I had a group of 6 six kids - 3 boys and 3 girls. But most of the time, we combined our group with another group. A lot of the kids were friends and a few of them could be a bit difficult, so it was easier for Misol (the other counselor) and I to combine the groups. Here we all are!:

On Saturday, we went on some waterslides. We only had about an hour, though, so I decided that it was not worth the effort for just an hour and I wasn't going to participate- I'd just go alone. But when we got there, I saw that these were not your typical waterslides. Behold:
It appeared to be astroturf with hoses spraying it down. After a bunch of people went down, they told us that you really don't get all that wet - just a sprinkle on the legs - but it was a lot of fun. So Misol and I caved. Naturally, just as we were about to go down, tons of water started spraying everywhere. We got wet.

It was fun, though. I'm glad we went.

Kids' camp in Korea was a lot like kid's camp in the states. We had Bible stories:

In this picture, the kids were acting out the story of Jesus coming to see Mary and Martha after Lazarus died. The kid lying down isn't just taking a nap - he's supposed to be Lazarus.

We had crafts and games:

Our group won the games on Saturday night, which meant they got all the snacks they wanted. You can see that they were pretty happy about that.

We even had a campfire. Alas, there were no smores to be had, but this kid seemed to be enjoying the fire anyway.

We also lit candles to symbolize a commitment to share Jesus with our friends. This is where my ever-so-brief video comes in:


Campfire from Marianna Willey on Vimeo.

Like I said, I'm really glad I went. I haven't really been involved in my church since coming to Korea. I didn't know anyone before this weekend and I basically just go to church and leave right after the service. But helping out at kids' camp showed me how much I miss being involved and now I know some people, too! It was also a good opportunity to spend more time hanging out with Koreans. Including me, there were only three foreigners at the camp this weekend. I have a few Korean friends, but I spend most of my time hanging out with foreigners. So it was nice to get to know more Koreans.

I said that kids' camp here was a lot like kids' camp back home, but one thing that was a lot different was the food. Although I like Korean food, after eating kimchi and rice with every meal for two days, I was happy to come home and have a salad for dinner and breakfast food for breakfast the next morning.

So that's it for today, folks. I'll do my best to have a better video for you next week!

Eeewww...

Monsoon season is here.

Before coming here, I was somewhat nervous about what the summer in South Korea would be like. I had heard that summers in Korea were very hot and very humid. Summer is my favorite season. I love the hot weather, the beach, sunglasses, flip flops, the beach, iced coffee, barbecues, and I even kind of like the beach. But I CAN"T STAND humidity. Actually, it's okay if it's at the beach. Because, well, it's the beach.. With all of that water, humidity is inevitable, but the breeze totally makes it okay. And anyway, it's the beach... so.. yeah. Did I mention that I like the beach?

It actually hasn't been as hot here as I thought it would be. But humidity? GROSS. It tends to hover around 90-100%. And as much as I love the rain (shhh.. don't tell), I do NOT like the rain when it is 85 degrees out. Today I was walking around in shorts, a tank top, and flip flops... in the rain... carrying an umbrella. So of course, my feet are getting wet, I am in immediate danger of eating pavement (flip flops are not built for traction - at least not the $4 (actually ￦4,000) flip flops that you buy at - you guessed it - the beach), and my arms are getting wet because the rain can't follow the rules and keeps sneaking under the umbrella. So I have that nice, cozy, cold, wet, sticky, hot feeling. It's great. I'm a really big fan. Not.

But I can deal with all of this. My A/C works well and I'm quite comfy in my little home. I ought to be - my utilities cost me $100 bucks more last month than they did the month before - I can only attribute this to the A/C.

So what's my real issue? Clearly I'm not a fan of humidity. Or monsoon season. But I've just stated that I can deal, so what's the point?

Cockroaches. I CAN'T DEAL WITH COCKROACHES. Seriously. I can deal with a lot of things, but I am TERRIFIED of cockroaches. I'm not kidding. I realize that the extent of my fear may be a bit irrational. Although cockroaches are gross, they probably won't kill me.* Also, I am much bigger than them and if I could overcome my fear, I would have a fighting chance of killing one. But my attempts at being logical are not helping. I live in constant fear that I will discover one in my apartment. Just writing this is giving me the heebie jeebies and I want to climb up on something where I know I'm safe. I don't like spiders, bees, or most other bugs and creepy crawly things but I can deal with them. If there's nobody else around to do it for me, I'll kill the nasty little things. But I'm afraid if I ever find a cockroach in my apartment, I'll be more inclined to just move out. I don't know how much longer I can talk about this, or I won't be able to sleep tonight. I'm totally serious here, guys. You know me, I've held snakes before, caught lizards, pet a tarantula once (this wasn't a pet tarantula, it was one a friend found in Mexico - admittedly, petting it was ill-advised), killed many spiders and bees, but I don't do cockroaches.

I'm scared because I feel like there isn't much I can do to protect myself. I know there are precautions I can take that will help, but I can't really prevent cockroaches from getting in my place. It's like when everyone around you gets sick, you think it might be a good idea to take vitamins, and get plenty of rest, and eat healthfully. And it is a good idea. And maybe it will keep you from getting sick, but there's no guarantee. THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO GUARANTEE THAT YOU WON'T GET SICK.

Part of what has me so paranoid is that last week, there were a few cockroach sightings at work. One of them was at my desk. Fortunately, I wasn't sitting at my desk at the time. But my friend Emma (who sits next to me) said that a cockroach was running around on my desk and hers. Then they discovered that it had LAID EGGS UNDER MY KEYBOARD. Yeah. Really. Suffice it to say that I cleaned my entire desk area (fortunately, someone else cleaned up the eggs and cockroach remains first) and for the rest of the day, whenever I was at my desk, I was sitting with my legs crossed in my chair and my iPod turned up to drown out the fear.

Writing this at night was not a good idea. Now I need to go to sleep but I'm too creeped out. Maybe if I clean my living room (which is also my summer bedroom - the A/C is in the living room) while watching some TV, I'll be able to sleep in an hour. If I have roach dreams tonight, I'm going to be VERY unhappy.

* According to this website, "Cockroaches can carry pathogens that cause asthma, allergies, abscesses, boils, bubonic plague, diarrhea, dysentery, gastroenteritis, intestinal infections, leprosy, lesions, typhoid fever, urinary tract infections and more."

Coffee in Korea - Episode 1

Coffee.

It is a wondrous thing.

Naturally, in moving to Korea, one concern at the forefront of my mind was, "How will I get my hands on some decent brew?"

Fortunately, I have found some great coffee here.

I have also found some crap coffee.

Join me, on my quest for the bean in Korea.

It may be a bumpy ride, but we are sure to be rewarded in the end. If we are lucky, we might even find a nice cup of medium-bodied South American coffee with mild acidity and cocoa undertones. Or perhaps a rich African coffee with citrus notes?

.

Still Getting Back into Blogging

K, let's try this again.

I'm not sure what else I was going to talk about in that last "to be continued" post. Besides teaching and running, the rest of my life is pretty standard. I buy groceries, clean my house, take out the garbage, pay my bills, watch movies, hang out with friends - pretty normal stuff, right?

But then again, because I'm living in Korea, this "normal stuff" can be slightly different from what you're used to. So here's my latest idea. I'm going to blog a video every Tuesday. These videos will contain bits of my normal, everyday life as a foreigner in Korea. Any thoughts? Ideas? Questions? Feel free to leave a comment with your two cents worth!

And without further ado, today's theme is...

Eating Out.. Korean Style - Part 1

Video Credits:
Starring: Marianna Willey
Filming and Narration: Veronica Navarro
Random Side Comments: Walter Demesa and Brittany Maxey

Getting Back into Blogging

Ok, so, I was absent for a while, due to lack of internet connection. Then I got wired, managed a grand total of 3 posts, and went AWOL again.

I'm not going to say that I didn't have the time to blog. We all have 24 hrs per day, and how we spend those hours is up to us. Ouch. I'm not gonna dwell on that right now. I'll save that for post-blog.

Anyway, I definitely haven't been bored recently. Want to know what I have been up to?

Running - I've been running recently. I started running as a way to exercise without having to pay for a gym membership. I've always run on a treadmill because I am very goal-oriented. Knowing how far and how fast I am running and being able to measure my progress every time I exercise motivates me.

But there is a river just a few minutes walk from where I live, with a path running alongside it. The section that I run even has the kilometers marked out on the ground for you, and it is about 3.5k long.

Let me tell you, I don't think I could have asked for a more conducive atmosphere in which to run.
It is beautiful.
I usually run after work (around 10pm), so the sun has set, it's starting to cool off, and there are streetlights illuminating the path and the river. Even at 10 and 11 at night, there are generally quite a few people, young and old, out walking, biking, rollerblading, and running. The path features a basketball court at one point, and exercise machines at another. These are fully taken advantage of.

So, anyway, I discovered that I can run a whole lot farther than I thought I could. On the treadmill, I would never run below a certain speed and I was always very aware of how far I had run. Running by the river has allowed me to focus on running at a pace that is comfortable and distract myself with the scenery and my own personal soundtrack (read: iPod Cardio Mix). So now I'm planning to run a 10k (6.2miles) with a few friends in about 3 weeks. My personal goal for the race is 1 hr 5 min. I've only run 10k once so far, and it took me several minutes longer than that. But honestly, it still surprises me that I can even run for an hour without stopping. That's something I never thought I could do. So even if I don't make my goal, I'm happy.

Teaching - Duh, It's kind of my job. But at my institute, the terms run in 3 month sessions. My first term started the day after I got here and just ended last month. The next term started last week. And it has been quite a switch for me. I had 7 classes last term and 4 of them were practically the lowest level our school teaches. Each lesson has a story, and for this level the story went something like, "The frog is hot. He stands under a tree. He is still hot! He lays on the grass. He is still hot! He jumps in the pond. Now he is cool." The stories are a little longer, but you get the idea. This term, my classes are way more advanced. In fact, I am teaching a debate class. At this point you may be saying, "What? Debate? I thought you were teaching English. Do you even know how to teach debate?"

No. I don't. Never even took a debate class. Yet this week, my debate class and I are discussing the KORUS FTA. That's the free trade agreement between the US and South Korea. Thinking back on the weeks prior to my arrival in South Korea, it's funny that one of the questions I was asked the most was, "How will you teach them English if you don't speak Korean?"

Instinctively, people assume that if you are teaching a person English, that person doesn't speak English. Makes sense, right? The thing that people fail to consider is that there are levels of fluency and teaching English as a second language is not necessarily rudimentary. A few of the words that came up in my debate class last week were charlatan, proliferation, vitriolic, and sycophancy. I had to look up sycophancy. And I'm the teacher. Ahem.

Other things - There were some other things that I wanted to mention, but it's 3 am. So rather than rushing through them, I'm going to refer to them here as "other things" and hopefully elaborate tomorrow.

Straight hair

Just over a week ago, Saturday before last, I got my hair permed straight.

This is something I've thought about doing for a few years, but I was always afraid to actually try it. I had heard negative stories about people having their hair ruined, or having to spend an hour on their hair every day before they could dare go out in public, etc, etc.

But I went to get my hair trimmed a couple of weeks ago and therein lie the catalyst which caused me to finally take the plunge.

The hair salon I went to was great. It looked really upscale - I was impressed just sitting in the waiting room.
They served cappuccinos, smoothies, and other assorted beverages.
The traditional pre-haircut-shampoo included a scalp massage.

But when the time came to actually cut my hair, I was simultaneously amused and annoyed.
I said that I just wanted a trim.
As the stylist began working on my hair, he commented that my hair was really curly. He seemed a bit mystified at how curly my hair was and noted that the texture was unusual - he said that it seemed like permed hair. I thought this was kind of funny and chalked it up to the fact that I was in Asia. I figured the guy had never actually seen naturally curly hair.

But then he asked me if I had a straightener, I replied that I didn't.

His response?

"Oh, you should get one."

"You need one."

I had been thinking about asking him to blow it out straight for me - I frequently do this when I get a trim. But I didn't. I didn't have to. He just straightened it. Because how else would I wear it?

He also asked me if I had thought about straightening it. I told him that I had, and asked him how much it cost. He wasn't sure how to say the amount in English, so he told me in Korean. I was still working on figuring out the counting system and thought he had said it was $150 (actually, 150,000 KRW). But my friend told me that she had heard that you could get a perm in Korea for $30, so I started wondering if he had been saying that it was $15. That seemed ridiculously cheap to me, but it's always surprising how prices vary in foreign countries.*

So I started thinking that at that price, I would go back the following Saturday and get my hair permed. But when I got to work, I told a friend how much they said it would cost, and she confirmed that it was $150 :(

So I was sad. Because at that point, I had gotten all excited about getting it straightened.

But then she said that there was a place I could go in Seoul to get it done for cheap. And she was thinking of getting her hair cut the following weekend. So we went together!

This is my friend Emma (actually, her name is Min Jong, but Emma is her English name - I use both names :) ) She took me to this salon to get my hair straightened. It cost under $40!

I haven't had too many pictures of myself taken in the last week, and consequently don't have a lot of pics of me with straight hair - but a few of us went out after work on Wednesday, and I have some photos from that. I don't know what everyone else's reasons were for going out, but I was celebrating my recent acquisition of internet. And by "recent," I mean it was connected that day while I was at work, and I went home to internet for the first time.


Not the best shot ever, but you can see my straight hair, and that's the point, right?


I like this shot (except for the fact that Jess is a bit distracted) because I'm eating french fries with chopsticks. Only in Korea, right? But here's a random fun fact: Koreans eat rice with a spoon, not chopsticks.

So that's it for now. Expect more pics of me with straight hair in the future.

Because there will be more pics of me.

And my hair is straight now.

* I typically spend $4-$5 on dinner out, but it costs me $2 for a quart of milk

The Korea Report, Part 1

I'm here! Yay!

Yeah, so, I've actually been here for almost 2 weeks, but hey.

I was supposed to be getting internet access at my apartment by the end of the first week, but I guess procedures just changed. Like, within the last week or something. So now, I have to have my ARC (Alien Registration Card) before they will let me sign up for internet access. But once I do, it's going to cost me $15 PER MONTH. No people - we're not talking dial-up. We're talking high speed internet. I wasn't planning on getting cable while I'm here, but then I found out it will set me back a mere $5/month. So how could I turn it down?

The sad thing is that it will take me another 3 weeks until I actually get internet and cable at home, so the blogs may be pretty infrequent until then.

So that's my excuse for keeping you in suspense for so long. Now here's my story, from the beginning.

On May 7, 1980, a wondrous thing occurred...

Just kidding, we won't go back that far. Hows about we start with the flight?

The baggage limitations said that I could check 2 bags of 50 lbs each. So one of my bags was 51 lbs and the other was about 68. I knew this ahead of time because I have a handy little bag weigher thingy. But I figured - I'm moving to another country for a year and it would be prohibitively expensive to ship stuff, so I'll just hope that they don't charge me to much if my bags were overweight.

They charged me $25. Score!

Then they gave me an aisle seat in the exit row. Double score!

So I got on the plane, settled in, and wasted time sleeping. I say "wasted time" because I later found out that they had personal movie players with a huge selection of movies, and I only had a chance to watch 2 before the plane landed.

My plane got in a little early, and I collected my bags and got through customs in about 45 minutes. Then I met up with a dude holding a sign with my name on it, and he took me to my apartment. He told me he didn't speak much English, then he called the director of my school and spoke with him for a minute. Then the director told me that the driver would drop me off at my apartment and the next day, one of the teachers from my school would come by my apartment at 12:30 to take me to school.

It was about an hour drive to my apartment, so we got there by about 7:30 pm. Not bad. He basically helped me take my bags up to my apartment, showed me how to unlock my door (with a code, not a key), shoved my bags into the entryway and hightailed it out of there. By this point I was starting to get hungry, but I hadn’t wanted to take up any of my packing space with food. Fortunately, the person who lived there before me left a bottle of orange juice in the fridge. Unfortunately, that was all I had to last me until Monday afternoon. I thought about trying to go out and get some food, but I didn’t even have any cash. So I drank some orange juice, spent a couple of hours unpacking my things and collapsed into bed at around 10:00.

Much to my surprise, I slept straight through until about 7:00 am! I have never adjusted to a time change that quickly before! So I spent some more time unpacking, drank some more orange juice, and got ready for work. At about 1:00, I started wondering if someone was really coming. I was starting to get tired, too, so I thought I would just lie down on my bed and rest while I waited for someone to show up.

My doorbell rang at about 2:00. One of the directors and another new teacher were there waiting for me. Joe didn’t actually work at our branch, he was just bringing us to the school. Veronica also flew in Sunday night.

So Joe took us to work, which was conveniently located across the street. Then we got a crash course in teaching so that we could start that day.

So much for getting a week of training.

Speaking of teaching, I have a class in about 10 minutes, so I guess this is the point where I leave you hanging...

I'm off!

AAAHHHH! I'm so excited, scared, nervous, happy, anxious, sleepy, crazy, (insert emotion here) - basically I'm just a big ball of nerves and emotions. I can't believe I'm really moving to Korea tomorrow/today (it's past midnight, but I haven't gone to bed yet).

I'm basically done packing. But I grossly miscalculated how much stuff I had. I can't tell you how gross my miscalculation was.
It was Seriously Gross.

The plan was to pack all of my clothes, shoes (please don't ask me how many pairs of shoes I have), and other necessities, then fit in books and movies as I had room. I have a ton of books that I haven't read yet and it's always nice to have a few favorite movies.

Suffice it to say that I am grateful to know that there are good places to find English books in Seoul and I can buy movies on iTunes.

I found myself pulling articles of clothing out of my bags left and right - if I wasn't positive I would wear it more than a handful of times, it came out of the suitcase. It seems a shame to leave all of this perfectly decent clothing behind, but I suppose it will be as if I had new clothing when I return a year from now.

Now I'm just hoping that I won't have to pay too much because my bags are over the weight limit. I was blessed enough to get my visa in Seattle yesterday, so I didn't have to make an extra trip today, after all. Who knows? Maybe they will just waive the extra charges tomorrow... or better yet, bump me up to first class :) Then my bags would be within the weight limits.

I'm going to sign off for now - I've got to figure out what to do with all of the stuff I'm leaving behind!

Annyonghi kaysayo!

Woot woot!

Oh yeah, baby! I've got my plane tickets and I'm flying out on Saturday!

Somehow it doesn't seem real until the flight is booked.
Would you believe that I just got the tickets this evening?
And that's only because I wouldn't stop harassing the recruiter to book them.
He kept telling me, "Oh, it's no problem, there are plenty of seats. We've got time." In fact, I think those are exactly the words he said to me over the phone last night.

My response was, "Yes, I understand. But I would like to know when I'm flying out..." So he finally gave in and called the travel agent to book my flight. Lo and behold, there weren't any seats available for Friday night.
Hmmm...maybe it would have been wise to book the tickets more than four days in advance? So he said he would book them for Saturday. He told me that he would book them the next day (today) and send me the itinerary.

And he did! I fly out Saturday afternoon. They've booked me nonstop to Seoul (flying time is just under 12 hours), so I will arrive Sunday evening.

Yes, I know. Saturday afternoon + 12 hours does not Sunday evening make.
But Seoul is 17 hours ahead of PST, so we're talking Saturday afternoon + 12 hours + 17 hours. AKA Sunday evening.
Kinda trippy.
It'll be cool on the way back, though. I'll leave Seoul, fly for 12 hours, and get to Seattle 5 hours before I left.
hehehe

I'm going to get back to packing - I'm actually way ahead of the game and may not end up scrambling around the night before, hurling things haphazardly into suitcases.

Hmm..that'd be nice.

Tomorrow I'm going up to Seattle for my visa interview.
They'd better accept me, cuz hey - I've got plane tickets.
It seems to be more of a formality than anything else. I just have to try my best to not act crazy, and they should give me a nice shiny little stamp in my passport.

Of course, the shiny little stamp takes 24 hours to process, so unless I can sweet-talk the interviewing officer into speeding things up and returning my visa'd passport to me tomorrow, I'll be schlepping back up to Seattle on Friday to retrieve my little blue book.

Including the trip to the airport, that would make three trips to Seattle in as many days. For anyone who hasn't noticed the price of gas recently - it ain't cheap.
Here's hoping I can charm the folks at the Korean consulate...

I know that I have been woefully remiss in my blogging lately.
I would apologize, but it's my blog - I do what I want.
Also, I haven't seen you folk commenting recently, so... yeah.

There seems to be something about coming home that sucks the blogginess right out of me.
Call it catching up with family and friends.
Call it slow internet access.
Call it laziness.
Call it what you will.
But I can tell you right now, that new adventures breed blogginess.

Well, new adventures and comments.

So the new adventure are coming, now it's up to you, citizens of Townsville! Comment away and watch the blogs of new adventures pour in like...
like...
blogs...

Errr... right...

Onward!!

Fasten your safety belts!

I love change. I love adventure and discovery and learning new things. I love moving.

Almost two months ago, I made the decision to move to South Korea for a year to teach English. But while I've spent some time researching, planning, and making arrangements, most of my energy has been devoted to gritting my teeth and making it through another day at work.

I've finally made it out of that stage of my journey and I am SO EXCITED!!! The coming months are going to be great! I feel like I've been waiting in a really long line at a rollercoaster, but now I'm getting on.

Based on my own past experiences, tentative plans, and a little help from some expat resources - this is my outline of the stages of my journey:

Stage 1:The Gritting-My-Teeth-and-Counting-the-Days Stage

This was the first stage. It's pretty much self-explantory. And over. Yay! I can tell that it's over because I'm pretty much in a constant state of excitement for my upcoming adventure. Even on bad days, I don't have to give myself a pep talk and remind myself that I'm leaving soon. My departure day is so close, that I just shrug my shoulders and go back to reading about Korea.

Stage 2:The Packing-Up-and-Making-Preparations Stage

November 17-December 14: My last 4 weeks.

Practically speaking, my main focus for the next month will be making sure I have everything packed up and all necessary plans in place. I have already gone through a lot of my stuff, throwing things away and organizing. Over the next two weeks, I hope to have most of it packed up.* I have an interview this week with the recruiters who will help me find a job in Korea. I'm reading books about Korea and books about moving overseas. I'm going to start studying Korean.

Mentally and emotionally speaking: I'M EXCITED! This month will go so fast, I just have to hang on! It will definitely be stressful at times - but still EXCITING!

Stage 3:The Visiting-DC Stage

December 14-18

FUN TIMES!

Stage 4:The Home-for-the-Holidays Stage

December 18-January 1

This stage will mainly consist of sleeping, hanging out with the fam, hanging out with friends, playing canasta, watching movies, cooking, baking, and all things fun.

Stage 5:The Back-in-NJ Stage

January 1-14

This stage may not occur, in which case, Stage 6 will just start 2 weeks earlier. Hopefully I will know for soon in the next week.

I may be coming back to work for a week and a half to train the next nanny. If I do, I will be staying with a friend for a few days to hang out after I'm done.

Stage 6:The Yes-I'm-Really-Moving-to-South-Korea Stage

January 14-February 15ish

This is me packing up, finalizing plans, getting plane tickets, and going!

Stage 7:The Hello-Korea! Stage

February 15ish-April 15ish

My first weeks in Korea will be full of excitement and wonder as I discover many new things and adjust to everyday life. I'll find certain foods and customs about Korea that I really like. I'll make some friends and find a church.

Stage 8:Culture Shock

I'm guessing this will hit around mid-April. Not sure how long it will last. I'll probably be tempted to hole myself up in my apartment and do nothing. I'll be homesick. I may ask myself and others why in the world I ever decided to come to Korea. I may question my sanity and accuse myself of being masochistic. It won't be fun, but I'll live through it.

Stage 9:The I-Live-in-Korea Stage

After successfully dealing with culture shock, I'll get back to life. I'll do more exploring, learn more Korean, make more friends, and more of a good time will be had. Not sure what will happen after this.

So you can see that the next 5 months or so are going to be chock full of adventure and excitement. Yay! I'm in a state of euphoria right now :) And I'm going to see Dane Cook at Madison Square Garden tonight!**

*To be completely honest, this goes against my nature and really isn't very likely. But I'm optimistic anyway!
**Hmmm..I forgot to insert the Madison Square Garden Stage...

Wanderlust

As of today, I am officially one month away from my next move. The plan is to move home at Christmas, then come back for a week and a half after Christmas to train the next nanny. That, however, may change, and I may end up training her before I leave for Christmas, which would result in me going to Korea in January rather than February - but that all remains to be seen.*

At any rate, my time in New Jersey is quickly coming to a close.

As I wait (somewhat impatiently) for my FSOT results, my thoughts remain in South Korea. For, as I've mentioned before, becoming a US diplomat is my dream, teaching English in Korea is my plan.

For me, one of the hardest things about moving to Spain was moving back. Culture shock wasn't too much of a problem. It was expected and planned for. Reverse culture shock, however, came from out of the blue and blindsided me.

I've been doing a lot of research (read:surfing the web) for my adventure in Korea, and as I was reading some forums (fori?) this evening, I came across a thread on reverse culture shock. As I read posts, a wave of memories washed over me. Memories of getting the urge to request movie tickets or order at a restaurant in Spanish, for example. More notably, Koreans and Spaniards appear to have something in common which is difficult for Americans to adapt to.**

Two words.

Personal space.

It's okay to run right into someone and not even acknowledge it.

I recall performing a sociological experiment in my neighborhood in Madrid. Bearing in mind that it has been more than two years since I moved back to the States from Madrid and my skills of estimation are rudimentary at best, I would estimate that Calle de las Delicias was at least 20 feet wide.**

A couple of times, I played chicken walking down that street.

I got tired of being the one to always move out of the way and wondered, if I didn't move, would the other person move to avoid running into me?

Yes, Madrid is crowded. But I lived out in the sticks (no, I'm lying. But it makes a clever pun off my metro stop).

However, even in a crowded city, there are bound to be times when you find yourself in an uncrowded situation. At certain times of the day, my neighborhood was definitively uncrowded. These were the times when I spontaneously chose to perform my sociological experiment (read:play chicken). When walking down a 20-ft-wide sidewalk, if there is only one person coming from the opposite direction, but they are directly in your path - will they move to avoid you? The answer is "No."

I'm not kidding. I ran into people this way. But only a couple of times, because I get annoyed running into people so I resumed dodging Spaniards.

This is not to say that I did not learn how to adapt to the culture. I felt a bit guilty one day when I pushed my way onto the bus (in typical Spanish fashion) and encouraged Kelly to push in with me, only for her backpack to get caught in the doors. I didn't feel guilty for too long, though, because the picture was pretty funny and that made up for it.

But back to my point (I really did have one): As I sit here and think about what was, for me, the most difficult aspect of my overseas experience, the only thing I feel is a desire to go abroad again, to have a new experience.

And I wonder, will I ever be content to remain in one place? Is Wanderlust terminal?


*That's basically all I know at this point; hopefully I will know more soon. I plan to go to Korea roughly one month after moving back to Washington.
**Arggh.. Grammar rules have changed and I know that it is now acceptable for me to leave a prepostion dangling, but it still hurts a little.
**That is, the sidewalk on the northern side of the street (if my sense of direction serves me correctly).

South Korea's Got Seoul!

Ahhh!! I'm so excited to go to Korea!

Incidentally, no, I have not heard back from State regarding test results. But even if I pass the test, I'm really not banking on being hired as an FSO in the next year.

But, interestingly enough, I happen to live nextdoor to a couple who spent four years in Korea. They have a little girl that is a year younger than the little girl that I take care of, so we see each other at the bus stop almost every day. I've gotten to know the mom a little bit.

When I told her I was going to Korea, she told me that she had lived there for four years and she had plenty of books that I could borrow. She gave them to me at the bus stop last week.

Cool, right?

Between this Bag 'O Books and the Amazon shipment* I got this week, it's Book-a-Palooza at Chez Marianna. Maybe I'm getting old, but spending my Saturday reading books was fun (I also had a date - does that help my case?). I was so excited about all of the books, that I piled them up on my bed and took turns reading a couple chapters out of each of them.

In other news, remember the opossum that graced our garage last winter? He has been replaced.

Now, I don't know all of the specifics. It could be that he found greener pastures (darker garages?), or maybe there were roommate conflicts (roommates can be catty...) All I know is that I haven't seen the opossum since last winter, but there have recently been multiple sightings of a raccoon.

That's right, a raccoon.

I'm going to be honest, here, I don't feel that he's going to be a good roommate. He's clearly just after the food.

But whatever. It's not my decision.

At any rate, I've decided to call him Bandit - between those black eye masks he's always wearing and the fact that he's always sneaking food, I thought it was appropriate.

Staring contest, you and me, right now...

*"Realities of Foreign Service Life," Volumes 1 & 2; "Bush Hat, Black Tie"; "The Expert Expat"

I Am a Rockstar Chapter 1: In which nothing is said about being a rockstar

K, here's my exciting news:

I quit my job.

However, in my line of work, "giving notice" does not mean two weeks. More like eight. But because my boss was worried that she couldn't get someone to start right before the holidays and I'm such a nice person (no comments from the peanut gallery, please), I gave 11-1/2 weeks notice.

I can sense you doing rapid mathematical calculations in your head and realizing that this means it took me 2-1/2 weeks to share my news with you, my faithful readers.

But don't look at it that way - I'm letting you know nine weeks in advance! Wow! Don't you feel privileged?!...

Technically, though, I have more than 9 weeks left. In 9 weeks, I start my Christmas vacation. I'll have 2-1/2 weeks off, then I come back for 1-1/2 weeks to train the next person. But I'm calling it 9 weeks for a few reasons:

1. Nine weeks is easier to digest than thirteen weeks*, or in a word - sanity.

2. I'll only be working eight days in January. Following a 2-1/2 week vacation and preceding...the end of my job...it will go quickly and should be easy.

3. I'm moving home at Christmas; so I'll be packing a bag to come back out here in January. This lends to the notion that I'm really quitting in December. Rather than taking a trip home for Christmas before coming back to work, I'll be moving home for Christmas and taking a trip back out here for work. See the difference?

One of my weeks at Christmas is unpaid time off, but the rest is vacation. So I'll be paid for my last 3 weeks here, but only working half of it. Cool, right? I think so.

Then I'm back in the good old Northwest for a month. I'm not going to work, either. For a whole month. I'm pretty excited about it. But I hope I don't go crazy. I don't think I will. I should have plenty to keep me busy. Between catching up with friends and family, getting rid of as much of my stuff as I can part with (it's tough to be a nomad and a packrat at the same time - not practical), and preparing to move to South Korea, I shouldn't get bored.

That's right, I said I'm moving to South Korea. Seoul, to be specific. I'm hoping to go in mid-February, right after the Lunar New Year. This has led to all kinds of ideas for a new blog name. Here are my favorites:

"Life through my eyes: your window into Seoul"

"For those about to ROK,** we Seoul-ute you."

Too cheesy? Any other ideas?

I'm sure that some of you are wondering what happened to my dreams of becoming a US diplomat. Oh, they're still firmly in place. But they're also still dreams and I have to have a backup plan. To be honest, I'm not very optimistic about the exam I took last month. I'll find out how I did sometime over the next few weeks, but I'm not holding my breath (mostly because that would be stupid - holding one's breath for a few weeks could not end well).

However, if I do pass, I will be invited to take the oral assessment. I could take that in DC in December and I would find out at the end of the day how I did.

Were I to pass the written exam and pass the oral assessment with a high score, there would be a good chance of getting hired within the next few months. In this case, I would not go to Korea. In any other case, it is off to Korea for me!

If anybody*** wants to come with me, let me know soon and we can probably be roommates and get jobs at the same school! All that is required is that you have a passport from an English-speaking country, a Bachelor's Degree in any major, and the ability/willingness to commit to a year.

Stay tuned for Chapter 2, in which I reveal details of my secret life as a rockstar.

*If you recognize that I actually have 13 weeks left, that means I gave 15-1/2 weeks notice! Wow! I'm a really nice person!

**ROK = Republic of Korea aka South Korea. All the cool kids use this abbreviation. Admittedly, the phrase doesn't make sense if you understand what ROK means, but I still think it's mildly clever...

***By "anybody," I don't really mean anybody. For example, if you randomly stumbled onto this blog and we've never met, this doesn't include you. Sorry.

Dude.

I am a slacker.

K, not really. Actually, I've been studying very hard. And working hard. So, yeah.

I have definitely come to the conclusion that I work too hard. Maybe I should stop working altogether. I mean, technically, I work from 5:00 to 19:30 (that's 5:00 am to 7:30 pm for those of you not in the military) every day. Sure, I'm generally sleeping for the first 90 minutes of every shift (I admit - this part of the arrangement is pretty good), but still - it's a long day. After I get the kids off to school in the morning, I typically veg (aka check email and look for a job in which I don't have to work so much)* for about an hour, then go to the gym and work out, then come home, shower, and speed-work** Frequently, I work an hour or two past the time that I am technically off. What am I doing? That's a good question. I often wonder that myself. It's amazing the amount of time that errands and kids' activities (football, guitar, soccer, and swimming - to be specific) can consume. So, yeah. I'm going to go play the lottery and win it big. Then quit my job.

Yeah, no.

I can't.

Part of my problem is that I committed to stay with my job until the end of the school year. There is a clause in my contract that allows me to give eight weeks notice and quit early, but frankly, unless there is a serious problem (more serious than me just being ready to move on), I'm not comfortable quitting early. I made a commitment. That's a big deal to me. I need to have a pretty dang good reason to leave early.***

Also, I've been seriously studying for about 9 months in order to take the FSOT. "What's the FSOT?" you ask. Well, it stands for the Foreign Service Officer Test - the first step in the process to becoming a US diplomat - and it deserves its own separate post.

But I don't have the time right now.

So let me just say that I took the test last Saturday and I think I did okay. Maybe better than okay, maybe worse. It's hard to say. About 45% of me thinks I passed, and 55% of me thinks I failed.**** Now I get to wait 3 months to find out what State thinks.

The idea here is to become a US diplomat and work abroad (a different country every 2-3 years - yahoooooooo!) in a US Embassy or Consulate. But in the event that I fail the test, I must wait a year before I may attempt it again. Consequently, I have decided that in the event that I discover that I have, in fact, failed the test, I shall secure a postion teaching English in South Korea for a year (because trying to get a job teaching English in North Korea would just be silly...).

So, here I am.

If I pass this test, I take the Oral Assessment in December. If I pass that, the odds are fairly decent that I will be hired in the next several months. So at this point, it's not really a good idea for me to commit to a year at another job anyway. If I take a job teaching English in Korea (that's South Korea - not North...), it will require a one-year commitment.

Rumor has it that test results may be out in as little as 6 weeks. I'm crossing my fingers. And you can rest assured that, no matter how negligent I have been in matters related to my blog, if I find out that I have passed the FSOT, you (my family, friends, and society in general) will be the first to know. Ah, yes. I shall shout it from the rooftops (in other words - post it from my blogspot).

But I'm taking off tomorrow afternoon for Christin's wedding this weekend. So for now, I've got to pack. And finish up some work. It's almost more work to take a day off, than it is to work. Rather annoying, really. Just one more reason I should quit working. And take a cue from the cricket. I mean, he had so much fun playing music while the ant was working the whole time - and it all payed off in the end, right? So why not?

*This is only partly true. I'm thinking of spending a year teaching English in Korea, so I surf some Korean ESL job boards and blogs of ESL teachers in Korea - I'm not looking for another job in the US. Hey - I surf. That's cool. Never thought of myself as the surfer-type.
**Kind of like speed-walking, only completely different. Basically, I run around frantically, trying to get everything done. I think that sometimes I look like a chicken with its head cut off, and thus, scare the kids.
***For example, receiving an invitation to go to Washington(DC - not the state) and join the Foreign Service.
****Sure, these aren't great percentages - but statistically speaking, I only had a 15% chance of passing, anyway. So, if 45% of me thinks I passed, that's still an accomplishment. And I can always take the test again next year.