Here I am!

(Slightly delayed because I just got internet service today!)

Yesterday I arrived by airplane at 5:22am. By the time I got my baggage and made it through customs, it was almost 6:30. It was not too hard to figure out. We’ve all been to airports before and it’s all pretty much the same but there were about 3 million forms to fill out and I had to wait in line for someone to take my temperature. (Swine flu ;>) By the third form, I had the process down and was able to slide right on through without any hassle. The baggage checker did look at me a little funny when he saw my two purses and four suitcases but forgave me instantly when he saw that I will be here for a year to teach English. Teachers hold a very high status here and I find most people are impressed when I tell them why I am here. Thank goodness, I could use a little grace.

Thanks to Cyrus, my recruiter, who sent Mr. Youngmu Noh as an escort, I was able to get on the correct bus to Jeonju. The bus ride was almost four hours but the bus was luxurious! The seats were better than the airplanes and reclined all the way back for riders to sleep-Heaven. I tried to stay awake but it was hard. We stopped at a rest stop that was quite well endowed with a mini-mart, restaurant and food carts in addition to restrooms. There were quite a bit of signs that had English “subtitles,” so it was easy enough to find what I wanted which was simply (mul) water. So, aside from my bus ticket, that was my first purchase and I did it all by myself!-whoopee.

When the bus brought us to the last stop in Jeonju City I did not see any obvious indication that my escort was there and I had a brief moment of panic until I found out that my phone does work here! I can’t seem to call outside of the country but I can call local numbers-hunh? So, I called YoungHee Lee, a manager from the school, and found he was sitting in his car. (Apparently he had a long night and found it difficult to be up at 10:00am, hee hee.) When he saw my luggage he almost fell over. I apologized over and over as we tried to fit it all into the backseat of his small car but he just laughed and said “Well, you moved, right?” Ahh, such understanding.

He took me to a market around the corner from my apartment and bought me the Korean version of Frosted Flakes, milk, orange juice, mul and toilet paper. Then, we visited the apartment, went over the details like mail and trash and went to lunch. We took another teacher from “Great Britain” and had a traditional meal of bibimbap, kimchi and a bunch of other things that I can’t pronounce or remember the names of. I know I’m going to have to develop a tolerance to spicy foods here. EVERYthing is spicy. Yikes, I was sweating and dripping snot out of my nose after only five minutes and I’m sure I made a great impression on my new co-worker but I seriously doubt Ian could tell given the stench of last night’s booze-fest coming off of him. Apparently, I have arrived in the middle of a holiday weekend.

Afterwards, I returned to my apartment to unpack and (hyusik) rest but I couldn’t sleep.
I spent most of the afternoon going back and forth to the market around the corner trying to make my apartment comfortable until finally the clerk commented that we “Engurish teachers” must be rich! I remembered references that in Asian cultures it is bad luck to brag and better to say that something is not good enough so the spirits will keep giving instead of believing that you have too much, so I just shrugged my shoulders and did the “so-so” wave with my hand. I don’t know if he understood but at least I can keep my good luck.

At about 7pm, Ian from Great Britain knocked on my door to see if I wanted to join him and some of the other teachers for a barbecue at the park. He was standing there armed with a soccer ball and (sool) alcohol. So European. At least half of that looked like fun but unfortunately by that time my brain had finally given in to the weakness of my body and I had already opened a beer in preparation for sleep. There’s no need to push it. I'm here for a year.

Well, if you don't already know by now, I am officially telling you. I am going to teach English in Korea for one year. Yes, Korea. So many people have asked me "Why?" and "How did you find out about it?" and such. Well, another bit of information... hold your breath.... I AM Korean. Actually, I'm American/Korean/Mexican/?????. What's with the question marks? Another tid-bit... I'm adopted. So, I don't know very much about my ethnic heritage. My adopted family is a mix of Mexican, Spanish, Irish, Pilipino and Chinese, so by general 1970's standards, I was a perfect fit for a young mixed couple looking to adopt a child. It was close enough for me, too, until I became a teenager and began to look so different from my siblings and parents.Usually, when people learn that I'm adopted the next question is "Did you ever want to find your birth-parents?" and the answer to that has changed somewhat over the years but has basically always been "Not really." Of course, when I was around 19 (and sometimes still today) I thought I might like to confirm my suspicions that mental illness was thick in my blood and when I was around 26 I started to wonder if I looked like my birth-mother. Still, the most prevalant and consistent concern for me was that I never had any real connection to or knowledge of my Korean heritage. It's easy to take for granted the fact that you belong to some culture by blood and, therefore, have lineage and ancestry and traditions. Of course, I've adopted those of my family but I have no link to the culture that contributed to my existence.A couple of years ago, my mom gave me some papers that she'd been saving in her safe deposit box that she recieved when they adopted me. There was very little information in there but I preened it for every tiny morsel of possible revelation. I learned that my birth-mother was pure Korean. She was a 19-year old college student at USC when she was pregnant with me and I was probably the product of a one-night stand. Or at least nothing serious because she made reference to the father as merely Hispanic (actually"Latin"-it was the 70's) and short. The paperwork seems to say that he does not even know I exist. I also learned that she was adopted as well.Trip out. I had no idea. As the information began to sink in and I sorted out how I felt about it, I realized that what I wanted from her I couldn't get because she was adopted too. She was also disconnected from her cultural heritage. So, I let it go and in place began dreaming of visiting and researching Korea.On a parallel path in my mind, I always wanted to spend a "Semester Abroad" or teach English for a year in some other country and really get to know it. But I used my twenties in other ways and was not organized enough to do something like take a year off of American life and ride the wind. I was otherwise occupied. I floated a lot but I didn't ride. Going back to school a couple of years ago was exhilirating, exhausting and incredibly fulfilling but I felt old at 30+ in a class full of kids who didn't know who Felix the Cat is. I had the persistent idea that I had to "catch-up" with other 30 year olds who had progressed much further than me in their financial and education aspects. I was so sure that I had "No time for nothing" as my grandmother used to say. It was a stress-producing perspective and it was all wrong. The instant I graduated and found I had more than enough time and nothing to do with it but look for a job, I realized that I had all the time in the world.While organizing my closet for the 100th time, I remembered my dream of teaching in another country. Pinnochio's song "I've got no strings, to hold me down..." rang in my head until I realized that it was true and I was fortunate. I could leave if I wanted. My only obligation is to pay bills for dinners I ate 5 years ago and I can do that from anywhere thanks to the internet. But who wants to leave their life when it's just starting a new path? Then, I realized that my path is where ever I look. If my plan is in sync with the universe, then it will reveal it's self easily and readily. I told myself that if I was going to take a year off from my career goals, it would have to be in Korea. And the next day, during my daily job search on-line, I found this ad on Craig's List:
Teach English in Korea for one year.