Day 295 in South Korea: It's the little things

Soo much has been going on lately. It's been a roller coaster of emotions, from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. The Korean test is looming ever closer and my motivation is slipping away slowly but surely. But as of today, things are SO MUCH BETTER.


In January, as you know, I found out that I would be losing my job. Initially we thought it was because GEPIK (the organization in charge of the English program in the province I live in) had decided that our school did not need a foreign teacher anymore. Then the rumors came. GEPIK was cutting hundreds of jobs, GEPIK was cutting out all Native English Teachers (NETs), we were all going to have leave, blah blah blah. Naturally, I was stressed. I unexpectedly fell head-over-heels in love with Korea and I'm not ready to leave. Then came the facts: if your contract ended between May 25th and August 31st, you were not going to be allowed to renew. Schools were not going to be allowed to hire any NETs between those times. This was the worst news possible. As soon as that letter was written, here were my three options: stay in Korea, find a job in a private school *shudder* (you have no idea what atrocities can happen in those schools); finish my contract in June, go home for two months and come back after GEPIK (hopefully) hired teachers again in September; or go home for good. To make things worse, I was informed of a very tempting possible job back home that would have been perfect for me. An absolute nightmare.

Right around the time all of this was happening, I had two interviews. The first interview, for an elementary school north of Seoul, would have been excellent, but that school fell pray to the giant death scythe that is the budget cuts in Gyeonggi province. However, the same day that I found out about the other elementary school's misfortunes, I found out about a FANTASTIC job opening in a very wealthy suburb south of Seoul. It almost seemed too good to be true: the location was incredible, the students' English level was high, and the contract date started the same day as my contract here ended. The big question: would they also be a victim of the budget cuts?

I went for the interview on Saturday and arrived 30 minutes late. Mortified, I called the coordinating teacher, found out that I had gotten off at the wrong stop and frantically tried to find a cab. Thankfully, they were amazing and very understanding. The more I found out about this job, the more I wanted it. Best news of all: they're funded by city hall, NOT GEPIK, so their funding is (hopefully) safe! I asked about Maestro (after noticing the chew marks on my hand) and he wouldn't be a problem, which made me feel so much better. We had a wonderful conversation and one of the teachers walked back to the (correct) station with me. Everyone was very easy to talk to, spoke incredible English and was thankfully quite impressed with my resume.

Then the wait began.

Even though it was the weekend, I obsessively checked my email all weekend long, hoping that they would be so excited to hire me that they would let me know immediately. Nada. Zilch. Bupkis.

So I studied, did laundry, blah blah blah.

Monday morning came, had more problems with my dinosaur of a computer, but still checked every few minutes on a different computer. About 9:30, this email arrived : 좋은 소식 있어요!!! "I have good news!" 아싸!!!!!!

I'm incredibly nervous but SO excited about this job. It's going to be tough: right now, my Korean level is higher than most of my students' English level, but quite a few kids at my new school have studied overseas. As middle school students. Holy cow. I'll be working quite a bit more as well, but of course, I'll be making more money because of it. Best part is, I get to stay in Korea :-)

What is it about Korea that I love? I've been thinking about that a lot lately. Some friends of mine are leaving next month and are also struggling with the mere thought of leaving. Well, it's the little things.

Last week, I came to lunch visibly upset two days. One of the teachers took notice and offered me a place to stay if I needed one. Her husband said he would move in with his mother, her daughter would stay in her bed with her, and they'd let me have the 2nd bedroom. The best part was, she said most of this to me in English, completely blowing me out of the water! Likewise, I blew her out of the water when I responded in Korean ;-)

It's my students FINALLY understanding "Nice to see you!" instead of "Nice to meet you!"

It's my *amazing* co-teachers who put up with my mood swings, frustrations and occasional ineptitude and still manage to give me a glowing recommendation for job that most NETs would kill for.

It's my principal would said he wouldn't do any favors for the province board of education because they were taking away their NET.

It's my students seeing me in random places (the market, the area around our school, and the coffee shop I frequent) and ALWAYS being excited to see me.

It's hearing the same student ask me every Friday in class "Teacher, what's your concept today?" (referring to my clothes)

It's scaring the pants off of my new 1st grade students on April Fools' Day by telling that there would be ONLY English in class and having them "help" me pronounce a few words in Korean.

It's hearing that 19 students not only signed up for my after-school class but paid 25,000 won (about $25) to participate.

It's seeing Koreans faces light up when I'm able to communicate with them in their own language.

It's hearing my pujangnim (department director) that I've only known for about a month now tell me that she's also very, very happy for me.

It's knowing that I've been incredibly blessed to meet some of the people that I've met this year and I've made true lifelong friends.

It's when I tell kids that I'm from Kansas and their immediate thought it DOROTHY!!!!

Don't get me wrong, Korea is not perfect. But I refuse to focus on the negative. There are so many little things in this fantastic little country that all of the difficult times far outweigh the bad times.