wing dings wing dings wing dings wing dings wing dings wi
I lived
in Korea
for a few months. The place definitely
turned my head upside down and made me think in different ways. I met a
lot of different people, Westerners and Koreans. It was a fantastic social
experience but a horrid work one. I was teaching English to kids. A word
of warning to people who want to teach in Korea - contracts aren't worth
anything. My first school was a nightmare. I was the only teacher, English
or Korean, in a hog won of about forty kids. It was brutal. My boss tried
to take my passport for the year, he didn't give me pots and pans to cook
in, furniture or a phone. I had to beg for oil to heat my apartment and
the school, and plea for paper, pencils... The furnace broke in my apartment
and I had to survive in freezing weather. I was the only foreigner in the
town and sometimes when I looked in the mirror, I was surprised that I
wasn't Asian. I travelled around the country on my weekends off and that's
what saved me. I met two Canadians who helped get me out. Things
went from worse to a little better. At least I had heat! There were still
problems in the new school. The new bosses tried to move another person
into our tiny two bedroom apartment, changed the schedules every week and
finally they fired my roommate and left me with all the classes, no extra
pay. When I was offered the intern position I left to come home.
Korea wasn't
all bad. I learned so much from living overseas. I made some cool friends
and I saw many interesting sights and had ripping adventures.
This
is a little girl I met while I was walking around Puyo, the small
town where I worked for two months. I heard someone running behind me and
when I turned around to see who it was, the little girl stopped dead in
her tracks. She was so surprised to see me that I thought she was going
to start running the other way. After she recovered from her shock she
started talking to me and didn't stop! Of course I didn't understand a
word she said but I just nodded my head and agreed with her words anyway.
This is Hans,
that's his English name. He's only three years old (four in Korean age).
He was one of my students.
Simon
was a character. He always wanted attention.
Back, back baby