On Your Marks, Get Set…Go Korea!

Bye bye rainy London – I have booked my flight! I officially have 4 days to pack my life up, say my goodbyes, learn Korean and eat as many British sausages as possible.

Am I dreaming?

Little by little, this hazy teach-in-Korea idea is becoming more concrete and inescapable. First signing the contract, then applying for my E-2 visa at the Korean embassy, and now purchasing a one-way ticket to Seoul. At each step, a little voice in my head is saying “THIS IS IT”, although it’s not; I’m still in London and I still can’t clearly picture how my job, friends, apartment or general surroundings will come into existence as of next Wednesday. I feel as though I’m hurtling towards a blinding white cloud and holding my breath in anticipation of what will emerge on the other side.

I am in no way ready and haven’t even attempted packing yet, but I would quite like someone to present me with a magic button that whisks me forward in time to Wednesday morning so I don’t have to sit here helplessly fretting and waiting. Plus that way I could avoid making any packing decisions whatsoever, which as everyone knows are some of the most excrutiatingly difficult decisions you have to make in your life.

On the other hand, all these unknowns are exactly why I signed up to this, and not knowing what my day-to-day life will become as I set foot in Korea leaves the imagination free to envisage a plethora of outcomes. Which, believe me, changes hourly from carefree and venturesome to sad, stressed and alone.

I’m starting to receive farewell messages from friends and family, which although generally supportive, seem to have an undertone of morbid curiosity in watching me move gradually closer to this peculiar life experiment I have volunteered myself for. Most go something along the lines of “Have a great time! I’m looking forward to hearing about how it turns out”, which is an acutely British way of saying “I think this is a ridiculous idea, and haven’t the foggiest why you’re doing it. But good luck?”.

It’s not all unknowns though, as the area I do know something about is of course my job.

Where will I be working?

I will be moving to a medium sized city in the center of Korea called Cheongju (종주) that has a population of about 700,000 people. It’s close enough to head to Seoul at the weekends (in an hour and a half apparently) but hopefully small enough to enable city escapes and not get swallowed in a sea of metropolis.

In the private industry in Korea, the hours you work are very much tied to what age group you teach. As children often attend private schools after being at public school all day, teaching children from elementary to middle school generally means working an afternoon/evening shift such as 2-10 pm. If you wish to teach adults, which is where I have the most experience, you will be doing a split shift in order to fit in English classes around their working day.

Having worked a split schedule in Peru for 11 months, I knew I never wanted to do this again – going to work twice a day, waking up early and finishing late are just not worth the 6 hour break in the sunshine, in my opinon. I’m much more of a morning person so I’ve opted for a kindergarten/elementary hagwon, with hours from 10-6:30 pm.

Now hagwons in general have a bad reputation online, but kindergarten/elementary seem to be in the OH MY GOD THEY ARE THE WORST category. It is seen as essentially babysitting and being a full-time entertainment clown (as opposed to the rest of the clowns who are busy giving everyone the shivers). Looking on the bright side, I think they will at the very least be cute, if not a little snotty, but having students who get enthusiastic about everything – if pitched right – will make a change from teaching apathetic adults in Peru. Stay tuned to hear how it really turns out.

Life Rotation

I have been emailing the teacher I will be replacing a lot since passing the interview, which has been a useful insight as I will most likely be taking over her entire life. This includes – but is not limited to – her schedule, her classes, her apartment, her kitchen blender and her pet rabbit. I’m also hoping to steal all of her friends as I only know one person in the whole of Korea at this moment in time. And they don’t live in Cheongju.

Cyril – my future rabbit.

The End of Meta Posts

Along with my long-overdue transition to Korea comes the joyful fact that my blog posts will soon actually be about life in Korea, and not about speculating on life in Korea from outside of Korea. I may also be able to stop using the word hagwon so much, as a result of finding more interesting things to discuss and thereby stop confusing everyone in my family who’s trying to make sense of this blog.

Writing this post has been a fantastic opportunity to further procrastinate on packing, but I really should do some real live mother flippin’ packing right now.

Starting now….Now.