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Endings and BeginningsMar 16, 2009
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| March 16, 2009 Well, many things have been happening since I last wrote so I guess it is time for a brief update. First and foremost I would like to point out the obvious that I am in Korea for another year. If you did not know that, you do now. Any job that can offer greater pay, greater vacation time and fewer working hours must be worth it, we will see. It is located south of Seoul (check out the map) in a "small" town of Cheongju (625k people). There are +/- to moving to a new location so right now I am just working through all of those. Hopefully I will have a better sense of my surroundings in a couple months. More to come. After Christmas I began the last two months of my contract with SLP. With everything that comes to an end I could not believe how quickly the time has passed. I was able to develop some great friendships (that will hopefully continue) and was able to experience so many amazing things during this year. Half of me was ready for a change but not necessarily ready for a change back to America. There are many things you could chalk this decision up to like the bad economy, good benefits of new school, mostly relaxed environment in Korea and many more places/things to see. I can't say it was just one but as I was looking for opportunities in America (I really did) I never had a great feeling. I came here to get out of a rut and I have to make sure I want to come back to avoid getting into that rut again. I am sure I will know when that is, but I don't know yet. Maybe in 2015 it will come to me (get up off the floor mom, I am just kidding, I think). The last month at SLP I had the privilege of working with preschool kids. It was a great group of kids and they were so easy to work with. The toughest part was the play they had to perform as we practiced that every day and there were many adjustments but the kids did great. I have added some pictures of their costumes and of them singing some of their songs. I am hoping to have a video soon and if I can I will post some of that too. It is just so amazing to think that this is 7-8 year old kids in their second language. The last day of preschool was February 25th and it was a little bittersweet. I hated working 12 hour days for 4 weeks but I really enjoyed the opportunity to spend time with those kids. Many more positives than negatives that is for sure. From here the realization that our first year was ending really sank in. We had two more days of normal classes but at the same time had to pack and get ready for the move to Cheongju. Because of my schedule I ended on Friday the 27th and started Cheongju March 2nd. We were able to get another night of Noraebang and a good time out but had to deal with another realization that our base of friends in Korea would get dramatically smaller. You spend so much time with a group of people they become your support and sanity check. It was great to get to know so many diverse people and I truly believe I am a better person for having them near me. On occasion I still get a little choked up thinking that they are gone but I know life will hand them new challenges. It is hard to not be a little selfish. I have other great friends here until June and September and then I have great Korean friends here for as long as they will have me. I also believe that I will make great friends here but it takes time to build that comfort level, especially as an introvert. Now, my new school. As I mentioned my new school offered many things by way of benefits that was hard to pass up. A lot of vacation time and higher pay will make it worth while to stay for at least another year. I will get to travel (financial considerations assumed) and I will be coming home for Christmas for a couple weeks. The hours are nice also as I get there at 8:30 and can leave around 4:00 everyday. Plenty of early evening to do something productive. The teachers are very nice but as I mentioned earlier it will take some time to build the same comfort level I had with the other team. I know it will come, it will just take some time. I was just looking at a calendar realizing that I am already into week 3 of the new school year. I know that time with continue to go by fast and I just hope to keep it slow enough that I can continue growth and development. I will continue to post pictures to my www.facebook.com site so please check that out on occasion. Thank you so much for your continued thoughts and prayers. It has made my time in a country with many vegetables, seafood and rice easier to survive (also Outback and Krazy Burger has helped). Please drop me a line sometime and let me know how you all are doing. I appreciate the nice notes and periodic updates. Pictures and/or videos are also welcome. Take care. Talk soon~~ Scott |
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