Why I am in Korea

An astute reader of this internet web log made a comment that I am in Korea and not somewhere else, such as in Morocco or the United States. I was going to try to think of an amusing story involving me taking the wrong plane and then faking as some other teacher that was suppose to be here. However, I'll try to be serious since this is a legitimate question and I don't want to discourage those yet.

The culmination of coming to Korea can't really be based on a quick decision or a single event, but rather an accumulation of events. It's kind of like the old board game, mouse trap, except it didn't take me as long to make the decision as it takes to set up all the pieces in that game. If you don't really care about the long process leading up to my decision, and you just want to know why Korea and not Morocco, then I'll make this like a choose your own adventure book, and you can skip down below to the *s.

I suppose the first inkling of my future can be attributed to my old dormitory freshmen roommate, Ryan. I remember that he had an online quiz for how well you knew him, and since I was always looking for ways to distract myself from my studying, I took the quiz. The only thing I remember from it was a question about what Ryan wanted for his future. It was a multiple choice quiz and I chose one of the ambitious answers like being President or beating the Super Mario Bros video game in under five minutes. However, I was surprised to learn that my friend's dream was to graduate from college, start a career, find a wife and have 2.2 children. He could have at least picked the President option. (It's a tough one to get if you don't happen to have a father that can buy you a professional baseball team, but I feel I still have a chance with Christmas coming soon).

I have since learned that apparently a lot of people aren't interested in being President, and they want the career and family type of life and I think that's great. As long as you're not doing something that is harming someone or something else, and it's going to make you happy, then I say go for it. I just feel like there would be something missing if I chose this path. The world is such a huge place, and I practically won the lottery being born into the family and place I was. What is it like for the rest of those in the world who weren't as lucky as I was? Sure, I can read about it or see it on television, but I feel like both of those mediums are so normally intertwined with fictional situations that one might psychologically lose or forget the power and truth that reality is. I think the best way to learn about something isn't to read or watch it, but to do and experience it. It probably will be as bad as what I've read in the newspapers or seen on the news. If that's the case, then I would like to do what I can to change it for the better. Is that naive and arrogant? Possibly. However, after 23 years of doing nothing but taking from the world, I feel a mix of guilt and responsibility. I want some sort of meaning in my life. I'm not sure what's going to happen, but I'm never going to waste any opportunity I ever have here. After finishing Ryan's quiz, I realized that even though I wanted to do something a little different from Ryan's future plans, I hadn't thought of how I would exactly do this. After a couple of minutes of thinking, I decided the Peace Corps would fit into what I wanted.

The next person to blame for me being in Korea would probably be the professor I performed research with, Dr. Sibley. She knew about my plans to join the Peace Corps, and see the world and make a difference, but she kept suggesting that I look into some scholarship called the Bonderman Travel Fellowship. So I humored her and looked into it. It turns out the scholarship is for $20,000 and the rules are you have to travel for at least eight months and you have to go to six or more countries in two regions of the world. The other rule is no participating in any type of formal school or research work while you are traveling. Not too shabby of a deal. I had traveled for a month with my friend Jeff to Greece and Spain and I had a great time. It was an unexpected surprise to learn how different and wonderful the world and other cultures can be. I don't think I'll ever forget being in Madrid when gay marriages were legalized, nor will I forget being in a small gypsy cave and intimately listening to a passionate flamenco guitarist. That was only a couple of weeks of traveling and the scholarship was for at least eight months! So I wrote an essay and applied for the fellowship. I was named a finalist and had an interview. I made a few costly mistakes then, such as not answering a question of "what do I have a burning desire to do while traveling" very well (should have mentioned the flamenco concert and some other humanist experiences). I think I really blew it when I was asked about the Peace Corps. I had been already applied to the Peace Corps and was nominated to be a biology teacher in Morocco. The panel of interviewers asked me if this was what I wanted to do and I said yes. Neither they nor I could see that I was wrong at the time since the proof would only come in the future. I was rejected and it hurt. It was especially annoying to see that our student body president had been chosen, which is a position nearly everyone except for the student body officers see as an unfunny joke. We could elect no one and the same amount of nothing would get done, except for maybe we'd miss a music concert in the basketball arena where sound echoes off the walls like a ping pong ball (and it's not like Seattle is short on concerts or venues). So I am a bit jealous, but I guess I am of anyone who can work smarter and not harder. Anyhoo, not getting the scholarship wasn't so bad because I had the Peace Corps and Morocco to fall back on, right?

**********

The Peace Corps told me that I was nominated for a biology teaching position in Morocco and that it would start on the first of September. I was told this back in February. I got all of my and medical checks and paperwork in during April and I e-mailed the Peace Corps recruiter with some questions about my departure date. I received an enfeebling e-mail that I was only nominated for my position, and until I received an invitation, I shouldn't assume that I would be going to Morocco nor even Africa. Well, great. I wish I would have known that before my Bonderman interview.

It was getting closer to September and I still hadn't heard back from them about this position. I started looking into alternatives. I could do Americorps or just go wherever else the Peace Corps would send me. However, another alternative sprang up from my ladyfriend and from the visiting professor at the lab, Ho Gun. Angie had been sent an e-mail with information about teaching English in Korea. Ho Gun is from Korea and he told me quite a bit about it. I did some research on the internet about it, and found that to be a teacher I didn't need teaching experience and I only needed a bachelors degree, which didn't even have to be in anything related to teaching nor English. The school pays for round trip airfare as well as for my rent at a furnished apartment and I would be getting paid 2,000,000 won a month as well as getting 50/50 medical insurance. If the prospect of being a millionaire didn't ensnare me, the possibility that I could save at least 1,000,000 won a month ($1,000) did. What wouldn't go into my mouth would go into my pocket. I could save up and have my own Bonderman trip the next year. Sure, the money isn't a whole lot more than I could have saved up while continuing to live in Seattle, but that was the other great facet of the Korea idea; I could experience a whole new culture and way of life at the same time. Just like being in the Peace Corps, I could be immersed in a world I knew nothing about in terms of culture and also, language. Being in Korea could also be a bit more challenging, too, because I wouldn't have the Peace Corps holding my hand.

Two weeks before September, I received a call from the Peace Corps extending an invitation to go to Morocco and teach biology. They told me that I would need to confirm by the end of the weekend. They also told me that by joining the Peace Corps I would have a designated site that I wouldn't be allowed to leave. This meant that if there were no electricity or internet there then I would have to be content with writing letters. Can you imagine how many letters I would have had to have written so that all of my loyal readers could have stayed up to date on the latest happenings of yours truly. This bothered me a little. I met the greatest girl in the world while at school and it would have been difficult to be so out of touch for two and half years. It also really bothered me that I would have so many restrictions placed on me by the Peace Corps. Hand holding, more like holding back. These restraints combined with the unhappy stories I have heard from my ladyfriend's sister, who was in the Peace Corps, and also from one of my high school friends in the Peace Corps now, really discouraged me. At the same time, Ho Gun and my ladyfriend were very encouraging towards me going to Korea. I called back the Peace Corps at the end of that weekend and we had a conversation where I told them to go to hell. Well, that's not exactly what happened because it's not really a conversation when you just leave a message on the voice mail.

I spent about a month doing a lot of research and having a lot of interviews until I found a school that seemed like a good fit. That is how I ended up here in Korea. To reiterate my nonexistent thesis statement, I felt the Peace Corps was rather restrictive and also very demanding that I make a quick and big decision for what I was going to do for the next two and half years. That's a long time, especially in dog years for a UW Husky like myself. If I had received the Bonderman scholarship then I would have chosen it over the Peace Corps without a doubt. Why not spend an extra year saving up so I can have that trip? At the same time, I get to challenge myself and experience a new culture without any of the limitations that I would have had in the Peace Corps. I also get to talk to my ladyfriend so I really have no excuse for ever not being happy here. The Peace Corps would have been nice because I could have tried to make a difference. However, I'm in a poor area of Korea and have a chance to make a difference here as well. By traveling next year, I'll be able to get an idea of what problems my abilities should best be applied to. I'll have plenty of time afterwards to try and make a difference.

Whew, that's a lot of words. I promise I'll sprinkle some pictures into the next post.