In-between

Today we begin orientation! We traveled by bus yesterday to a different city (Jeonju, say "jun-joo"), and are reveling in our dormitory accommodations - no roommates! Hosteling is great, but we're happy to have a room to ourselves. PDA in Korea is a no-no, including all those comforting/innocent touches that have become so automatic, and Adam and I are having a hard time remembering. In fact, that may just be the  hardest thing in this country so far; if that's the hardest thing, you can tell we've got it pretty good here. :D

Kissing (lips, forehead, hands, anything) is OUT. Sweetly caressing faces and rubbing backs and snuggling up next to each other is all OUT as well. The only semi-acceptable form of opposite-sex touching is holding hands/linking arms while walking. 

I read a couple forums on this topic, and was surprised at the number of people who expressed relief over Korea's reserve. It's probably mostly because I'm a hug-crazy, touchy-feely person in the first place, but PDA has never bothered me. "Aww, look - people who love each other!" is my typical response. But the majority of Koreans, especially older ones, feel intense embarrassment or shock when they encounter PDA. One thing Korean soap operas are fairly famous for is having terrible kissing scenes (read: chaste, uninvolved), and very, very few "bedroom scenes."

That being said, same-sex touching is very common in both genders and at all ages. Men hold hands, girls are very huggy, boys sit in each other's laps, etc. The complete absence of homophobia is a relief to ME. In the USA (well, anywhere) it makes my blood boil, but here it doesn't even exist. 

Right! All that to say... Today we begin orientation! :) The dormitory doesn't have wi-fi, so I won't be posting as many photos because it's harder to upload them (no Instagram, boo). Also, we've got a pretty full schedule, and I think/hope it's all going to be a lot of fun. I'll let ya know.

Both Adam and I are impatient for the day when we'll be in our own apartment, though. Where we can unpack for real. Where we can start our daily lives and explore our neighborhood. Where our life will center for the next year+.

Soon! Soon, we tell each other. Only one more week...  

In the meantime, meet TACOCAT, housemate of my brother Dan and his wife Lily:

Drinking from my water glass

Attack mode

In-bread cat

Beginning again

We're here.

We're here, in GwangJu, South Korea, and we are very. satisfyingly. happy. In fact, happiness has been the surprising and enjoyable emotion dominating over the past several days.

It's not surprising because we don't have reasons for it (we have plenty!), but more because we've been stressed and busy and traveling and paperworking for so many months,and now that it's all over we're feeling a rush of all kinds of good  feelings from the relief of stopping. Everything went pretty much according to plan - not just the flight either (though, business class was an awesome surprise!), but the entire journey from New Orleans to Georgia to Colorado to Chicago to New York to Detroit to HERE.

We keep turning to each other and saying things like, "I'm having so much fun! This year is going to be so much fun!" and "why do I have the feeling that I've been set loose in a playground that just happens to be called Korea?"

Here's a small list of some reasons why we're so darn happy right now:
1. Korea is a very safe country, internally.
2. We will have 2 full days off every week, on the weekend (like normal folk!)
3. We will be living and teaching in the same city where my friend Hyo Jeong lives.
4. Our jobs are going to be relatively easy, compared to what we've been doing, and what we did last time.
5. This time in Korea is a step in the direction of fulfilling one of my dreams: opening a hostel(s)
6. We are comfortable here, having visited before, and being familiar with how the country operates.
7. It's an adventure!


We still don't know where our apartment is, or where we'll be teaching, or what age group (update on that in about a week) - but we feel ebullient because up to this point, we've been given exactly what we hoped for, and that's pretty incredible. This jubilation will surely settle down once we have 9-to-5 schedules to follow, and rowdy students to wrangle and co-worker stresses to deal with, but for right now, we're just enjoying it.

How I feel today.

The. WHOLE. Story.

Months and months ago, I promised Kristen P. B. that I would explain why Adam and I moved to Korea in February of 2010.

Now, 7 months later, I find myself making the same promise to others to explain why we LEFT South Korea.

It's a long story. Naturally. :)

WHY WE MOVED TO KOREA:

1. To save money! We decided to be very fiscally responsible newly-weds and set up a nest egg for our retirement. The goal : $20,000 to be invested and left untouched for the duration of our working lives. Two years in Korea, teaching English and living like kings, and we would have easily reached this goal. Cost of living is extremely low, and paychecks are about the same as American teachers, which makes for lots of savings.

2. To live near one of my dear friends and meet her son (my "nephew"). I was thrilled to visit her twice in our 4 months there, though this was definitely not enough for me.

3. To travel!

4. To have adventures.


WHY WE LEFT KOREA IN A BIG HURRY :

1. The couple who hired us (long story there, which I will graciously omit) quit/were fired the week before we arrived. We didn't learn of this until we arrived and found that nothing was quite as we were expecting.

2. Our visas were fraudulent. This is obviously the biggie, though there were many people in Korea who assured us that it really wasn't something to worry about, as there is not, at this point in time, sufficient legislation in place for private Korean schools to obtain English teachers legally. Apparently, the government turns a blind eye in return for the education of it's populace.  Regardless of how safe we actually were, it was terribly stressful for us throughout our stay. I mean, OUR VISAS WERE FRAUDULENT. Adam's visa was the correct type, but it specified that he was working in a city 3.5 hours away. My visa didn't even permit me to have a job! It was a "spouse" visa that allowed me to be in Korea as long as Adam was. Ooof.

3. The school was never able to pay us on time. Granted, they weren't usually more than a week late, but considering that we only had 7 students and FOUR of them were children of board members, we were pretty sure the school was struggling financially. The biggest indicator of this was that our receptionist, the only other worker at the school - after the replacement principal quit - informed us that she hadn't been paid in 4 months.

Aaand there was a lot of other messy stuff about embezzlement and blackmail - none of which had to do with us - that our school was dealing with. (Dang it, "with which our school was dealing with" just sounds ridiculous, so you Grammar Nazis will just have to bite your lips and struggle past it. I'm not changing that sentence.)

In retrospect of course, it sounds like a crazy, hilarious adventure - and it was! At the time, we were frequently stressed, exhausted and kinda lonely (together), so it was a little more difficult to appreciate the humor in the situation.

We did, however, live like total kings for the brief period we were there. We spared no expense in getting whatever we needed, liked or craved. It was un-thrifty, indulgent and possibly necessary for our sanity. :) I went to the sauna when I was cold, Adam spent hours in coffee shops writing, we got internet for our apartment even though we didn't absolutely need it, and we spent many a happy evening stuffing our faces with a comforting meal at Pizza Hut.

I think the biggest indulgence of our stay was the bed-softener pad we got for our bed. We knew at the point that we might or might not be staying in Korea after the semester ended. It cost a lot. We wouldn't be bringing it back to the States with us.         We got it anyway.

This was our bed before:

A brick.

  Or maybe this:

A big-a** rock.

Needless to say, we spent three months tossing and turning and waking up tired.

THIS was our bed AFTER the pad:

A really soft and downy chick.

The fluffiest bunny you have ever seen.

The most comfortable-looking clouds google images could provide.

It was very possibly due to the psychology of the situation, but after that, we slept like (very tired, un-colic-y) babies.

We left the sleeping pad in care of my friend, who I hope sleeps just as peacefully as we did with the Magic Sleeping Pad. Heaven knows she needs the rest more than Adam and I did, with a toddler and another little boy on the way! I kinda miss it now, though.

Anyways. I feel like I got a little side-tracked...