Hello -
It is officially the end of my first year abroad. I am sitting in Narito, Japan awaiting my next flight. The last thing that I can thank my boss for is buying me a flight that included a 16 hour layover in Japan followed by a 6 hour layover in Chicago. It really is a fitting end to this past year. This year has been a year full of change and I have had so many experiences. It is an odd feeling to leave behind my current life (my miniature apartment, friends, students, and a girlfriend) and return to what now seems a previous life. This past weekend has been a flood of emotions and stress. I first was told that I could stay in my apartment until I left for home and then on Tuesday I was told that I had to be out on Thursday. I had to rush and pack my belongings, it is amazing how much can be fit in such a small space. I finished my last day at work and that was also quite difficult. My students seemed to be genuinely sad that I was leaving and that made me feel as though I had made an impact on them. I'm not sure how much of this impact was due to my teaching skills or lack-there-of, but I think that my students will all remember my time with them. I had only one student over year that seemed to genuinely dislike me and I consider that to be a positive. The boy I am referring to is a middle school aged boy and he actually wanted to fight me one two occasions. Thankfully nothing happened but I would like to think I would have come out victorious if we would have came to fisticuffs. This boy was about 4'10 and probably weighed 100 pounds. Regardless, I had a couple of criers and the rest of the students asked me when I was coming back and asked me to stay. My students were really great. I can't imagine what it's like to be a parent because these kids drove me nuts many times, but I did love them and am glad that I had the opportunity to spend a year with them. I hope and pray that I will never have to deal with another human being like my former boss. I have been lied to and taken advantage of repeatedly over the past year and that really made the year difficult. I found out that my boss was stealing money from the former English teacher when he said he was depositing it into a pension account and when the teacher tried to cash out he found out that the school is currently registered as out of business with the government. He was basically stealing money out of all of my checks as well and when I asked to see tax documents my checks magically rose by about $100. I tried very hard to not let him get to me but it gets very difficult when worrying about pay every week and then having to listen to lies. I guess that I'm probably coming out of the whole thing a better person and I think my patience has grown to insane levels but he nearly single-handedly ruined my entire experience. Other than that man I can say that my year here has been a great experience. My Koreans co-workers were great and I had the opportunity to get to know quite a few of them because of my boss. (I guess that could be one way of looking at it, but the Korean teachers would quit quite often) I got to meet with several of my favorites during my last few days and it was fun to reconnect with them. They got it even worse than me and when talking to them it is hard to explain. There are currently about 5 teachers who are waiting on their money from the school and some have been waiting roughly 3 months. I guess you could say that I worked for a crook. Who knows, I just am very happy that I got (almost) everything that I was promised and lived to tell about it. My boss and his wife also said that they wanted me to come back and they said very nice things about me so I feel like I didn't lose my integrity or do anything that I will come to regret. I have seen so many amazing places in Korea and it really is a beautiful place. I traveled to and through quite a bit of places and the mountains and oceans are something I will never forget. I have also gotten the chance to meet so many interesting people and I truly believe that you can make life-long friends with an incredibly low level of verbal communication. Many of my Korean friends can speak English very well but perhaps the most fun I had with friends has been the last few months. I have been dating a girl named HyunHee and I got to know several of her friends very well. There were 3 main friends named Jae Jeong, Song Min, and Su Won and they really made my last few months great. They barely spoke English but they could say "Kevin" perfectly. I have not laughed so hard in my entire life. We would go out for dinner and the whole time I would hear "Kevin!" and then they would try to communicate via hand motions and random English vocabulary. Following every attempt they would add "Okay?" with a thumbs up. Many times I got the main idea of what they were asking but then it was my turn to try to communite. I know a handful of Korean words but my Korean level is roughly the same as their English level. I would imagine that I had to look similar to how they looked to me but I will not forget these friends. They would call HyunHee and ask if I was with her and tell her that she could go home if she would drop me off with them. They also asked me repeatedly when I was going to come back and eventually they taught me 'brother' in Korean and when I would see them they told me to call them brother. (Hyung) Jae Jong recently opened his own real-estate company and a Korean tradition is to have a big pig head surrounded by fruit. People put the equivalent of $10 bills into the holes in the pig's head (nose, mouth, ears), followed by 3 bows, and then drinking a glass of rice wine. This is supposed to be good luck for the new business (I have never seen such a supersticious culture, it seems that everything means something and they know if it is good or bad. Dreams, baby actions, etc) The weirdest thing about this whole ritual is the food that follows. I never have considered myself to have a strong stomach but this year has changed that. I have eaten so many things that I never thought I would and now I will try almost anything. I did, however, meet my match at his office. There were cuts of meat near the table and I took one. I felt something hard (that used to be my excuse to not eat something when I was younger) and I had to spit it out. The meat was different colors and textures and I then asked what it was. It turned out that the meat we were eating was a compressed pig head. I asked several people because I didn't believe it at first but everyone told me the same thing. They take a pig head (brains, bones, etc, the eyes were the only thing disputed) and they smash it somehow until it's flat and then they cut it up. I struggled to eat this but the host continued to ask if it was good and urged me to eat. This was very hard to keep down but thankfully I had a cold and I could tell him that I wasn't feeling well. I have been staying in hotels the past week and when I say a hotel it is not quite what you think. The Korean culture seems to accomodate cheating. I don't know if it's accepted but it's certainly tolerated. There are many "love motels" in every city. They are the kind of place where you can rent by the hour or by the night at a reasonable price but they are eveywhere. These motels are actually quite clean and nice. All 3 of my hotels have had huge flat screen tv's, refrigerators, and big beds. The nicest one was amazing and worth describing. The first night out of my apartment I was in a hurry and had to stay close because of all my luggage. There are only a few of these hotels in my town so my choices, as well as my time, were limited. I paid a/b $50 for the night and it was totally worth it. This room had a computer, huge tv at the food of the bed, (the following show why it is known as a 'love motel') a see-through shower and bathroom door, and mirrors throughout. WHen I say throughout I mean the walls and also the ceiling. Ha, I had the best shower in a year in that motel and enjoyed the luxury even if it was only for a night. I have no regrets and I am looking forward to being home with the next few days. This year has been incredibly happy and also sad. I am coming home to a beautiful neice that I can't wait to see but I am also coming home minus half of my Grandparents. It was inredibly hard to be away from my family during the deaths of my grandparents and I think that will be my only regret but I know that both of them were very proud of me and they told me many times. I have so many different emotions sitting here in Narito, many positives and also negatives, but I want to thank all of you for keeping up with me and letting me know you care. 2009-2010 has been an incredible year of growth as well as change and I cannot wait to see what the future has in store.
See you all soon,
Kevin
