I will go to Korea.

September 23, 2008

I’m headed to South Korea to teach English for a year at Yale Language School in Daegu. The first question you’re asking, I suppose, is: “How did this decision come about?”

Some of you reading this know that when I was in high school, I wanted to be on the staff of Sports Illustrated by the time I was 30. Others reading this know I moved to L.A. (Van Nuys, kinda sorta close enough) to chase my writing dream. And now here I am prepping to go to Korea for a year. Why? My incredibly vague, please-everyone-at-once political B.S. answer is, “a confluence of events.”

First and foremost is this: I’ve been alive for 457 months, and the only time I have left the comforts of the U.S. – and considering the growing unemployment rate in my new home, I use the word "comforts" loosely – was in June of 2006 for 10 kick-butt days in Germany for the World Cup.

I’ll break that down for you.

Alive for 457 months.

I’ve spent 456 2/3 months in one country.

So that’s a big part of it.

There are other reasons; when I say it’s a confluence of events, I’m not lying. I’ve thought about teaching. I’m deep in debt and this job will help me alleviate it. I know several people who’ve taken the plunge and love it. I want to step out of my comfort zone, but I want to do it reasonably this time instead of … well … okay, I’ll expound.

A year and a half ago I was in Colorado Springs, making enough money to spend for nights out and such, playing soccer, feeling secure with health insurance, putting money into a 401K … and feeling stuck. I caught myself reminiscing of my immediate post-college days in D.C., when I was hungry and seeking a full-time job, living in a big city, enjoying the little things like having enough cash for a Five Guys burger. There’s a certain rush to living day-to-day, not knowing exactly what’s in store, but enjoying the immediacy of the chase, knowing other people are in the same boat as you. So it was last summer when I decided to leave the Colorado Springs Gazette and move to L.A. to pursue my writing dream.

I’ll spare you the details and offer a bit of advice. If you want to move somewhere, it would be nice to already have a job lined up. I’ve coached soccer to 3-year-olds. I’ve called people on behalf of nonprofit charities. I’ve tutored toward the SAT. I’ve put up solar paneling for 8 bucks an hour. I’ve woken up at 4:45 a.m. to report to a manual labor temp agency, hoping for a $64 payday, only to be told, sorry, we have no work for you today. I’ve applied to 20 office assistant jobs in one day. I’ve served as a law clerk, which was a blast until I was laid off.

The day I lost my job, I wondered what I would do for income. I wanted to stay in L.A., because my classes at Writers Boot Camp continue through April. (That, and I didn't want to leave L.A. without actually experiencing success as a writer.) But my mind kept going to teaching abroad; two former co-workers at The Gazette and another at the call center have all landed jobs in Korea, and I remembered that the latter person got certified with a place that guaranteed employment. Communicating with people daily, helping them learn, and immersing myself in another culture sounded enticing.

I found the Web site for Oxford Seminars, attended an informational meeting the next night (convenient, huh?), signed up (what’s another $900-plus toward the credit card debt, right?), took the course for three consecutive weekends in July, and loved it. The classes challenged me to create unique and fun methods to teach English. I did lesson plans, created games, cracked jokes, insulted the Lakers (my classmate asked for it, usually) and by the end of the class my peers voted me Most Entertaining and Most Charismatic Teacher. One classmate told me I was one of two people in the class she hoped would make a living out of teaching English as a Foreign Language, and that felt pretty good. And she was a woman! Yes, a woman complimented me. I think there was a lunar eclipse the next day.

So here I am, with about a month to go before I leave on my new adventure. Baldy, the world’s foremost cancer-fighting Corgi mix, will make the trip with me. So will many of my DVDs and a new laptop with my music collection that ranges from a-ha to ZZ Top. Later today I will send two signed contracts and the necessary paperwork to Korea, thus putting the serious portion of obtaining my work visa in motion.