The Final Six Of Six

The Final Six Of Six:

The End Of An Unexpected Era of Teaching English Abroad

Cycling the north coast of Jeju Island, South Korea.

Prelude 

  I made the decision to travel to South Korea at the turn of 2003/2004. I was a year out of university and had been having a bit of a tough time getting the next steps of my life sorted out. After spending 5 years on a 4-year undergraduate degree, heavily mixed with an overdose of student leadership and social involvement experiences, not to mention the 13 previous years of perpetual studying, working, and life-building, I felt I had earned myself a bit of a pause; a sabbatical of sorts to take the chance to go out there and soak in that which is “life” – the REAL real world. I longed to travel, challenge myself in new ways, meet new people with new perspectives to add to my own, and perhaps get away from home for a while, if for nothing more than to simply appreciate it more. It seemed like I had already done so much in my accomplished, yet limited 23 year existence; I felt I needed a bigger fix.

Atop Cascade Mountain, Banff, Alberta, 2003.

   At first, this was satisfied by a summer escape in Banff, Alberta: traveling, hiking, adventuring, even working a decently-paid job as a hotel dishwasher. It was a blast but was ultimately short-lived, as I had my real future to get back to. My life-long best friend, surrogate brother and business partner Jeff and I had always dreamed of expanding our semi-flourishing part-time, self-employed careers as inspirational youth speakers, and when anyone ever asked “What are your future plans?”, that had always been the answer. We knew we had gifts to give, and as far as we were concerned, that was the only way to reach our intended potential. But after an incredible 7 year ride of sharing very helpful messages to benefit both others and ourselves, we began to outgrow our once contemporary audiences, and perhaps our advice. Eventually, both separately and together, we began to come to the hard realization that possibly we needed to recharge our own lives before we could validly continue to encourage others to make their dreams come true. After witnessing me struggle in a mismatched relationship and succumb to the pressures of working to get by in a less than satisfying but more than necessary job, Jeff decided to take his chance for adventure on his own by trying a teaching contract in Hong Kong. The money was good, the experience was great, he had a network of contacts to rely on there, and it was a new exciting path to pursue. Yet I was left thinking, “Well where is mine?”

  It took Jeff making his decision, to give me the courage to make my own. It started with a short-term management position at a summer camp for youth with diabetes in California, followed by a 1-year contract teaching English in South Korea starting in the fall of 2004. Why Korea? I asked myself this as well. There were a number of places offering ESL jobs to university grads and native speakers, Taiwan, Japan, South America, etc., and Korea had certainly never been on my list of places to visit before. Even Asia as a whole, having had a unique opportunity to visit Japan for a week in 2002 for an international student conference, it never really seemed like a place I’d particularly desire to be. But I had a few friends who had been to Korea to teach (and a few were still there at the time), and taking in to consideration the rate of pay, the cost of living, and the reported cultural and life experience it offered, it seemed like a valid choice. Anyway, the whole point of the journey was to put myself out of my comfort zone and challenge myself to survive in a way like never before. So, together with my friend “Punk”, who was looking at a similar adventure of his own around the same time and place, I made plans for a new digression in life, and before I knew it, here I was in the ROK.

Jon "Punk" Kincade, my original Korean 'partner in crime'.

Jeff's 2005 visit to Korea.

Contemporary Reflection

Delicious bbq galbi dinner in Gangnam, Seoul

  It is now September of 2011, and I find myself in my final six months of what are now six years of living in South Korea. Not consecutively, as I regularly point out in the never ending routine of self-introduction while living abroad. No, that 1-year contract was indeed a very full experience, and within the first few weeks of being here, I had found reason to rethink my whole life’s plans. I soon after started dating that "reason", who then unexpectedly to her, came back for a 2nd year to continue being with me, and then I returned the favour coming back for a 2nd year myself. But Gretchen and I managed to leave Korea together “for good”, in 2006. We had each come here to get away from our past somewhat, experience a new present, and through the fate-driven paths of the universe, found ourselves making a future together. We both wanted to save money and pay off debt, which we did (at least enough to put towards some traveling and still feel confident about managing finances at home in the future); we both wanted to travel, which we did (4 months backpacking/camping across South East Asia, the Mediterranean, and Europe); we had independently been searching for true love with dreams of a settling ideally in our home area of Nova Scotia, which we ultimately did (marrying our mutual university crushes on September 8, 2007, and bunkering down in Halifax for our new life ahead). Our 2 years we'd spent in Korea was quickly becoming like a dream – a fuzzy memory of our past, where everybody spoke a foreign language, going to the grocery store was a perpetual challenge, and every weekend was literally a new adventure. As it turned out, this fuzzy memory was to be just the introduction to our experience abroad.

The strikingly tall trees of Nami Island.

  We eventually ended up fulfilling the prophesied warnings, and the did what so many people before us said they never thought they would do but often all too easily did, and came back to Korea. It was 2008 and times were tough. The dream of living at back at home was not quite matching up with the reality we had found. I was very fortunate to have landed a great job, which was likely the beginning of a dynamic, interesting path forward, but at the time was still only at a very starting point of the ladder. Gretchen was still trying to find what was right for her, and unfortunately her leftover debt was what required money the most at immediately, and things were becoming increasingly more difficult for us both. Suddenly we had gone from a worry-free life of financial ease in Korea to a gloomy setting of struggle and uncertainty at home, with no immediate promise for relief. That’s when the seed started to sprout about the possibility of coming back to Korea, and it became apparent in the funniest of ways. 

Enjoying a USA road trip back in 2006.

  When we first left Korea in 2006, we were quite sick and tired of everything Korean. The language, the food, the culture, we had just simply had enough and yearned to return back to the “normal” way of life. But then during our backpacking travels abroad, taking the long way home, we started to meet some Koreans along the way and it was kind of cute for us (“Oh, we know that place, we used to live there!”). Once back at home in Nova Scotia, there were a few small restaurants around that had some simple Korean meals that I was familiar with eating every other day, and it became an exciting treat to indulge in. And then of course, having a rare conversation with a friend who also used to live in Korea and finally being able to reminisce with someone who could actually relate to the experience we had. As it turned out, we kind of missed this place a bit. And perhaps the tipping point was talking with friends who were still there, still making comfortable money and enjoying a plethora of exciting life experiences at the same time, still paying off debt and building savings, while virtually everything the opposite was happening for us. We took a long, serious look at our options, and realized, “Why not go back?” There was still time in our lives to return to what we going for us in Korea in terms of achieving our financial goals, without too severely disrupting what we had started in NS, and was still a few years before the ‘point of no return’ when we’d really need to get home in time to still ensure a viable future. Korea was the answer looming in corner and was just too tempting to pass up.

  What was to become our second chapter of life in Korea really became the defining story. During the first two years, we had been living in Seoul, the capital city, which ultimately gave an unfair representation of what South Korea truly was. It was a big city with 12 million people, subways, pollution, busy crowds, a wide gap between rich/poor people, and was really more of a life in “Seoul” than a life in “Korea”. We knew we wanted to come back for the advantages this place offered us in a shorter amount of time than living at home, but we also wanted to avoid as much of the frustration as possible. And that took us to Jeju Island. Pretty much as far away as you can get from Seoul while still in the country of South Korea, Jeju Island became our new home, for what we planned to be the next 3 years. Just enough time to pay off the debt and build some savings, maybe enough savings to put towards buying a house, and even take that honeymoon excursion in New Zealand we always wanted. Plus, we’d enjoy the simple yet luxurious life of being on a remote, at times “tropical” island for a few years. It sounded perfect! Well, that was the plan at least, but things don’t always go as planned, do they?

Our first climb of Halla Mountain, Jeju Island.

  Looking back, our time in Jeju was truly amazing. It is a beautiful place, with countless beaches in every direction, a much smaller, quieter, more natural environment and experience than certainly our lives in Seoul. We met some fantastic people and made some lifelong friendships, with whom we created some wonderful memories and will inevitably take us to new places and adventures around the globe in years to come. But shortly after the better part of the year had passed, we realized we had to revise our plans once again. Firstly, while still a much easier place to work and save than home, the exchange rate between Korea and Canada was now not nearly as lucrative at it had once been, meaning it was going to take much longer to save the amount of money we had been budgeting for (ultimately stretching our 3-year return to 4). Also, the job we had initially accepted came with its difficulties as well. Part of what attracted Gretchen back to her life in Korea is that as a kindergarten teacher, she felt valued and appreciated at a job that she most of the time truly enjoyed. But this was not that job, and while the children were often so wonderful, the experience of the school was not. Friday evening could never come soon enough, and Monday morning always came too quickly. Despite our tropical surroundings, we needed to get a bigger bang for our buck in order to make sure our now longer time away from home was as worthwhile as possible.

Beautiful waterfalls on Jeju Island.

  You see, what often is overlooked when living abroad are the sacrifices made to be there. Yes you are having an adventure, earning decent  money to live with and put away for later, meeting new people, and making memories for the rest of your life. But you are also sometimes having a very tough time being away from your home and familiar culture, on a short-term contract away from a real life or career, missing more permanent friends and being apart from family events, births, even deaths, etc. It is a double-edged sword, this life abroad, and for Gretchen and I, it was so important to make sure we did not let the time go to waste. So at the end of a much quicker year in 3rd year in Korea than our 1st, we found ourselves trying to refigure out what was next for us here in Korea. And after a whirlwind of a job hunt, we unexpectedly found ourselves moving back to the mainland, this time to the humble city of Chuncheon, Gangwon province. And here would the remainder and bulk of our time in Korea be spent.

Snowboarding at Yongpyeong, home of the 2018 Olympics.

  I started writing this prose as a way to reflect on where I’m at and try and wrap my head around where I’m going next. And after scrolling up to review what's come out so far, I find it amazing that to even try to describe where you are in life, so much depends on what got you there in the first place; the past and the present are eternally fused, not to mention how they bring about the future that lies ahead. The past three years we've now spent in Chuncheon have been so wonderful in so many ways. Although I never expected to live in or even visit this modest, remote area, if I had to do it all over again, it might be my first choice from day one. It is a humble capital metropolis in the middle of a very rural province, yet close enough to Seoul that if you need to get your fix of international food, a variety of shopping, or exciting entertainment, it’s just a short trip away; if you have friends/family in for a visit, it’s still relatively close/cheap enough to utilize the comfy and convenient airport shuttle bus; if you want to visit the west/east coast beaches and islands, you’re never too far away from either side; if you want hot sun in the summer or fluffy snow in the winter, with AMAZING Springs and Falls to boot, or if you just want to enjoy a beautiful, serene, mountain-surrounded, lake-filled vista on a daily basis, in a more-than-likely larger home than you’d be allotted elsewhere in the country, with still so many comforts and amenities to keep you going, it truly is the jackpot of Korean places to live.

The Chuncheon crew near Sokcho, on the East Sea.

A rare alter-ego role reversal with me as Luigi, Halloween 2010.

  Our lives in Chuncheon actually started off very quiet, intentionally so, hoping to live a more relaxed, mature, “married couple” lifestyle. But all too quickly, we realized how many great, like-minded people we were sharing the town with, and before long we had a massive crew of local companions once again. Now with a bit of seniority with several years of experience here behind us, it was certainly different now representing “older foreign folk” in Korea, with so many fresh, post-grad youngin’s out and about. There’s nothing like watching your past through the actions of those a few years behind you to give you some check and balance towards your own point of mortality. But something about this place, Chuncheon, was a little bit different and it seemed to attract the right blend of young in years and mature at heart (or vice versa in many cases as well). Our jobs were better than we’d ever had in Korea before, particularly with the eventual progression to both Gretchen and I teaching at local universities. Somehow, what had barely been considered a job in year one, had flourished and evolved in to a something of a career. Instead of turning to my seniors of several months more on the job than I, trying to get advice on “how to teach English” (as is the usual case upon first arriving in Korea), I was now being recruited for jobs, giving demonstration classes to my peers and colleagues, and having articles published I'd written on the tricks of the trade. It was a good feeling to know that I wasn’t simply living a pretend life over here, but was actually contributing to a vital industry in a professional and successful manner. As well, our time here has also allowed us to explore our more philanthropic side. Organizing and taking part in countless social events such as Open Mics, fundraising dinners, charity runs, orphanage trips, scholarship promotions and more has left us with bigger hearts and wider minds than ever before, proudly with lots of dollars raised and smiles inspired to show for.  Not to mention all the exciting travels we've squeezed in.  When the other side of the world is your home base, it's so easy to hop to Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, and more for a quick pleasure trip.  The opportunities have truly been once in a lifetime.

Finishing the Chuncheon Marathon, with a PB of 3:09:48.

  And of course, I can’t help but look back on what my time here, during this last year in particular, has been for me in terms of physical activity. It all started when ran my first official marathon in Seoul in 2005. It was a phenomenal and gruelling experience, but was just the right blend of both to make me want to try again. I’ve since run at least a full marathon distance event for every year I’ve lived here, not to mention all kinds of additional halfs, 10 kms, and other “fun runs”, along with countless hours and strides of training – through sun, wind, rain, snow, hail, and even “yellow dust”. Then in October 2010, something magical happened: I bought a road bike (again), as well as a proper mountain bike. I had brought a road bike with me to Korea in my first year, but really didn’t know what I was doing, was training all on my own, and ended up using it as more of a clothes drying rack than a sports tool. But this year I was blessed to be surrounded by some really good friends and co-workers who not only inspired me to get on the bike, see new parts of the country I’d never have otherwise experienced, but also to help me push myself to achieve feats I’d never tried dreaming possible. It became the norm to talk about a typical weekend of 200km+ on the bike and hear “You’re nuts!” from the peanut gallery. Somehow I went from not owning a bike, to regular excursions of single-day riding of 100 km, 100 miles, 12 hours, 400 km, to my most recent and biggest achievement of over 450 km within 24 hours, plus some amazing trail rides with extreme changes in elevation, and beautiful back roads like I've never seen before; All this in less than 1-year!?! My oh my, what a year it’s been!  And to finish it off, I've got my final marathon in Korea scheduled for Dec. 11, 2011.  Here's hoping for a new personal best, and maybe even a sub-3 hour finish?  Only time and training will tell.

On the mountain bike with Justin.

My first 400km with Robb, in Gwanju.

Cruising the roads of Gangwon province.

 The Final “Rap”

Dinner with friends in Chuncheon, during my dad's 2nd visit.

  And that’s where I’m left with 6 months remaining, thinking back on the year, the 3 years in Chuncheon, the first year in Jeju, the 4 years back in Korea, the first 2 years in Seoul, and the complete 6-year package as a lump sum. Because that’s what happens after this long – it all becomes one big, gelatinous blob of a memory. I said when I was living in Canada from 2006-2008, my first experience in Korea felt like a dream; well now those 2 years at home are what feel like the dream! But the time has come, finally, to wake up and return to reality. I say this in a somewhat bittersweet manner. It has been fun, oh so much fun, living abroad. And it has been difficult, heart-wrenchingly difficult not being home.  In some ways, it would be great to stay here forever. In other ways, it would be my worst nightmare. But despite the pros and cons of life in Korea or returning home, the real point of consideration is simply…life. I am certainly not the 24 year-old I was when I'd first arrived, nor is my perspective the same or my experience as fresh. I have learned, I have grown, I have changed, and now I am ready for what’s next; the new chapter in this ever-unfolding, seat-gripping, page turning story that is life. Although what lies ahead may be set on familiar soil, there is no less adventure at stake. So many unknowns, so many risks, so many challenges to make sure I stay on my guard. But it is the unknowns, the risks, and the challenges that are what yield the memories, the gains, and the accomplishments that make this interesting little journey worth all the while
 

  Thank you for reading and indulging me in my self-therapeutic rambles. I'd like to finish with a few shout-outs to those around me in my scope of reference.  To those of you whom I may be bidding ‘Farewell’, to those I'm saying ‘See you soon’, and to all the others along the side and in between, the message remains the same: “I love you all, thank you for being part of this incredible adventure and for helping me get to wherever it was that I was going to be. I truly couldn’t have done it without you, for if I had, then it simply would not have been the same.”

~pVo out!   : )