Blending In

After constant displays of charisma and desperation, I have finally begun to settle down in the Korean peninsula.

Seoul was a great city, with a lot to offer and even more to offer in terms of chance meetings. As mentioned previously, I have met a lot of interesting people during my stay in Korea. Everyone with a different life experience and knowledge set. One of the most intriguing characters I’ve met was due to a chance occurrence on the subway. Me and my brother looking like half-breed Latinos attracted the attention of a Spaniard and his Korean friend. These two were extremely interesting people, and the Korean man was a freelance poet. He gave us all books and took us to his apartment. Such Korean knowledge of the populace being:

-Koreans work hard. Not just hard, but VERY hard.
-Korean children attend at least one to several after school programs in order to gain an advantage later in life.
-Korean men rarely get time to spend with their spouse, as they are always working or drinking.
-Weddings and children are the pinnacle of the Korean family structure.

(Keep in mind all these are an individual person’s opinion.)

Anyways, this Korean poet has been all across the world and was rather an inspiration of doing things outside of the societal norm.

A couple drinking experiences later I also learned that Soju was not a drink for the light-hearted.

Following a week of high stress and job hunting I was actually able to find not one, but two jobs! One being located in Seoul, the other in the Masan city region (way down by Busan). Naturally I was excited by this, and was ready to accept the Seoul position. Unknowling to me, I was going to be tempted otherwise. I agreed to visit Masan to see the school, as it was the school that was going to be paying for my trip to Masan. I was intent on visiting Busan, so I figured a couple hours in Masan, and the rest of the weekend in Busan would be a great experience.

After meeting the school, seeing the kids (in which I hope to pretend I have no heart here), and being completely woo’ed by the friendliness of the school staff I agreed to take the Masan position instead. While this was a shock to me, I figured that I should go somewhere where I enjoy my work, since I am going to be busy doing that everyday. Also a shock to me, after having the choice between two schools, I was motivated enough to do research concerning the two. What I found? Nothing on Masan, but the other school in Seoul had ENDLESS amounts of horror stories and tales of teacher abuse. Glad I dodged that bullet

Busan is probably my favorite city of South Korea. It is the second largest city and has 4 beaches. Everything is more simpliefied, and instead of 30 different bar districts, it only has 4. Also similiarily, instead of 3000+ markets and clothing districts, it may have just 50. There is a spa house that is on my next weekends travel agenda.

The hostel at Busan was a lot better than the one in Seoul, as it was owned and operated by a formal backpacker. He was very nice and always willing to help. I also met a person from Manchester, England and we went out drinking. Meeting fellow travelers is the best!