Monday, September 21, 2009

Two Years+ in the Making

I don't entirely recommend uprooting your life to come to Korea and do what I'm doing - and while it has its fair share of ups and downs, I've found myself in a pretty sweet deal for the moment (with an expiration date).

When you make the decision to quit everything and travel abroad [to teach English] you have to know that you'll be in for a world of the different and unexpected, and of course it'll be life changing hopefully for the better. I celebrated my two year anniversary August 21, and as of today have been here for 25 months with only a brief 2 week vacation back to the States somewhere in the middle. The plan is to head back to the homelands at the end of December and stay there, but I'm not entirely sure my feet have stopped itching yet.

If you've kept up with my inconsistent blog posts, you'll know that the job situation has been interesting this year and right now I'm currently freelance teaching and living in Seoul. I'm a tourist and have to leave Korea and reset the ol' visa every 90 days - and that has allowed me to see Canada, the U.S., China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Greece all in one year. Right now I determine how many hours I work, where, when, and for who and how much. Generally I teach 1-3 hours a day (yes, even weekends) and make enough to pay rent, pay bills, travel, and save a small amount. I work on referrals, setups from friends, and by researching sites on the interwebs. Will this last forever? No. In fact, the end date is tentatively set for December 20th. This gig is a very inconsistent way to make money, and sometimes a lonely existence without coworkers to spend time with and company politics to talk about. It has to end sometime.

The next few months will be interesting. I'm enjoying this position of technically being a small business, and the ability to come and go as I please - but there's more to life than teaching English and I'm determined to find it. ;)

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