Busan Aquarium

Wednesday this week was Memorial Day in Korea, and since all public workers had the day off, Carolyn and I found ourselves with some time to kill. We got some cheap train tickets down to Busan and decided to go to the Aquarium as the main event of the day. The aquarium itself was nice, but the constant lack of personal space made it a bit of an exercise in taking a deep breath and reminding yourself that you're not at home. Tune in tomorrow to see what we did after our visit to the aquarium.

Congratulatory Jealousy...or is it?

"I envy you" is one of the most awkwardly and frequently used expressions that I hear from my Korean coworkers and students here. I'm not sure how it entered the common conversational framework here, and that's probably less important than the fact that there is something lost in translation. When you dissect the sentence the Korean English speaker is correct in their usage, but I think most native English speakers would agree that "envy" has a slightly more sinister connotation than does "jealous." The use of this phrase has nothing to do with what I'm going to write about in this post other than its role as a metaphorical fish-hook that I'm setting in your cheek right now so that you may continue reading my wonderful writing.

An acquaintance of ours just announced on Facebook that he has been accepted into the JET Programme and will be moving to Hiroshima in August to teach English in Japan. This guy is well known among the expat ESL-teaching community here in Daegu (probably in Korea, for that matter), and is that guy that you're always afraid you're being compared to in some way by your coteachers and evaluators. He's one of those very rare (from what I can tell) people who has a huge passion for education, learns the local language to rather admirable degree of fluency and is probably outstandingly effective at his job, despite the difficulties that the educational system here lays on top of simply getting your job done well enough. So basically, he's one of the most upstanding native-English speaking teachers in the area, and has really earned himself some great opportunities.

Something you might need to know for this post to make sense is that the JET Programme is essentially the holy grail of ESL jobs in East Asia. The benefits and pay are good, the working conditions seem to be great, the jobs are extremely competitive to land, and the interview process is arduous. The job is good, and the place you get to live is, well, Japan. How many nerds from the U.S./Canada/U.K. and other English speaking countries are secret or not-so-secret Japanophiles who want to spend some time in Japan doing karate, eating sushi, reading manga, and all sorts of other things that you can only really do in Japan? Get the point? The JET Programme is in essence, a very, very cool job to land for a year or two or five or however long you want.

Here's a little backstory. In 2007 I needed to escape my hometown, so I left to be a scuba instructor and move to Hawaii. I got bogged down by financial concerns (the concept of "go big, or go home" was a little too daunting) and settled on Florida, before moving to Hawaii when the dive shop I worked at in Florida tanked. I fostered an unhealthy attachment to some friends in Florida that kept me on a leash, didn't really enjoy my time in Hawaii as much as I could have, and moved back to Florida when those friends (who I really should have estimated given 27 years of life on this planet) planned to relaunch the previously failed dive shop. I knew about 3 days into the new job that it wasn't going to work, and that we were pretty much doomed. I got depressed. I was financially stuck, I couldn't dream of coming up with enough money to escape, and the job paid enough to barely (and I mean barely) keep my head sort of above water. It would take me about three and a half years to recover to a place of true comfort from this decision. For whatever reason, I latched onto the idea of Japan to right myself. I took karate classes (a great thing for anyone struggling in life, I might add), tried to learn some of the language, and kept a JET Programme brochure on my table throughout my (probably also ill advised) master's degree in teaching.

Something happened that caused me to throw the brochure away. I met a lady. I fell in love with the lady, and I knew that the JET Programme was no longer an option. I thought Asia itself was off the books (but hey, it turns out I was DEAD wrong about that), but the most important thing in my life now was my relationship. Now, push came to shove, and as we worked together we both needed a way out. One day while browsing job opportunities in her office, she discovered that the public schools in Korea would accept couples' applications, and we applied. Nearly two years after making that decision we're both sitting at our desks in Korea and I see an announcement from an acquaintance (someone I have met exactly once) that they've been accepted into the JET Programme and all of the sudden it's time to reflect a little bit.

Here's what's going on in my head:

1. Our time as expats is quickly coming to a close. We're nearly halfway through our second contracts, and at the end of this contract we'll get married, celebrate with a tour of Europe, and settle back into the United States to reboot life. This is exciting, but it also comes with some scary things like the lack of nationalized heath insurance and paying rent again and all of that tripe that really makes life hard sometimes. What will it be like when and if we have to struggle just to make ends meet again instead of prosper like we have here?
   
2. I will never even apply to the JET Programme. I knew this anyway. It's always been there. This is not news. How many ways can I say the same thing in order to make the point that this isn't surprising, it just is. I'm not sad that I won't apply to the JET Programme or eat onigiri every day or become fluent in Japanese (right, like I became fluent in Korean?) or any of those things. I guess seeing someone else achieve a dream that was the light at the end of a really dark and dismal tunnel for you just reminds you about how bright and beautiful that light was when everything else was pretty terrible.
   
3. I'm so happy with the twists and turns that my life has taken. I thought that I was escaping the orbit (death spiral) I was in when I left San Antonio in 2007. If we were to put this into spaceflight terms, I think I simply achieved escape velocity. I think the move to Hawaii showed me I could live and survive on my own and be happy-ish. I think that spending half a year as far from home as I'd ever been was probably a really important step towards being the kind of person that was ready for love and a relationship and all of the really good stuff that at that point I would have said wasn't important to me. I even think the dark times of the death of my diving career, and the resulting irrational hatred of water sports that has thankfully passed, was a crucial developmental phase that I needed in order to be truly happy.
   
   The fact that I found a light in the middle of that dark tunnel that just needed to be turned on (pun so not intended) to see that it was so very much more bright and beautiful than that light over at the end of the tunnel; and that it would walk to the end of the tunnel with me and hug me when I needed it or just tell me that shit was going to be okay when I was sure that it wasn't; is simply the greatest twist or turn that any adventure could have taken me on.
   
   Our time living together in Korea has really been one of those blessings that I never in my life counted on, thought would happen, or even considered as a possibility until I met my match. I think it's kinda sad when I look back on parts of life where I tried to fill what I didn't even realize was a void with various different obsessions and discounted what it would take to make me feel whole and fulfilled. Thankfully I think I've grown out of that and righted the ship, so to speak. My life is pretty great
   
4. Japan is still happening for us. It's just going to be for 5 days instead of years like I initially thought. The good news is that even with rising oceans and a changing climate, Japan is still going to be there for the rest of my life, and I'm sure we're going to have a good occasion to visit again. I'd rather take the brighter light I found in the tunnel than the not quite as big and beautiful one that I thought was waiting for me at the end of it any day of the week.
   
5. You know, had my original plan remained unchanged, would I have been too scared to go to Japan for a year by myself anyway? Probably so. I was petrified when we were at the airport about to leave for Korea on February 17, 2011. I could not have done this without my beautiful bride-to-be, and that's all there is to it. We've got plenty of adventure yet to come in our lives. You know, screw that. Our lives together are constantly adventurous. Even cooking dinner is an adventure together. No, seriously, have you ever had a bean steak? We have. Top that, I dare you.

At the end of the day, I feel really, really happy for the guy that now has the awesome opportunity to go live and teach in Japan for a while. I also feel really, really happy that I don't have the opportunity because the reasons that opportunity isn't there for me are really pretty great circumstances. Am I happy with my life? You bet your buttons I am! Do I feel a little melancholy when I see someone else achieve a goal that once sustained me through a terrible time? Sure. It's all normal human stuff, right?

Also, I might add, EPIK (the English Program in Korea) to my understanding no longer allows couples to apply together. I think we're really damn lucky we took the chance and came when we did, or else we wouldn't have had such a crazy, incredible, amazing experience. I feel pretty blessed. Did I really just say that?

2011: IT'S OVER!!!

2011 was a great year. It was also a pretty tumultuous year, I mean, hell, we moved HALF WAY AROUND THE WORLD. While there's plenty to be thoughtful and write about for this year...and I'm sure I will...I think the best obligatory year end blog type for this year is a list. The top 11 awesome things that happened in 2011.

1. I got engaged to the most beautiful and awesome lady on the planet...in the solar system...the universe...and any parallel universes.

Right there, on that couch, in that lounge, at the Incheon International Airport. On the way to Bali. Perfect way to start an awesome vacay.

2. We went to Bali.

Bali is all at once the most beautiful and mysterious place that I've ever been, and I got to go with a really special lady right after a really special occasion. Not a lot of Americans go there because it's expensive and in a country that we fear for one reason or another, but I'm sure glad we did.

3. I've lived as an expat and worked in another country

I've always wanted to, now I've done it. And we're doing it again next year!

4. I spent a week in New York

Another thing I always wanted to do. It was a great week and a great way to see one of the coolest places in the homeland before moving off to Korea for a year (or two).


5. Cherry Blossoms

Cherry blossom trees are one of the most iconic springtime images you can conjure up when you imagine what Asia might be like.

6. Seoul

It takes less than 2 hours by high speed rail to get to Seoul, and it's awesome every time we go. It's the 2nd largest metro area in the world, or something like that, and it's got a frenetic energy that keeps pumping. I'm happy to have been here in 2011.

7. Chicago

After our trip to New York, we stopped in Chicago to visit with some friends and see the sites. It was a great visit. It's always good to reconnect with good people, and it's also always great to visit a wonderful city with a lot to offer. Also...omg food.

8. Art, Art, Art

2011 has been the year of the art museum for us. We have visited: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute in Chicago, and the ARMA museum in Bali. We've seen more brush strokes in 2011 than I've seen in my entire life...and it's great.

9. Books, books, books

I've read a bunch of books in 2011. A good reason is the advent of the Kindle app for iPod Touch...I have a whole library with me every time I get on the subway...plus books in English are a welcome respite from living in a world where you don't speak the language. I think my favorite of the year is the entire Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

10. Mud

The Boryeong Mudfest was a fun, dirty time on the beach in July. Daecheon Beach is a surprisingly nice beach (honestly, when you think of Korea beaches aren't the first thing that come to mind, right?) and it was fun to get slathered with mud and act like a moron for a day.

11. The Ocean

The irrational anger I felt at the entire ocean after my diving career went from exciting to crap got swallowed up in somewhere in the Java Sea when Carolyn and I rolled over the edge of a tiny wooden boat. It was more beautiful than I ever imagined it would be, and it was so much fun to be underwater with my lady watching the reef drift by. I'm looking forward to diving on our next vacation to a tropical locale.

So those are what I can think of right now, as the coolest 11 things about 2011. I'm looking forward to 2012 and all the years that will follow. Things are good right now. 2009 was hard, 2010 was hard, but 2011 was really kind and nice.