Unfortunately, I got some very bad news tonight. My bosses had an emergency dropped in their lap this week: roughly 30 students, or about 1/3rd of the school, suddenly and mysteriously quit the school for unknown reasons. They're desperately scrambling to figure out why, but in the meantime they're going to have to take over teaching many of the classes themselves to salvage things until the start of the school year in March. The result is that they had to let me and another coworker go, effective today.
They feel absolutely terrible about it, and they're going to do everything they can to get us new jobs. They assured us that it had nothing to do with our performance, and that they fully intended to have us stay another year before this happened. We'll be able to stay in our apartments for as long as we need to, and we'll be paid for December and January. This weekend they'll be writing glowing letters explaining the situation that we can send to prospective employers, and they're going to call some recruiters that they trust to get us started on the job hunt. They also said that, if we were available in March, they'd like to have us come back, though obviously the way things are now they couldn't guarantee anything.
It was quite a surprise to hear this, though I'm honestly doing okay. I'd had a feeling that I might not have a second year at Baron's, so I got over all the stress of that possibility before Christmas. I certainly wasn't expecting to lose my job today, and it sucks, but that's life. I'm very grateful for the Buddhist philosophy I've been learning at Hwagyesa Temple in Seoul because it helped me realize (before this happened) that I was afraid of losing this job because I was attached to the school and the people there. Recognizing that allowed me to mentally prepare for the possibility of change, so while I am sad, I'm not freaking out like I probably would have a year earlier. Everyone I've talked to about it so far has been shocked that I'm taking this so well!
I'll definitely miss the school and all (well, most) of the kids, but I had a good ten months with them and I feel like I ended things on a good note. It's also an opportunity to find work in Seoul and be closer to all my excellent friends there, and I can devote more time to my writing (which I've done precious little of since finishing my second screenplay) while I'm on the job hunt. Who knows, maybe things will turn around here as suddenly as they went bad and I'll go back to Baron's in a couple months. I'm going to stay in Korea, and I have no doubts about my ability to find employment soon. There's going to be a lot of uncertainty in my life for the foreseeable future, but I'm doing okay and I'm confident that everything with turn out alright :)
Friday, January 3, 2014
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Sunrise Watching on the Korean East Coast
To celebrate the new year, Joyce and I decided to join a meetup to watch the sun rise on the Korean east coast. The trip cost us 30,000 won each (~$30) for the tour bus and guide. We met the group at 11:15 pm on December 31st and boarded the bus a short while later. After ringing in the new year at midnight (and sharing a small cup of white wine the meetup group leader brought), we settled in and tried to get some sleep. Unsurprisingly, we didn't have much success; it's hard enough to sleep on a bus, but we also made three pit stops (lasting between 30-60 minutes each time) and they turned the lights on in the bus every time we stopped. I maybe got an hour of uncomfortable sleep, but most of my time was trying trying and failing to get any meaningful rest.
We finally arrived on the east coast at the city of Samcheok at around 5 am. The sun was expected to rise at 7:30 am, and we were told to be back at the bus by 8:20 am or risk being left behind. Joyce and I left the bus at 5:20 am, though we hadn't been given any directions on where to go from there. We wound up simply following the largest groups of people and made our way to a cliffside observation spot above the nearby beach. It was already crowded by then, but we managed to find a good spot standing at a railing. We chatted idly about movies for a little while, though we were both too tired to make much conversation, and shared a sandwich she had made for breakfast. We also watched as people on the beach and a ridge close by released small red lanterns/hot air balloons into the air (each containing a written wish), as well as the movements of the fishing boats in the water (catching squid, she said). Eventually, at 7:41 am the sun rose, and everyone took out phones and cameras to take a million pictures. A lot of people also took selfies (selkas, or self cameras, in Konglish) with the rising sun in the background.
When we were finished admiring the sunrise, we joined the departing crowd and headed back to the bus. While on our way to the next stop, we snacked on a couple bananas Joyce brought and split some Ghirardelli chocolates my family had sent me for Christmas, then napped a little more. Our next destination was Mukho harbor in the city of Donghae, where we were given free time from 9:30 am to 11:50 am. Joyce and I set off on our own and climbed the hill to the Mukho lighthouse, admiring the many, many murals and other artwork on house and buildings in the neighborhood.
Once we finished thoroughly exploring the steep, narrow alleys and taking dozens of pictures, we went back down and had lunch at one of the many seafood restaurants in the area. The menu was limited, but Joyce picked a dried pollack soup with daikon radish and bean sprouts for us that was very good. (I'm not sure of the name - hwangtaeguk, maybe - and I forgot to take a picture.) I picked up the tab (paid the bill, for any English learners reading this!) for lunch since she provided breakfast. We didn't have a lot of time left, but we quickly walked through a seafood market and checked out the small fishing boats in the harbor before going back to the bus.
The next part of the tour involved driving along the east coast, which turned out to be fairly underwhelming. The best view were on the right side, but Joyce and I were sitting on the left side. The bus turned back around after about an hour, but we were too tired to really care by that point. It started to snow a couple hours in, and we got stuck in traffic (most likely a combination of the weather and everyone going home) for a long time. Joyce fell asleep for about three hours almost as soon as we started driving, and I did my best to do the same. I read a tiny bit before remembering that reading in cars and on buses made me motion sick. I tried to follow the movie the driver put on, then tried and failed to ignore it. (it was a despicable film that I already thoroughly lambasted on Facebook, so I won't repeat myself here.)
This unfortunately wound up making me very motion sick around 5 pm, and I spent the next hour sitting up at the front watching the road very, very carefully and concentrating very hard on not throwing up. We mercifully made a pit stop around 6 pm and I was able to get my stomach under control, and we arrived in Seoul at about 7 pm. Joyce and I said our farewells and parted ways for the night, and I got back to my apartment around 9 pm, almost exactly 24 hours after I left to join the group. I ate a quick dinner, took some advil for the headache that had been plaguing me all day, and relaxed for a couple hours before crawling into bed for some much-needed rest.
Overall it was a good trip, as I got to do some new things (such as watching the new year's sunrise and visiting another province) and see some beautiful urban artwork. However, the traveling was miserable and reminded me of why I hate early-morning activities and long car/bus rides. At least I got a ton of nice pictures out of it!
Happy New Year, everyone!
We finally arrived on the east coast at the city of Samcheok at around 5 am. The sun was expected to rise at 7:30 am, and we were told to be back at the bus by 8:20 am or risk being left behind. Joyce and I left the bus at 5:20 am, though we hadn't been given any directions on where to go from there. We wound up simply following the largest groups of people and made our way to a cliffside observation spot above the nearby beach. It was already crowded by then, but we managed to find a good spot standing at a railing. We chatted idly about movies for a little while, though we were both too tired to make much conversation, and shared a sandwich she had made for breakfast. We also watched as people on the beach and a ridge close by released small red lanterns/hot air balloons into the air (each containing a written wish), as well as the movements of the fishing boats in the water (catching squid, she said). Eventually, at 7:41 am the sun rose, and everyone took out phones and cameras to take a million pictures. A lot of people also took selfies (selkas, or self cameras, in Konglish) with the rising sun in the background.
When we were finished admiring the sunrise, we joined the departing crowd and headed back to the bus. While on our way to the next stop, we snacked on a couple bananas Joyce brought and split some Ghirardelli chocolates my family had sent me for Christmas, then napped a little more. Our next destination was Mukho harbor in the city of Donghae, where we were given free time from 9:30 am to 11:50 am. Joyce and I set off on our own and climbed the hill to the Mukho lighthouse, admiring the many, many murals and other artwork on house and buildings in the neighborhood.
Once we finished thoroughly exploring the steep, narrow alleys and taking dozens of pictures, we went back down and had lunch at one of the many seafood restaurants in the area. The menu was limited, but Joyce picked a dried pollack soup with daikon radish and bean sprouts for us that was very good. (I'm not sure of the name - hwangtaeguk, maybe - and I forgot to take a picture.) I picked up the tab (paid the bill, for any English learners reading this!) for lunch since she provided breakfast. We didn't have a lot of time left, but we quickly walked through a seafood market and checked out the small fishing boats in the harbor before going back to the bus.
The next part of the tour involved driving along the east coast, which turned out to be fairly underwhelming. The best view were on the right side, but Joyce and I were sitting on the left side. The bus turned back around after about an hour, but we were too tired to really care by that point. It started to snow a couple hours in, and we got stuck in traffic (most likely a combination of the weather and everyone going home) for a long time. Joyce fell asleep for about three hours almost as soon as we started driving, and I did my best to do the same. I read a tiny bit before remembering that reading in cars and on buses made me motion sick. I tried to follow the movie the driver put on, then tried and failed to ignore it. (it was a despicable film that I already thoroughly lambasted on Facebook, so I won't repeat myself here.)
This unfortunately wound up making me very motion sick around 5 pm, and I spent the next hour sitting up at the front watching the road very, very carefully and concentrating very hard on not throwing up. We mercifully made a pit stop around 6 pm and I was able to get my stomach under control, and we arrived in Seoul at about 7 pm. Joyce and I said our farewells and parted ways for the night, and I got back to my apartment around 9 pm, almost exactly 24 hours after I left to join the group. I ate a quick dinner, took some advil for the headache that had been plaguing me all day, and relaxed for a couple hours before crawling into bed for some much-needed rest.
Overall it was a good trip, as I got to do some new things (such as watching the new year's sunrise and visiting another province) and see some beautiful urban artwork. However, the traveling was miserable and reminded me of why I hate early-morning activities and long car/bus rides. At least I got a ton of nice pictures out of it!
Happy New Year, everyone!
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