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Platial | Who and What's Nearby
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I was holding down a few contractor type jobs in SF when I ran across an ad for 'english teacher' in South Korea in the paper. The American contact was a Korean travel agent doing recruiting for his brother in-law's new chain of english language schools for the children of wealthy professionals. They were incredibly desperate to fill a few slots at these soon to open locations all around S. Korea. I had basically 2 days to think about it, and about a week to ditch out of the city, haul my stuff up to Portland, and get on the longest flight I've ever been on. The school was brand new, had no supplies and no idea what teaching was really about. They were nothing more than a new business filling a perceived need. I had a blast with the kids but not such a good time with the administration. Some high/low lights include: -Getting arrested because of a drunken brawl between my roommate and a cabbie. -Getting my passport and plane tickets stolen by beach combing pimps 2 days before an intended trip back to the US. -Skating with some college punkers on their crazy homemade half pipe after work nearly every day. -A tai-chi infused afternoon with a chemical engineering student who really really wanted to help Korea become "#1 country in world". -A meditative trip to a buddhist retreat in the mountains. -Hiking the hillparks with dozens of seniors walking uphill backwards because it's good for your health. -Falling asleep on the bus on the way to work, waking just as the bus passed my stop, and actually automatically yelling out in Hang-gul (korean) the word for "DOOR!" -Seeing a group of 8 dudes in clear plastic trench coats lipsyncing 'Hotel California' on a smoke machine filled stage in a spendy night club. -Beach fire fueled with discarded ratan furniture set (then the owner comes screaming out, turns out it wasn't discarded). -Meeting a kid in the military who said he worked in the "Propaganda" department. -Learning about the development of the written phonetic 'han-gul' alphabet. (it's amazingly simple and so smart).
I was holding down a few contractor type jobs in SF when I ran across an ad for 'english teacher' in South Korea in the paper. The American contact was a Korean travel agent doing recruiting for his brother in-law's new chain of english language schools for the children of wealthy professionals. They were incredibly desperate to fill a few slots at these soon to open locations all around S. Korea. I had basically 2 days to think about it, and about a week to ditch out of the city, haul my stuff up to Portland, and get on the longest flight I've ever been on. The school was brand new, had no supplies and no idea what teaching was really about. They were nothing more than a new business filling a perceived need. I had a blast with the kids but not such a good time with the administration. Some high/low lights include: -Getting arrested because of a drunken brawl between my roommate and a cabbie. -Getting my passport and plane tickets stolen by beach combing pimps 2 days before an intended trip back to the US. -Skating with some college punkers on their crazy homemade half pipe after work nearly every day. -A tai-chi infused afternoon with a chemical engineering student who really really wanted to help Korea become "#1 country in world". -A meditative trip to a buddhist retreat in the mountains. -Hiking the hillparks with dozens of seniors walking uphill backwards because it's good for your health. -Falling asleep on the bus on the way to work, waking just as the bus passed my stop, and actually automatically yelling out in Hang-gul (korean) the word for "DOOR!" -Seeing a group of 8 dudes in clear plastic trench coats lipsyncing 'Hotel California' on a smoke machine filled stage in a spendy night club. -Beach fire fueled with discarded ratan furniture set (then the owner comes screaming out, turns out it wasn't discarded). -Meeting a kid in the military who said he worked in the "Propaganda" department. -Learning about the development of the written phonetic 'han-gul' alphabet. (it's amazingly simple and so smart).
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