I'm here.

I am sitting in the teachers lounge at Pagoda Academy in the Shinchon section of Seoul. I’m in front of a window and it is raining furiously outside. It almost feels as if the rain followed me here from New York. Everyone says that it’s monsoon season and it will end next week. My temporary housing is on the 11th floor of this building, and much of the view is obstructed by the fog. Hopefully it will clear up before I move out so I can get a better view.

It should be noted that it is about 9:30 a.m. Thursday in Korea. Hopefully Blogger will reflect this and not say 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. All of the computers’ general controls here are in Korean, so I may not have control over some formatting aspects of my blog entries for a while.

Last Sunday was an incredible sendoff for me. Pastor Carter had the church formally pray for me and commission me. I was very humbled by the congregation’s response. The choir and others actually gave me a standing ovation. I had a chance to thank the pastors and everyone else, as well to say that I felt this would be a time of my life in which I would go deeper with the Lord. It was overwhelming. I get nervous speaking in front of crowds and this day was no exception, but somehow I was able to hold the mic and speak without falling apart. It was also very humbling to be introduced as a “missionary.” That’s not really how I’ve thought of myself, but I can’t go off to another country and pretend not to be an ambassador for Jesus Christ. Shortly after that, I sang my last solo with the choir. After service I ate lunch with the tenor section. Throughout the day I had some emotional goodbyes with a number of people. I also continued running errands and shopping, as I am so gifted at waiting until the last minute. Sunday night Ji and his wife Myung-Soo took me out to dinner at a Korean restaurant on 32nd Street. Late Sunday night while I was packing and exercising my gift of procrastination, my high school buddy Eric stopped by for another emotional goodbye. When it was all said and done, I was emotionally and physically exhausted. Sunday was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. It is very vivid in my mind and probably will be for a long time.

The most difficult goodbye was with Mom at the airport Monday afternoon . I didn’t think I was going to cry, but I did. Our comfort lies in knowing that the Lord has opened this door for me and so He’s leading me. She has totally supported me in this endeavor, which has really been cool. It minimizes the drama.

I had a surprisingly pleasant flight on Korean Air. It was 14 hours, but it only felt like half of that time. I was able to get an exit-row seat. It was kind of narrow, but I had lots of room to stretch out. I don’t get that often, so when I do get it I enjoy it for what it’s worth. I sat next to a newlywed couple on their way to a honeymoon in Cambodia and Vietnam. They were kind of lovey-dovey with each other, which normally annoys me, but I was very happy for them. The wife offered me Starburst candy. It’s hard to dislike people that offer you food. I watched a couple of interesting documentaries and the first half of the film “Hoodwinked.” I gave up after that because my unit began having technical problems and the movie would freeze up every five seconds. It was also kind of a stupid movie, although I’m a big animation fan. I also spent a lot of time practicing Korean script in my notebbok, and a few surprised Koreans complimented my writing as they passed by. That was pretty cool. I don’t think my script is that good, but at least it’s legible to a Korean.

So why am I here? This is a question many have asked me in New York and Seoul. I have numerous reasons for being here and I won’t list all of them, but I will say that for years I have longed to be able to spend some time in a country on a long-term basis. For the last 10 years, I have attended an evangelical church that puts a strong emphasis on going abroad for missions. I’ve had the privilege of being able to travel to about seven different foreign countries on missions and outreach trips. I like to tell people that during that time I caught “the international bug.” I also enjoy studying foreign languages, although I am familiar with some and fluent in none. Which brings me to another one of my goals, learning Korean. Prior to deciding to travel to Korea as an English teacher, I was focusing on my Spanish. A few months ago I had an opportunity to travel to Rosario, Argentina, where I had many opportunities to practice since very few people there spoke English. I felt I was making some good progress, but I’ve now decided to put it on the back burner for the sake of Korean, little of which I speak or understand. Although I find that learning the written script has not been very difficult, and I can generally look at Korean and pronounce it out. Just don’t ask me what it means.

I am also hoping to gain some good ESL teaching experience here. For a long time, a handful of family members and good friends have told me that I should be a teacher. I’ve tried to avoid this for a long time, but I became unhappy enough as an underemployed freelance copy editor and proofreader to begin seriously considering other work options. With my current assignment, so many things have fallen into place that I know that God has led me here. I’ve always been full of ideas and even teaching English abroad was something I decided to do on a whim, but now it feels like much more than that.

People have asked me how long I plan to stay in Korea. That’s a little bit like asking me if it will rain in September. I’ve signed a yearlong contract with the school. I intend to fulfill that contract even if I end up hating this place. At the end of my time, I’ll have a better idea of whether I want to stay or move on to another school or another country. What is certain is that I want to teach for a while. I’m beginning to feel a passion for this, and I haven’t even gotten in front of a classroom yet.

So I know some of you are itching to know what I’ve actually been doing since touching down Tuesday night. To my surprise, my jet lag hasn’t been that bad. I’ve observed a few classes at the school. After months of wondering how and ESL class is actually run, it’s fun to observe it in person. I felt like this when I observed ESL Jennifer’s class at LaGuardia Community College last week. It’s also fascinating to watch the students (in this case, college age) grasp vocabulary words and grammatical concepts we take for granted. It gets humorous sometimes.

Yesterday Rockie (Pagoda’s housing manager) showed me four studio apartments. Korean apartments are not very big, and I was hoping to at least a place with a high ceiling, which is a personal preference of mine. Eventually I settled on a place that was a little more spacious than the others I had looked at and located in a very nice building in a cool backstreet neighborhood. It’s a 10-minute walk from the school. The bathroom was kind of gross and I’m going to have to do some major spring cleaning when I move in next week. The ceiling is not as high as I’d like, but I’m happy with the arrangement for the most part.

Last night I went to Pastor Bill’s weekly English Bible study at Youngnak Church. I took the subway for the first time, and all I can say about this experience is that I was very grateful that the signs are in English as well as Korean. If not for a landmark and help from a couple of kind Korean gentleman, I could have easily gotten lost wandering the streets of Seoul. Although I’m a city boy, Seoul’s streets do not follow a uniform grid pattern like Manhattan. Also, I generally don’t understand Korean, so it puts me in a very vulnerable position. Pastor Bill was very glad to see me walk in the door, as I was very glad to see him. During the fellowship and food time afterward, I found out that most of the people had already heard the story of how we met. I also met another ESL teacher from Harlem who arrived three weeks ago. My use of chopsticks is improving, and the Koreans in the group complimented me. This made last night all the more enjoyable.

Seoul is a visual spectacle, and a walk around this area is stimulating and overwhelming at the same time. Of all the countries I’ve visited, I have never seen anyplace like this, and I have become a wide-eyed tourist. There are three universities in Shinchon, and so most of the people here look twentysomething. Although I have gotten some staring, it hasn’t been as much as I thought it would be. In the classes I’ve observed so far, I’ve found the students to be very courteous. When I bow and say “Annyonghaseyo,” the standard Korean greeting, many people cover their mouths and giggle.

One of my less academic goals in Korea was to lose weight. This already seems to be working, as I’ve been eating significantly less food here and my brand-new slacks are now sagging considerably around my waist. All I need to do now is ditch this dress shirt and tie for an oversized white T-shirt and do-rag.

I promised many of you that I would update this blog regularly, and I will do my best to keep that promise. Your prayers and support are felt and appreciated.