My brother, Josh, left this week for his new job in Seoul, South Korea. He just got a job teaching English to students there. It's a one year contract with an option to renew so even he's not sure how long he'll be there. He was getting burnt out in his current job and needed a change.
He'd been working for several years a school in St. Pete for troubled kids and juvenile offenders. He started out teaching and then moved on to do case work, working as a court liason and helping the kids to rehabilitate, learn a trade and re-acclimate into society. Working at this school required a bit more than the average school and forced him to wear many hats - he was CDL certified so he could drive the bus, he was a certified lifeguard (it's a marine based school and often had field trips centered around water) and he even had special training to break up fights and restrain kids without injuring them. Being 6'5" probably helped! He was good friends with his co-workers and really liked a lot of the kids. Some of them were great and appreciated having some positive role models in their life, but others had a hard time breaking free of the cycle. A life of crime is all they'd ever known and history has a way of repeating itself. He just felt like it was time for him to try something different. He's always had a bit of wanderlust and a great sense of adventure. After university, he spent some time in Central America while in the Peace Corps, then stayed on to backpack around South America and ended up living in Equador for a while, teaching English there (he is ESL certified), before returning to Florida. He felt like he was ready for a change and due for another adventure, while he's still young with relatively few ties. So, Seoul it is!
I'll admit I had to google to see exactly where it was. I just knew it was really far from here and technically a day ahead of us since it's on the other side of the international date line, 16 hours ahead of me (I'm on mountain time) to be exact. From what I've read online and the pictures I've seen, it looks like a very cool city.
Seoul is the capital of South Korea. With over 24.5 million inhabitants, it's the world's second largest metropolitan area (Tokyo is the largest). By way of comparison, the population of New York City is estimated at 18.9 people, making it the largest populated city in US.
While Korean is the primary language, there is a large expat community living there so many do speak English. It's one of the world's top ten financial and commercial centers, and home to some major corporations, such as Samsung and Hyudai. It's a very technologically advanced city being the first to feature some cutting edge innovations. The summers are hot and humid, but it gets cold in the winter and even snows, which will be a bit of a shock to the Florida boy!I've been thinking about him a lot this week, knowing he's just getting settled in to his new city, probably jet-lagged and maybe a little culture shocked. He'll be in orientation for a few weeks, then he'll get his assignment and find out the name of his school. As much as I'd love to go there and visit him, I don't think major travel is on the books for me anytime soon. I'm going to bug him about uploading pictures so I can live vicariously through him from afar. We're looking forward to hearing all about his cool adventures. We'll miss you, Uncle Josh!
1 comment:
how neat is that. His correspondence with you , you must share. Our grand daughter's best friend just got a teaching job in a tiny (100) village in Alaska. She now has a blog so we can keep up with her too. I also keep track of my sister in laws, best friends, neices triplets blog. The babies were born on New years day, they lived in TX, since then they have moved to Omaha, NE. She is a professor at the college there. Can you imagine moving with 3 babies?? Her blogs are not nearly as interesting as yours are tho. You've got her beat by a long ways!!
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