Lets try this again.

“Well fiddlesticks!” It has been a while since I’ve updated this here blog… A lot has happened. Currently I am on a bus from Ansan (near my old city) to Icheon. My computer battery has a life expectancy of about an hour so I figure this would be a good, internet-free time I could restart this thing. I’ve been living in Icheon since December when I started working at a small, private boarding Middle and High School. I wish I had been keeping up with this. I feel like I need to play catch up but I will not. I will just start from where I am now though briefly explaining my journey to my current stage of life. My new job is a complete blessing. I feel like the job was tailor-made for me. I had been looking and interviewing for jobs since March of 2011. There were prospects, some offers made, many rejects… and I was very angry with God for not ‘giving’ me a job. And ‘angry’ is a mild expression for the emotion I was feeling. It is hard to explain but I felt such intense resentment for God that I… felt an ‘anger’ towards him I had never experienced. But humbly I can confidently say it was His provision that professionally preserved me for this job. Searching for a new job was exhausting, stressful, and emotional. I was lucky not to HAVE TO have a new job. I was still working at English Village (my old place) and they were very gracious and patient with me. (Thank you so much Park. Sorry for any sass I ever sent your way). I was hoping for a university job or possibly a job with the Korean military. As a back up I started applying for International Schools and some private High Schools. I applied for ATA simply as a ‘safety.’ A man with difficult English contacted me for an interview shortly after I applied (an exciting but not always good sign). Motivated by an excuse to take a day off work, I decided to interview for the ATA job. I was still holding out for a university job so I was not terribly concerned or stressed about my ATA interview. Actually, getting to the interview was not a fun experience. One of the biggest cities in Korea is ‘Incheon’ but I was interviewing in ‘Icheon’ so that damn ‘N’ caused some trouble for me. Also, my contact at ATA was difficult to understand on the phone and in email (and in person -<3 TJN). The day of the interview I took an express bus to Icheon then blindly search for the local bus that would take me to the school. My contact did not tell me how impossible it would be to catch a bus to the school. And he also told me it would be 40 minutes in a taxi. I did not want to pay for a 40 minute taxi ride so I was hell bent on taking the bus… I will sum up that experience with saying it took me over two hours before I settled on taking the taxi… When I arrived at the school for the interview I was so pissed at ‘Tom’ that I had decided, ‘There is no way I am taking this job!’ As I walked up to the school, some students approached me and start talking with me. Then a wiry blond fella comes out and introduces himself and ‘Tom.’ I was surprised and embarrassed that a white person had such ‘undelicious’ English. (I later found out he was German and they don’t speak English there like they do in the movies I’ve seen). Tom leads me to his office but says he is interviewing someone so to wait in the next room. I immediately feel a sense of competition with this unknown person in the office. I’m mentally competing for a job I guaranteed I would not take. Tom shows me to an adjacent room where there are seven teenaged boys actively ‘studying’… I mean playing videogames. I was very uncomfortable. I was in adult-Justin, pretend-to-be-professional mode but then I was in a room with a bunch of kids. I awkwardly tried to make conversation with them but they were not interested. There English was very ‘big.’ As I waited for Tom to finish his interview with the undeserving loser, I talked with the boys. It was through conversing with them and asking questions I started praying that Tom offer me the job. Before I had even interviewed I knew that ATA is where I needed to be. The interview went well. Tom was loose with the start date and that benefited me. One of the things I hate most about myself is my horrible first-impressions and inability to make ‘small-talk’. (It pains me to try to have a conversation with people I newly meet). I haphazardly tried to make jokes but his confused expression was not encouraging. I forget that my humor takes time to… not hate. For example, when we were talking about pay he asked how much I was making and I told him, ‘2.3’… He wrote on a piece of paper that I would be starting out at 2.7. I was shocked and elated. All I remember saying was, ‘Well that would be more wouldn’t it.’ (Notice the period, not a question mark.) But I remember Tom looking at me like I was retarded and couldn’t tell which number was greater. I left the interview feeling confident, but nothing was signed and that is always a bit scary. I return to my English Village and told them that ATA wouldn’t need me until March (which perfectly consigned with the end of my contract). Then a week later, Tom calls and asks if I can start right away. English Village was very kind with me and let me out of my contract, helped me move, and just let me go with limited drama. Now I’ve been at ATA for over five months and I still love it. I cannot imagine a more ideal job. Wait, being Miss and Baylor’s caregiver, REBA’s love slave, or permanent volunteer at Camp Peniel would be better; but in Korea, I could not find a more cohesive job. Wait, maybe being Super Junior’s caregiver, REBA’s love slave, or Big Bang’s permanent English tutor/token white friend would be more cosmic. I want to write more about my job and my kids but not now. Maybe in a couple of months. ;) I spent the weekend with some of my English Village friends and I was saddened by how much I miss them. I wish I could to spend more time with them but I do not miss the job of English Village in any way. It is weird. I miss a lot about Hardin and still feel like part of me is there but if I never see English Village again… I will be okay with that. (That sounds bad but I am not saying that with any animosity).