The Inaugural Post!

Smash a bottle on this sucka, cuz it's ready to roll!

I guess a little explanation is in order here. I intend for this to be more of a journal/update center for friends and family, so it'll be treated as such. Still, for anybody not in the know, here's the story:

About a month and a half ago, I broke up with my long-time girlfriend. I know, tragic, kind of a bummer to start off this journal, but there you go. I had moved across the country with her the year before in an attempt to "try something new." See, after college, I knew that I wasn't ready to jump back into more school. I enjoyed the hell out of it, don't get me wrong; still, four years was plenty, and I was ready to get out and actually do something. So I took up various teaching jobs and tried my hand at something that I really enjoyed and thought I could find a career in. I worked at a charter school in the Philadelphia and at an after school program. During the summer, I worked at an environmental education camp (Riverbend represent!). After a year of living outside of Philly, we moved to State College, where she started grad school and I desperately searched for a job.

Now, I've always been a lucky bastard when it comes to finding work or school or whatever. I tend to fall into things quickly, which could be some reflection on my abilities, but I think it's more likely just good luck. So when I got to State College, it was the first time that I wasn't able to find something nigh instantly that I wanted to do. Still, a couple of months in, I ended up at an amazing job running an after school program. It was a rough start, but I found a purpose, and I made some fantastic friends there. Life was good. Then the other shoe dropped, and I won't dwell on that stuff too much. I feel like I've bled my friends' ears dry talking about all the shit that comes part and parcel with a major breakup. But it definitely rocked my world, and I decided instead of sitting around there moping in the middle of nothing-PA, I would pack up and move back to California.

About a week and a half ago, my mother came to visit my sister, who I moved in with here in LA, and me. It was great because we got out and did stuff, we went to all our favorite restaurants, took walks on the beach, and just enjoyed ourselves. We also got to talking about what had happened and what I was going to do. My mother can really irritate me sometimes when it comes to stuff like this, but talking to her then was revelatory. Somewhere along the line, she said to me, "Didn't you apply to some program after college to teach English in Japan? Why not do that?" And I thought to myself, yeah, why not? Just leave the country, spend a year somewhere else completely. I'm not attached to anything here at all, and when else am I going to do something that crazy and different? So that night, I looked up programs to teach English abroad. I sent out a few resumes to see what was what, and continued on with my normal job search. Literally the next day, I received four or five responses, and within three days, I had a job offer.

Like I said, sometimes I'm just damn lucky. I just finished reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, and he mentions (more than a few times) that when you are searching for your personal goal, the whole universe conspires to help you. I'm not sure I'd go that far, but it's funny how things just work out for the best in spite of everything. The best of all possible worlds, eh? Anyways, here I am, set to leave the country less than a month after I moved back home, battered and confused. And I couldn't be happier with how things are working out!

So the breakdown is that I am off for South Korea. Specifically, it looks like I'll be in Busan, which is in the southeast, right across from Japan. The leave date is set for May 18th, barring any problems. Things I have to account for:

-housing is taken care of by the company I'll be working for
-salary has yet to be set, but should be around $2500/month U.S., which I've been told is more than enough to live off of comfortably
-travel arrangements have yet to be made, but the company offers reimbursement
-my stuff is already pretty much packed, since I just moved anyways, so that's at least a positive!
-according to my contract, I'll be there for a year from my start date

Oh, yeah, and I don't know a lick of Korean.

Wish me luck!

Erick