Calling world.......come in world....come in..

For those of you who have started searching the obituaries...rest assured I am alive and well.

It's been a while since my last post back in January and, to say it mildly, a lot has happened since then. I quite my job in Goseong, South Korea...was unemployed for a week or so and living out of a motel in Busan, South Korea (quite enjoyed that actually), and have now just finished my second week teaching at Kyungnam University in Masan, South Korea.

Why I Quit
My seven-month experience at Jung Chul English Junior in Goseong was a mixture of good, bad, and ugly experiences that came to an end on March 23rd. The kids were pretty great for the most part (although you always get one or two little shits). The teaching was quite easy, and there was a ready-made curriculum in place, and the salary was comparatively high for the location at 2,600,000won/month. My quitting basically came down to the fact that I was being cheated by my boss (who seemed to be a nice woman) by her not enrolling me for health insurance and pension (both legal requirements) for five of my seven months, then under-reporting my income to those agencies when I finally got her to enroll me, just to save money in the monthly contributions she is required to make to those agencies. F&%K THAT!!

Living out of a Motel
So after I quit, I packed up and headed over to Busan. Busan is the second largest city in S. Korea and I had been looking into moving there before I accepted the job in Goseong. I found a clean little motel near the main subway station and started my job search again. I also had an interview scheduled in Fukuoka Japan at a public elementary school on April 12th. I put out my resume and started receiving offers and interviews galore. Most of the jobs were pretty standard (nothing to write home about) and included a bit of a pay reduction :(
Then, through a stroke of luck and good timing, I came across a job at a university and submitted my resume. I got a call back from the university job two days later on Friday, talked to the rep., and was told the job was mine if I would be able to start on the following Monday.

Well, as I said before, I've just finished my second week and things are good. Not only am I teaching university students (no baby-sitting), I also got a 33% pay raise...yipppy!! And for those family members of mine back home, you should see me a bit more often as well since there are 7 weeks of vacation scheduled for this year.

Also, I'm very happy for an old friend of mine in Sabae City, Japan where I spent my first two years teaching English. Brad Lee is getting married to his long-time girlfriend Mariko in June of this year...Way to go Brad Sensei!!

Another love story...my good buddy Ryan, who I worked with for two years around Seoul, is on his honeymoon with his newlywed Korean wife Summer. You can follow their journeys through India, Thailand and Cambodia via the link to his website in my links section.

I'll try to upload some pictures sometime soon. Bye for now.