Ultimate 18-Month Update

May 17, 2016

Ultimate 18-Month Update

Where have the past 5 months gone? I’ll tell you where. They’ve gone into teaching, volunteering, writing, and adventuring. Into ministry and moving to a new apartment, music making and meeting new aquaintances. At 18 months since I signed my first teaching contract (at the academy I’m still currently with), I find that I’m going through a different sort of season. On one hand, I feel that I am just starting to become established in the Naju/Gwangju area where I live. I’ve developed solid friendships with both natives and foreigners. I’ve learned to speak the basics of the language and even to love much of the local cuisine. I’ve got a killer routine where I’ve somehow managed to carve out enough time to cook most of my meals, bike to the pool, meditate on the word, read, write, study Korean and practice my violin all before work every day at 3 pm! With these establishments have come many amazing opportunities. For example, just this past weekend, I took part in my first professional-level concert in Korea as a guest violinist. The concert was the real deal. It was held in a 1,000+ seat auditorium complete with the finest dressing room backstage I’ve ever seen. I performed a Les Miserable Medley which I slaved over with my pianist who provided the accompaniment.

(Side note: my pianist's name is Noh Eul. After several rehearsals and a lunch together, it has become clear that she is my Korean parallel. What I mean by that is we share more common circumstances than any other person I think I’ve ever met. We both began studying music at age 4. We’re both single -- interested in men, but haven’t met the right one yet. Both want to travel. Both had our fathers pass away as teenagers. Both Christians who grew up in the church. We even share a love for snowboarding which developed only after learning to ski! And after all those things, I’m certain I’m still failing to mention a few commonalities we share. So yeah, basically, Noh is the Korean version of me.)

During mine and Noh’s concert, I was enjoying an enchanting classical piano piece backstage by a Korean composer when a young, Korean man began chatting with me. Although I was a little disappointed to be missing the rest of the wonderful piano performance, I must admit I enjoyed his apparent sudden intrigue in my life. In our brief conversation, he told me he wanted to learn how to play the piano because he thought it would “make him more attractive.” I responded with, “Do you really think so?” And then he said, with all the confidence in the world, “I don’t think so, it is a fact.” To which I could only respond by smiling.

I was rather pleased to find, upon arriving at the concert hall, that there would be a performance by the Gwangju Children’s Home Choir – many members of which I am blessed to be acquainted with through my bi-weekly volunteer experience at the Kona Storybook Center where I read English storybooks with the orphaned children. Several of them recognized me instantly upon seeing me. Their faces lit up and they shouted happily while waving their hands in the air, “Eden Teacher, Eden Teacher!” Needless to say, this made my night. These little ones sang beautifully and later complimented me on my own performance, after which, the ones I knew well insisted upon playing their favorite game where I listen to the Korean names of all of their friends and then award them each with a corresponding English name.

To sum up, the concert was an amazing experience and it was truly an honor to be invited to perform with local celebrities. I even got to meet the mayor, who insisted on our getting a photo together. I shook his hand, and, not having properly been introduced asked him, “Are you the mayor?” He replied, “Why, yes, I suppose that’s me… although I know I don’t really look like a mayor.” Ha! Talk about crazy times. I was so blessed to have over 20 friends and acquaintances come to see me perform! All I can think when I get to experience opportunities like these is how incredibly gracious God has been to me. I realize with each passing year that I took so much for granted as an adolescent. These days I am seeing much clearer.

Actually, what I had really meant to get to all this time was that in this season of my life I find myself at a fork in the road. God’s provision where I am now is so evident. I have all of the things I need to be comfortable – perhaps too comfortable, if you know what I mean. I’m not entirely sure what has caused it, I have felt this sense of ‘restlessness’ slowly rising up within me over the past four months which is causing me to seriously consider the idea of a location change when my current teaching contract ends in October. Don’t get too excited. If I change jobs, it won’t mean I’m coming home. No, I’ll be here in Korea for a while longer yet. However, I’m looking to further my teaching career by making the switch from a private institution to the public school system. In fact, what I really think I want to do is try my hand teaching English at the university level. These jobs are the highest sought-after in Korea and the reason is because the pay is great, the hours are great, and the vacations are long. Actually, I don’t care about money or vacation really, I just want to rectify my student loan debts, and the bigger the paycheck, the sooner that can happen. In addition, the phrase “time is money” never meant more to me than it does now. With less teaching hours, I’ll have more time and energy to sink into my various ministries such as bible studies, music therapy, and writing. Overall, I believe there’s a job out there for me which is less stressful and will allow me to grow into an even better teacher. If you are reading this, please pray with me regarding my conflict of staying at my current academy or moving on. There are many incredible benefits to my current position (and also many trials), however the main thing that would make leaving difficult is that my boss and her family have become like my own Korean family. I care very much for them and would be so sad to leave them. And yet, I keep returning to this restless feeling, and I can’t help wondering if God isn’t moving to new horizons.

In other news, I was at the pool the other day, when I met a new friend. Her name is Joyce. She is the dean of the nursing department at the local university. It was actually quite an odd first meeting. We were just standing there in the open shower room, doing our washing business, when she turns and introduces herself to me. I hadn’t even realized she could speak English. After just a 5-minute introduction, she invites me to lunch. I am a bit shocked by this surprising offer and decline by default, but promise to try and get lunch “next time”. Well, next time comes and we are in the shower again when she turns to me and abruptly asks if I have a boyfriend. I tell her no. She then proceeds to explain about a foreign English teacher at the university who she wants to “introduce” me to. Now, if you are unfamiliar with Korean culture, the term “introduce” in most cases = blind date. Of course, I haven’t been on one of these yet (however, you may remember a certain short story which I published in the local magazine several months ago which chronicled an occasion where I almost did go on a blind date of sorts), and didn’t really know how to react to such an offer, so I just said to her, “okay”, but didn’t really think anything would come of it. She went on to tell me that the gentleman in question was actually more of her husband’s acquaintance and she couldn’t even remember his name (thus rendering it impossible for me to secretly Facebook stalk him later on). All she could tell me was that this guy was foreign, tall, a teacher, and allegedly had a good sense of humor. I thought, Well, it all sounds rather promising! And yet… incredibly awkward. Joyce and I loosely scheduled a dinner for she, her husband, myself and the mystery man for the following weekend, however, ‘mystery man’ had travel plans as it turned out. And the rest of the story is that this intriguing meeting has yet to occur, but remains a probability in the near future, that is, if mystery man can find the time. Despite the mystery man’s prior engagements, Joyce, her husband, and I did go on a nice dinner just the three of us to a very fancy Italian restaurant. I learned that the Korean couple had been married for only 9 years (despite their ages which must have been 50’s and upwards) and had no children. This instantly made me feel like somewhat of an adopted daughter. They turned out to be the cutest couple ever. The woman’s husband insisted on holding the door open for me at every opportunity and making me sit in the front passenger seat next to his wife while he took the backseat. At the restaurant, we enjoyed live violin music and joked that I should get my violin out of the car and join the performer for a duet. (Indeed, the violinist did play several classical and pop pieces that I could have joined him on, but, I felt strongly that the idea of it would be imposing). So, we left the performing to the hired violinist and enjoyed our incredibly delicious pizza and pasta. I tell you, I haven’t had real Italian food that tasted like that since coming to this country. After dinner, we sat in the courtyard under a giant tree that must have been over a hundred years old and enjoyed our after-dinner coffee under the twinkling lights.

Well, I guess I should wind this novel of a blog post down now. These are just a few of the highlights in the many adventures I experience from week to week here in Korea. I guess I could sum it all up by saying that I still love it here! God is growing me, and blessing me with more opportunities than I deserve, and certainly more than I ever imagined. Though I talk and joke a lot about my single-ness, and you may be wondering too if I’m ever going to settle down, the truth is, I truly value this unique freedom I have with nothing tying me down. I am free to roam, free to dance, and free to follow Him down whichever side of the fork in the road he leads me.

Thank you, wonderful reader, whoever you are, for reading about my adventures. Stay tuned for the next one (which –who knows-- may include more on mystery man)! J