When I said familiar, I meant that this will be my second tour of Seoul, so to speak. I taught English to elementary and middle school age students, and art to preschool students, between Feb 2010 and March 2011. I will also be living in the same general area of Seoul, which is the Gangnam District. Aside from location, and subject matter, this experience will be quite different, and hopefully more positive. My work hours will be 9-5:30pm, which is something I haven't experienced in many years. This will allow much more free time in the evenings than my previous hours provided. My students will be much younger than I am familiar with, but with any luck this means that they will be easier to teach and to care for appropriately. My new school is providing single housing accommodations, which will be nice. I had a roommate last year, which was a lot of fun. I enjoy living by myself, however. The last difference is the wonderful pay increase. This will allow me to save money for another great, multi-continent trip, and/or for my future graduate studies.
Once again, I will be putting my goals of becoming a paid designer/illustrator/photographer on hold. Don't be misled by my last sentence. When I say on hold, it simply means that I will be decreasing the number of hours I spend editing my resume and pdf portfolio, emailing Portland creative studios and firms, weeding through creative jobs on craigslist, LinkedIn, AIGA Portland, coroflot, and visiting the 40+ bookmarked websites of potential places I would like to work. These available hours will be used for shooting and editing my photographs, working on new design and illustration projects (personal and freelance(!!!)), teaching myself After Effects, and updating my website, blogs - more to come, and various social media platform profiles (twitter, LinkedIn, and behance).
So, aside from reassigning my creative free time, I have a few other goals I would like to accomplish during my year abroad. The last time I was living in Seoul, I found it easy to avoid exercising, despite the fact that there was a perfect stream with running trails situation just two blocks from my old apartment. Rather than gorging on 5,000 won ($5) pizzas and delicious kimbap, I want to maintain a healthier diet and follow an exercise routine. I am going to begin taking Bikram yoga classes after work, three times per week. I am also going to run 3-5 miles twice a week. Also, I spent many nights watching episodes of Dexter, and new movies, until the middle of the night. This time around, I am hoping to read more often prior to going to sleep at an earlier time.
Some things I will miss dearly about Portland
+ happy hour at my favorite restaurant, The Observatory
+ friday night movies and beer/wine with my friend Nicole
+ my beautiful nieces and nephews
+ my wonderful mother, and my grumpy dad
+ recapping "shit girls say," quotes with my sister on the phone
+ ragging on hipsters, bitching about family members, and watching movies with my brother, Joel
+ attending Portland's CreativeMornings series with Debbie (though I will be watching the posted videos)
+ having the ability to waste hours and money at Target
+ my queen size bed
+ my epson printer, and 24" iMac
+ wandering through various neighborhoods
+ watching movies at second run, cheapy theaters
+ the beer!
+ the bearded men
+ walking the labyrinth at The Grotto
+ helping my mom cook dinner, and going grocery shopping with her
Damn, I didn't make the list AGAIN! LOL! Glad you are blogging this experience! I call it vicarious living for big bro., but I suppose Kimchi is nice works too.
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