The planning stage

I have decided to go to Korea to teach English, and no one has tried to stop me. Some have offered advice such as 'go to Japan' or 'go to Brazil' or 'go to China' or 'go to Taiwan.' I intend to apply to the public school in both South Korea and also Taiwan, so it is possible I will in fact end up in Taiwan. The trouble is I have mainly read about South Korea and I am in the process of falling in love with the country through pictures and stories. Whether Korea is the best place for me to go or not it is the place I now desire to go and what I think of when I say 'I am going abroad.'

At this point I have not signed any papers. I have read a great deal and understand some of the process. I plan to apply to a TESL course in the Fall and leave in February for the March term. I don't even know if I will be going abroad. When I say 'I do not know' I mean this in the serious sense of the word know. It is unlikely that I will believe myself to 'know' I am going abroad until they have accepted me, and even then I might wait until I am at the airport, until I have arrived in Korea, until I have taught my first class, until I recover from culture shock.


This blog will be a mixture of text, pictures, and audio-visual material. The focus will be on textual commentary, stories from Korea, information for those considering to go and those already there, material historical and philosophical, my personal experiences in a foreign culture (I'm really looking forward to the culture shock, I have theories about it and plan to take full advantage of the lostness it entails.) This blog will be aimed at both a general viewership and at those of my friends and family who wish to keep track of my life during my time overseas.