Bittersweet Korean Summer

Korean summer. This is something I've gone on about at some length in every means of correspondence known to man. I've talked on the phone, sent e-mails, posted blog entries, texted, written letters, sent smoke signals, and tapped it out on drums how I am just not built for summer in this country. And... here I am! Let's do this one more time, shall we?

I sent a finely crafted cover letter and application package to a kid's camp yesterday called Big Feat Camp in Yong In, (the city where I started my Korean teaching adventures), and almost instantly got a reply from the lady in charge of application receipt. Her name is Amelie. That's the title of one of my favourite movies. "Le Fableaux Destins d'Amelie Poulin" I think is the full title. I downloaded Terminator II one time back when it was a new release and Amelie is what I got. I watched it instead of deleting it because I had some spare time. What luck! I watched T II later and then deleted it, but I kept Amelie. At any rate, Amelie thanked me for my application and especially for my detailed cover letter. She said it gave her a good idea of who I am and then said that I am what they are looking for and would be a wonderful fit for the camp. Unfortunately Amelie doesn't have the final say. The camp accepts applications until the end of this week and then some other people decide. However, Amelie only gives them the ones she likes, from my understanding, so at least I've passed that part of the process. I'll know next week if I have the job.

It's from late July, (25th), to mid August, (14th), so it's a three-week camp. It's kids aged 10-14, who I have NO trouble with at all, and the offer includes 3 meals a day and an unshared apt. with ensuite. The pay is 3 million Korean won. That's roughly 3 thousand Canadian bucks. Around the end of August is when I have been told the Naju City School Board will have openings for me to work full time teaching elementary and middle school there for a year. So it'll work out perfectly!

Alternatively, I could return to Indonesia and work most of June, July and part of August before breaking my contract to return to Korea for the Naju job. (or something better if it comes up) In Indonesia I'd be making 17 million a month minus tax, room and board. And, of course, entertainment. If I'm extraordinarily well behaved I may manage to save 500 bucks a month. That's 1500 dollars for three months of work compared to 3000 dollars for three weeks. And there is still a good chance that I'll get some part time work here in Korea for the remainder of June and most of July.

My criminal record check is in Korea. I have been tracking it through the Canada Post website and it's here. I am staying in Incheon right now, where the airport is so I'm hoping it's actually in Incheon. It arrived on May 31 and Canada Post reckons it'll be delivered by June 5th. I can't see why it would take 6 daysto go from Incheon to Incheon but then I don't know much about the mail here in Korea. At any rate, once I get that thing I'm going to send it to all the places I've applied to already, who have passed over my application for the lack of it, and I'm going to send out a whole new barrage of application packages to recruiters, universities, colleges, schools and hagwons, who will now pass me through the first stage, (documentation complete), and onto the second, (look at the resume and cover letter). I don't think it's going to be hard for me to fill in the partial months of June and July. Maybe I'll get another camp. Maybe I'll get some part time stuff. Maybe I'll go to Gwangju and freelance a little bit there. My buddy, Guns has pulled some strings and found me a cheap, but nice, place to stay there. About 300 bucks a month.

So I'm on the verge of committing to another year and then some in Korea. And the facts that I will be delivered from a tougher go of it in Indonesia, that I'll be working with the age and level I like, that I will be in towns I like, that I will be able to dig myself out of the financial hole Indonesia has gotten me into, these facts just might make this the best summer ever in Korea. I don't know if that means it will be a GOOD summer...

I went out Sunday morning to get some fixins for bacon beer can burgers. Amber and I walked at an unnaturally fast pace to the nearest Home Plus to get buns and some other stuff. It was around 10 AM and it was already scorching hot. Unlike the height of summer in Korea when the Monsoons blow oceans worth of rain into the country, it wasn't overly humid, but still plenty hot enough, and bright enough, for me to start the day off with some sweaty, stinky dehydration and I think a mild shot of sun stroke.

Got back to Amber and DB's and made the burgers, some macaroni salad and some breakfast all in the space of an hour or so. DB wanted to leave for the stadium by 12:30 so we could get there early enough to play some catch before watching... SOCCER of all things! DB's nephew Shin Sae Gye

is a pro soccer player. He plays for Suwon Samsung FC in the Korean league. So Suwon was playing Incheon and we decided to go. I thought I'd make burgers and salad for the game. Which I did with the help of Amber. Then it was another walk in the sun, heavy laden like mules, to the subway and to the stadium. By the time we got there and busted out the ball gloves and started playing catch, I was stinky, sweaty and strokin' out some more. I don't know if it reached this temperature in Incheon but it was supposedly 31 celcius in Seoul that day. That's 88 Fahrenheit. Heather! I believe it's 304 Kelvin. That's what it felt like to me. 304!

By the time Amber and Crystle got to the game and bought us all tickets I was already feeling a bit burnt. We got a spot in the upper deck of this AMAZING stadium,

where it was shady, (thank God), and cracked out the beers. I was already so thirsty that I drank half a tall boy in one guzzle. Just before half time in the game I had a burger, (MMMM MMMM GOOD!) and some macaroni salad. DB didn't have a burger, Amber didn't finish her's and nobody but me had macaroni salad. It was nice that Crystle ate her burger though. It's not easy to find something both Amber and DB will eat. DB was satisfied with his squid jerky. Almost anything that's not Korean, he'll pass. Amber is sort of the opposite. Almost anything Korean, except sam gyup sal, she doesn't really care for. I asked if DB would eat burgers and she said he would. I guess he's had burgers before in Australia when Korean food was in short supply. I figured he might like macaroni salad too because it has tuna in it and he loves fish. Amber said she didn't know if he would like it or not. I guess I didn't ask Amber if SHE would like it but I now know that she doesn't.

Anyhoo, after eating my food I was thirsty but out of beer. The sun had moved and the section we were sitting in was no longer shady. It was hot. Even though there was a game going on I either went to sleep or passed out. Just shut her down. I woke up once, saw the soccer pitch WAAY down there, got vertigo and startled myself but still went back to sleep. Then something exciting happened in the game and DB yelled and startled me awake again only this time for good. I don't know if it was too much sun, lack of sleep, dehydration, or even the two beers but I don't remember ever feeling like an older man.

After the game we all went to Juan, where Amber and DB live, and we were going to watch the Kia Tigers baseball game and eat, you guessed it, sam gyup sal. I love sam gyup sal but wasn't too hungry after my substantial burger and pasta salad lunch. I just wanted to see the game and hydrate. Everyone else had used the fruits of my hard labour slaving in a hot, smoky kitchen, as appetiser food I guess.

Long story short, I couldn't stop drinking that night. Beer, water, I drank a LOT. Then just about the time DB and I got back to the apartment I started rubbing my right eye. It felt like there was sand or a hair or something in it. I rubbed and scratched and worked the eye for over an hour. It was running pretty freely before I finally went to bed. And if that weren't enough coupled with the warm night air to keep me from sleeping, there was a mosquito in Amber and DB's apartment. Korean mosquitoes are the worst! They are impossibly smart and shifty. They get camouflage. They don't show themselves in the light but as soon as you turn the lights out... zzzzzzzz. And I'm pretty sure Korean mosquitoes have a whisper mode too when they don't buzz. I've seen them on occasion without hearing them. They're nasty and I spent half the night trying to stop this one mosquito from ruining my sleep or giving me Dengue Fever, Malaria or ebola. No such luck. Next day I tried all day to find that little bloodsucker to no avail but as soon as I turned out the lights... zzzzzzzz. I so another long session of eye rubbing and mosquito chasing and I didn't get to sleep until probably 3 or 4 AM. Then up at 7 today soaked in sweat with about 20 bites on my arms and hands and a foggy right eye with yellow, sandy crusties almost spackling it shut. Yup, that's the Korean summer I remember.

So I'm not sure if it's going to be good or bad this summer. Probably bittersweet. Time will tell.

I'm going back to bed. Cue the mosquito... zzzzzz.... grrrrrr.....