How I Got Here

My path to expatriotism is a little more direct and started a little longer ago than most people. I have been in Japan for about 11 years now I guess and before that I was in Korea. I went to Korea right when I graduated from college. I woke up in a cold sweat about six months before graduation (truth) and realized that I had no skills apart from being able to work a TV remote control with my right hand while rolling a joint with my left. But I got recruited, a story in itself, to teach English in Seoul. Airfare, apartment, paid vacation, decent salary, the complete package. At 21 I thought it was worst job I had ever had. I sincerely believed that back in the US there were thousands of employers just waiting for someone of my talents--which had not improved from before. I finished my contract and left Korea the next day. travelled through Asia, not through India though, and went back to to the states to travel and look for work. I was sleeping in my car within six months.

I could not get a job and my savings were running out. Sleeping at rest stops or along the road as homeless people beat on the windows "soliciting" change, I would think about my cozy Seoul apartment and the money I had had and the girlfriend who used to come by and sex me up in the mornings. I thought a lot about her actually.

Originally, I vowed that I would never teach English again. But realistically, it looked like the quickest way out of the car. I maxed out my credit cards, got back to Michigan. Sold the car, crashed with my brother and got into an ESL MA program at WMU and a got a student loan. I vowed I would never go back to Asia. Salaries in Europe or South America would allow me to pay off my very modest debt in the year 2200. I decided to go back to Asia, but never again to Korea. I wanted to go to Japan, the El Dorado of ESL teachers. I couldn't get a job from the states in Japan. Then I thought, I can go back to Korea, but not Seoul. Then I thought, I can back to Seoul, but I will not work for ELS CHONGNO. To make an already long story shorter, Not only did I end up working for the same employer, I ended up living in the same apartment,　the 14th floor of the SAM CHANG Plaza. The power was out in Seoul the day I arrived (as frequently happens) and I had to carry my luggage up 14 flights of stairs. I swung the door on the apartment I had left 18 months before and the thought struck me. It doesn't matter what YOU want in life, it is what they give you.

I always say, you can't love your job until you've slept in your car. I like living in Asia. The news and politics are interesting.