I've realised recently that the last posting I made here was when I visited Mike and Will in Saigon last August. While a great trip that was 9 months ago. So I wanted to write down what I've been up to in the interim.
Well, 9 months is long enough to do a few things, and if you're a fb friend you already guessed what we did. There were a few reasons I decided to leave China, though the job actually wasn't one of them. The big change happened when Yen told me in Manila last summer that she was pregnant. This made returning to China unrealistic and a bit irresponsible. Especially as the university I had been hired to were acting like clowns, and the new Chinese Z visa process is ridiculously cumbersome. So we decided that long term we needed to be somewhere stable (Canada or the Philippines) and short term we needed somewhere with world class healthcare that we had both paid in to extensively over the last decade. There was only one place that offered us all that. So we headed back to Korea.
I took a job and headed over in September. I took two actually. I hire for my old university's Canadian partner company, and teach in Korea. I had originally planned to jump to a university job asap, but the offers I have received so far are.... well..... I'm better off staying in the private sector and making bank. I like the title of university lecturer, and was proud to have it in China, but I'm not willing to lose money to have it. The big appeal seems to be vacation, but I'm like Johnny Cash, I've been everywhere man. With a kid I'd rather work more and have more time at home that have a month on the road. Even when I do think about hitting the road I think about New York, Alaska, or Mexico. There is simply nowhere in Asia I haven't been that I feel I need to. Heck if you offered me a deal to work everyday for the next 15 years then retire, I'd say yes. In fact, almost all my friends here are leaving for China, Vietnam, or home. They just can't make enough money without working illegally, and that is a shaky foundation to build a future on. So for now private sector work and saving for home.
As to the really important news, the baby. We met a wonderful doctor here, Dr. Park Ji Yun, at Seoul National University in Bundang, and on April 17th Yen gave birth to our baby son Richard Alexander. We were in the hospital a few days, and now we are home, with baby, mom, dad, and aunt Elsie up from Zamboanga. Crowded house, but it is a lot of fun actually. Baby loves the attention.
I am going to try to update here a bit, but baby stories will mostly be with family. I've vowed not to do a Kathy Lee Gifford to our son on social media. But trips to the park, and other things we do have a place here. I can't see myself writing pithy observations about Korea anymore, and I find the news exhausting. But we will be in Daegu next month for Yen's birthday, and Busan this summer I think. I will also keep in active for when we go back to Canada. But I see monthly, rather than 2012's daily updates.
