2015

I am sitting around in Saigon trying to sum up 2015. It was one hell of a year.

I spent nine months working at Moonkkang and doing my MA, which I finally finished and graduated with merit in September. I was very happy to be done with it but also very happy that I did it. It was a neat experience.

(I started this in Jan, edited it, and finished it in July)

2015 was a solid year, though 2016 is the year where I will finally say goodbye to my life in Daegu, and begin working for a Canadian company, which is sending me to China. Yen and I will be back together after long periods of time apart. I am very ready for that.

As to 2015. It was certainly not as good as 2014 (probably my best year in Daegu). I really felt the need to leave Daegu, and get a job that had some prospect of advancement and personal fulfillment. School dominated my time and finances. That being said, it was a very successful year. I graduated with merit (like a B+ I guess? Top 25%) and got my CELTA teachers license (I really should have done that the other way around, but oh well). The MA experience was one of the best things I have ever done, meeting Jon along the way and learning a lot, and later meeting Tobe and getting Will in to it. It has provided and strengthened friendships, and given me many opportunities for professional development. My CELTA experience was definitely more mixed, but looking back six months later it was certainly worth it. I use a lot of what I learned there every day, and more than a few of their methods work very well. It is absolutely worth doing. I also met more than a few amazing people while doing it. That being said, when I think about how many people consider the CELTA to be the only real course of value, the sole determiner of success and professional development (or even a major one), and doing it as a major accomplishment, I do cringe.

Yen and I got to travel up Vietnam, which was a lot of fun for both of us. I also got to see Cebu city, where I talk frequently about buying property and working. I can't see myself affording Qualicum in BC anytime soon, so perhaps Qualicum in SE Asia will do. I also snuck off to Tokyo with Bobby, which was a lot of fun. What an amazing city Tokyo is.

It is also the year I said goodbye to Korea. These few months here have been almost awkward. You know that feeling when you say goodbye to someone you won't see again for a while, and then you realize you are waiting at the same place or going the same way. It is almost awkward. That is how my time here sometimes feels. 2015 was when I said goodbye to the city that has been my home for over six years.

New Job, New Country

I said last October that I was done as a cram school teacher in Korea. Well, it turned out to be 4 working months premature, but that is about it.

I've been offered a job with SCIC, a Canadian company that teaches University courses to students heading to English programmes in China or else transferring to the US or Canada. That means that Yen and I will be moving to Nanning in September. I have had mixed feelings about moving to China. Pollution, internet censorship, and lifestyle changes are all negatives. That being said, Nanning appears to be a beautiful city in the south of the country, far less polluted than Beijing, and warm. It is also a new city, and a new country. Not that I don't love Daegu, but really after six years there isn't much left to see or do here.

The job itself also seems to be good, and a great resume builder. As I've said before, I am at the very top of a small hill. I want to get up a mountain, the top of which is my own company hopefully, or a solid job at a university in Canada. However, I need to climb down off this hill to start up the mountain. This job is the bottom of that mountain. My pay will actually be less, but so will my cost of living. I will also have opportunities to pick up extra work and get valuable job skills. It is also a new country, and I am excited for that.

I arrive on Sept. 2nd. My plan is to explore the area with Yen a bit, but mostly work and save between now and next summer. I'm sure I'll have more to say after I am there. First though it is my last couple of weekends in Korea, and then  month in Manila spent mostly doing paperwork.