Close encounters of the unfortunate kind

With four hours left in my flight to Seoul, it finally hit. Holy crap, I'm going to Korea. Everything has moved so fast and I'm not just saying that. Really, only three weeks ago I applied and four days after that I accepted a position. I honestly didn't think it was going to happen. I'm still a little surprised that it did.

Once I realized I was headed back to Asia, I started panicking a little. Did I make the right choice? Maybe I should have prayed more... Will I find a church? Will I make friends? I'm all by myself... That whole part about being by myself was--I'm ashamed to say--a little intimidating. Every international trip I've ever gone on has been with a group and even though I may not have known who the other group members were, I at least had someone there to answer my questions. This time, I just had to guess. For instance, I was praying like mad when our plane landed because I didn't have enough foresight to carry my new Korean address with me and the customs forms required an address while in SK. I was so afraid they were going to prevent me from entering the country and I would end up like Tom Hanks in The Terminal. Thank goodness it all worked out. I wasn't even questioned. But I was pretty scared for a little bit...

Once I arrived in Busan, I walked out of baggage claim to a whole herd of Koreans waving, smiling, and holding up signs with names for arriving people. Now, this is the part I was looking forward to--I felt like a celebrity when I arrived in Vietnam and found 5 students greeting me with flowers. However, that was not the case in Korea. As I walked up and down the row people, looking for my name, no one shouted out my name. At first I figured my recruiter had just missed me (she was the one picking me up), but after a couple passes in front of the crowd, I realized she wasn't there at all. Insert panic attack number two. What was I supposed to do? I didn't have her phone number on me (another lack of foresight). I felt really alone in that moment. I can't even say hello in Korean; how would I ask someone for help? Luckily I didn't have to do that; after waiting five minutes, my recruiter showed up to greet what probably looked like a scared and cornered animal.

As she led me out of the airport, down a dark back alley, and to a van full of old white men and luggage, I realized how vulnerable I was. I never made a "just in case" plan. What if this whole teaching thing was just a front for some other illegal business like prostitution, identity theft, or some sort of money scam? I had no idea who these people were, whether they were legit, or even what the itinerary was once I arrived. How long was I going to be at orientation? Don't know... How do I get from orientation to my school? Don't know... Did I bring the proper documentation? Hope so... A few things were explained to me as I crawled into the back seat of the van but still not enough to truly comfort my nerves. I was beginning to feel like a real idiot for taking this "job."

And things didn't really get better as the night progressed. All of us teachers had been told by our recruiter that we would be training in Busan but surprise! Now we would be training in Taegu and it would be a 1.5 hour car ride there. However, before we left Busan, we had to drop off one teacher who would be staying in Busan, and while our "recruiter" went to find a couple bags and some water for the rest of us, we sat on the sidewalk... alone... in the dark... outside a very ominous looking hotel... We waited for close to an hour before our she came back and drove us to Taegu. Once we arrived, we hopped out and walked into the seediest hotel I've ever seen. Though we were tired, a little confused, and completely vulnerable, we happy to be out of the van. And then our recruiter left, telling us that she would pick us up at 3 pm the the next morning and take us to a different hotel for orientation. Two questions crossed me mind at this point: 1. Why didn't we just fly to Taegul instead of Busan? and 2. Why did we have to spend the night in this hotel and not go to the final one? I was growing increasingly apprehensions of our "recruiter."

However, unlike my fears, she did show up the next day, and once again, joined by even more foreign teachers, we crawled into the back of her tiny van and headed for another hotel. Whatever fears I had of the legitimacy of this organization were finally laid to rest once we arrived at the new hotel. We were greeted by another American teacher who was part of the planning, taken to very luxurious rooms in a hotel much nicer than those at home, and finally settled in to a conference room complete with government representatives. It appears that our recruiter is just a disorganized person and simply forgot to mention the details to us.

So here I am, a little jet lagged at 4:45 AM but refreshed from six hours of sleep, reflecting on the past two days and putting things together in what will surely be a much larger narrative titled: Who Wants to be Taken Advantage of? If I've learned anything over the past two days it's this: have a back-up plan, and that doesn't mean just have a credit card so you can get your butt home. Things worked out for me (and I'm glad they did) but they didn't have to. I really could have been taken advantage of. Next time I do this, I'm going to be smarter. I'm going to carry contact information on me, have a check-in deadline with family back home, and most importantly, I'm going to establish an emergency contact within the country prior to departure should things go awry.

This has certainly been a learning experience, but I guess that in the line of work I hope to do, this moment had to come. I'm glad it worked out for me and I didn't find myself in any real emergencies.

What's up next? Today (Wednesday) is our last day of orientation. Thursday morning our schools will pick us up and take us to our respective cities. Then it's pretty much paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork. I've got to register as a legal alien, change my visa to a multiple entry so that I can leave the country on vacation, register for the pension program, open a bank account, and plan my first day of class. Saturday I meet the school officials. If you don't hear from my before then, keep me in your prayers. Things you can pray about: that my documentation (physical exam, background check, reference letters) will be accepted without question, that I make a good impression on the school officials (not unintentionally disrespect them by doing something stupid like shaking hands wrong), that my first day of school goes well (my students like me and I have a great first activity for them), and that my apartment is livable (no termites or any other insect/spider/bug, a comfortable bed, and good neighbors).

Until next time...