The beginning

So here I am in blog land.. learning well how to er... blog. It was not too long ago I owned a website... about a year ago... or two... or ten. Okay it was a while ago, the point was that it happened. That was the time I was on the world wide web, posting frantically and exchanging my thoughts with the web community. Since then I have stuck to emails and face book. Until today!

I wanted to detail events of my ongoing journey to live and work in Korea. The idea came to me a while back and I never really did anything about it. You know you have an idea in the back of your head and you think to yourself. 'How great would that be if I did that...' But nothing ever really comes of it because it takes effort and time and planning etc.

It was about this time last year that I found myself in Korea. Yes you know how it is. You go outside one morning, thinking to walk around and take a wrong turn and end up wandering down a street you have never seen before.. and then before you know it you are in a totally different country... Well it sorta happened like that!

Okay seriously, I thought I would visit my friend who lived in Busan.

This was the first step in making this thought into a reality. I would go there to Korea... look around and see if it was a place I could hang out in for a year!

It was! I thoroughly enjoyed it! I loved the food, the culture and the people! I also took some time to learn Hangul! Its quite easy. You can easily learn in within a 48 hours to a week. Of course the language itself will take time!

But the script is useful. I tired out my host no end stopping in the street to read anything I could.
I returned to London, to my job and my friends and for months, the idea was just still an idea. I actually did not do anything much to add to my experience of Korea.. until I decided it was about time I took the CELTA course. (certificate in English language teaching to adults)I thought this would best equip me to deal with the nuances of teaching the language. It has and I met some really great people on the course. (see pic below on the left) I did it for a month at St. Giles International, Highgate.

It was an intense course but fun nonetheless. Both bouts of pleasure and pain were felt at the same time. Endless night of staying awake worrying about language analysis sheets with my nerves ripped to shreds. Not only were you teaching a real class, but you had your fellow colleagues watching you and your teacher assessing you! THough you do come out of the course much stronger in terms of confidence.

There were ten of us and the class seemed equally balanced in terms of the sexes. Five boys and five girls. They truly were a unique bunch and I hope we all keep in touch. We all passed thankfully! I had stopped work full time for a month to commit to the course and resumed straight after finishing!

I had completed stage two of my plan for Korea. Now its on to stage three. This is where I currently find myself. Submitting resumes and making applications! I have been on different websites and have contacted various agencies. I never guessed the sheer volume of them. Lets see what I find when I click away on the sites...Toodles for now.