Day 125: Hwajeong

This afternoon was my job interview for that position out in Hwajeong. Hwajeong is right next to Ilsan and is another one of those 'new towns' that have sprung up from rice paddies in the blink of an eye. The job at this school sounded alright, I wasn't overly excited about it from what my recruiter told me, but again, I need to keep my options open, right? An interview certainly doesn't hurt, and it makes for good comparison with other jobs. The school is about 2 hours journey from my house so I left really early to make sure that I arrived there on time.

The director of the school picked me up from the subway station and she was a really nice lady. She was Korean but studied in the US for a while so her English was excellent. She was super friendly and seemed like someone who would be a good boss. First, before taking me to the school, she brought me to go and check out where I would be living if I took the job. Man, the housing was super nice!!! It was in a brand new building up on the 6th floor and was a totally modern suite - it even had a washer/DRYER!!! Definitely seemed like it would be a cool space to live in.

She took me to go and check out the school after that. The school is called Choral English College and it's a franchised chain of schools in Korea (just like REI and Poly.) It was a new and small school but apparently is growing. She told me about her plans to hire another teacher or two at the end of summer, in addition to this particular position, and that was relieving. In these days of English schools closing all the time, and with my own experience, I'm a bit paranoid. CEC seemed to have a fairly organized curriculam and the working hours were really attractive as well.

All in all it seemed like a good school, but for whatever reason I just wasn't excited about it. There was something I just couldn't place my finger on. There was nothing overtly wrong with the job or with the school, but I just didn't have the same excitement that I had when I interviewed at either of the two Poly's. I really don't know why. The vibe at the school was different, and I just wasn't itching to sign on like in other interviews. Perhaps this is a sign? Hard for me to say, I can't even fully understand it myself. I left the interview feeling a bit unsure about the whole deal...

I rode back into Seoul and spent an entire afternoon devoted just to myself. I spent over two hours in Kyobo browsing through all the wonderful books and CD's. I can spend entire days in book stores and never, ever get bored of it. I have so many books at home waiting patiently in line to be read so I'm not allowed to buy any right now, but I do love to browse. It brings me such joy and peace to know that there's more amazing books out there in the world than I'll ever be able to read in one lifetime. I think that's really, really cool. I then went into the music section of the store and listened to a couple CD's, and then ended up buying two - Atomic Kitten's Greatest Hits and the new Avril Lavigne album (could there be two albums more opposite than those two???) :-)

I then went to 'my Starbucks' to sit and read for a couple hours, something else I never get tired of doing. I just finished 'Life of Pi' a few weeks ago (a thoroughly enjoyable read - I highly reccommend it) and have since moved onto 'White Oleander.' I stole this book from my friend Graham's family collection they have out at their cabin a few years ago but only just now jumped into it. It's been addictive so far, the kind of book you can get lost in for hours. The characters are so rich and vivid and wonderfully complex and I totally lose myself in the story for a while everytime I read it. I'm only about a third of the way so far, but it's been a really great book so far.

Later on I met up with Michael, Eric, and Tim for dinner, along with Gary and Tracy who are visiting Michael from Taiwan. We all wandered through Insadong for a bit and then had a delicious dinner at a Korean restaurant. After dinner we went to a board game bang and had a blast! Koreans are all about 'bangs' (means 'room', and is pronounced like 'bong') and there's several varieties to choose from. There's norabangs where you go and sing karaoke, there's DVD bangs where you go and watch a movie with a bunch of friends in your own small private theatre, and then there's board game bangs where you hang out with friends and play board games in a big room full of people doing the same thing as you! They're all super cheap and tons of fun!! This is the first of the bangs I've tried and it was a blast! We rented Clue and the six of us had a great time!!! It was the first time playing Clue for everyone but Michael and I, and even for myself it's been *years* since I've last played it. I ended up winning 2/3 games and then had to head home on the train. A very good day!

P.S. I find out tomorrow if I get the job at Bundang and the anticipation is KILLING ME!!! Aaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!