Day 126: Highs & Lows

Today was a really long, emotionally and physically exhaustive day. 22 hours of an endurance marathon, full of all the wonderful and depressing things that life can serve up in one single day. One of those days that feels like it was actually three days squeezed into one.

I was up bright and early today at 7:30am to get ready for my interview at the English Village (read English Cult) way out in the boonies. The school is built out in Ansan, but the interview was in Suwon, both of which that are cities that may as well be in Rhode Island, for how far they feel to the rest of the city. It was a long subway ride to get there, and then a ten-minute taxi trip before I arrived at the Gyeonggi English Culture Foundation Building. As I've mentioned before, I didn't really have any interest in this job but thought I should check it out anyways in case I change my mind.

The interview was short but it was alright I guess. I met one of the directors and several people who are all involved in the hiring process. Everyone was friendly and I'll admit that the project does seem kinda cool, but I know that it's not for me. Despite the awesome pay, I don't want to live way out in isolation. And I prefer to work somewhere where I can go to work, do my thing, and then come home to my own, *separate* private life. I like to keep work and 'outside work' apart from each other, and that would be really hard to do with this kind of job at the English Village. I left the interview feeling pretty confident that I still did well with all the questions, despite feeling like a bit of a liar for pretending to be interested in it.

I was DYING to find out about Bundang and was feeling so sure that I was gonna get it. So sure, in fact, that I took a bus from Suwon to Bundang so that I could hang out in Bundang until I got 'the call' (or 'the email') and then pop in to the school to thank them personally and sign all my contracts and paper work on the spot. No sense delaying things! They're eager for a teacher, and I'm eager to teach! I was gonna hang out with Austin to kill time until I found out but he was busy so instead I went to an internet cafe.

The first thing I did was check my email - no response yet. The anticipation was eating me alive inside!!! Just give me an answer, goddammit!!! I did receive an email from Poly Ilsan though telling me to let them know if I didn't get the job at Bundang. Hmmm... I chatted with friends online for a while until around 3pm when I couldn't stand waiting anymore. I phoned the school and asked to speak to the director. Why wait longer when you can find out for yourself right now?

I didn't get the job.

It hit me like a ton of bricks. More like a ton of bricks soaked in rancid dog shit and covered in burning oil so that I can choke on the smells while burning alive under the crushing bricks. In other words, it hit me pretty hard. :-(

Despite going for the other interviews, my eggs really were all in the Bundang Basket. Ilsan hadn't worked out, and no other job I had yet applied for did I want. What the fuck was I going to do now? Steven's been harrassing me all week, I told Cheungju I'd maybe go and work for them if I didn't get any jobs today, and now the worst-case scenario has gone through. Can I afford to wait much longer looking for other jobs? Should I just take something, anything and go with that? Am I being too picky? I've been turned down for two jobs this week...what's wrong with me? Am I screwing up royally in the interviews? Is the universe out to get me? Why has all of this been so difficult? I thought it was supposed to be easy to get great jobs in Korea???

It was a long subway ride home and I was totally depressed the whole way. But suddenly I was thrown into a high-stress frenzy upon checking my email when I got home. It was an email from my recruiter, telling me that the job in Hwajeong was mine if I wanted it, but I had to phone her RIGHT AWAY or it would be gone. So I was stuck in this dilemma, not sure whether I should take a job I was only partially enthused about or wait for something better to come along. But what if the Hwajeong job *was* the best job that was ever going to come along? Or what if I take it (out of desperation and disappointment?) only to regret it later? I literally only had minutes to make such a life-changing decision.

Before phoning my recruiter I decided to give Tim, the director at Ilsan, a call to find out what he meant by his email. I rang him and upon telling him that I didn't get the Bundang job (he was also really surprised) he told me that some things had changed at the school and maybe there was a job, afterall, for me at Ilsan. He said the school really, really liked me and wanted to get me on board, but he just wasn't sure if there was going to be a job right away. I told him about my Hwajeon dilemma and that I'd rather have the Ilsan job (if there was one) but that I'd most likely take the Hwajeon job if his answer was no. I only had a short amount of time to know because I was expecting an urgent call from my recruiter any minute demandind an answer on Hwajeong. He became really excited and tense too, so he said he'd talk to his boss *immediately* and would get back to me in an hour or so.

So there I was, caught inbetween two possible jobs, both of which could completely fall out any second. Would I be offered both, or lose the chance for either? Ilsan was my first choice, most definitely, but what if I lost Hwajeon while waiting to find out about Ilsan, only to hear 'no' and then have NO JOB? Fuck, the stress was killing me!!!

I decided that whoever phoned me next, that's the job I would take. It was the only fair, semi-sensible way to choose. And so I waited for the phone to ring, my fate in the balance, where would I end up?

The phone rang at exactly 7pm. Who would it be, and what would the answer be?

It was Tim, offering me a teaching position at Ilsan!!! I'VE BEEN SAVED!!! HOORAY!!!!
I was completely thrilled and so very very thankful to get that job!!! It may start even as soon as Monday, with me doing class observations, and I couldn't be happier about it. YAH!!!!!!!!!! Wow, I went from such a low LOW to such a high HIGH in just 2 hours!! Life is funny that way, eh?

I decided to go out tonight to celebrate. Me, Mark, Ailish, Barbara and Ellie went out to Incheon for a night out on the town and it was awesome!!! We first went to this bar called Africa and had some pre-drinks there. Then we hit Goose Goose which is the bar popular with foreigners in this corner of Korea. I've heard about it for a while but had yet to visit it. It was a really great bar, people there were super friendly and I met lots of cool people. We had TONS to drink and it was happy spirits all around for everyone. Life is grand!!! But man, can those Irish girls ever drink!! I COULD NOT KEEP UP WITH THEM!!! 4:30am came around and I was totally exhausted but the three of them were still going strong! Mark and I held out until around 5am or so and then gave in, we surrended, threw our hands up in the air and yelled out 'I surrender! You win! We give up.' haha! Him and I left the girls at the bar and caught a cab home. By the time I got back to my apartment I had been up almost 22 hours and the sun was already starting to come up... It's a very strange feeling to be going to bed when it's starting to get bright outside...

What a crazy, exhausting day today was. Man am I ever ready for bed!!! :-p