Been thinking about going to China instead. Easier to get hired. Errbody and they momma aren't trying to go there like Korea...yet. Will keep you up to date.

So whatsup people. Been a long time since I've written on here.

Let's see...it's been about 5 months since my time ended in Korea. This summer has truly flown by. One of the shortest summers that I can remember. It's funny I always get that "schooltime" feeling around this time of the year no matter how old I get.

So what's been the deal here in Detroit? Well a lot of things.

For one, I have been trying to get another teaching job in Korea, but I've come up bone dry so far. The market is very flooded right now. I've also got three things going against me.

I'm not in Korea.

I'm not white.

I'm not a female.

The first one could be dealt with easily...the other two not a choice.

It's literally been absurd. I started off by applying with my recruiter that got me my first job. I applied with them way back in April and since then only about 4 jobs have been sent my way, and they never got to an interview. They have my docs and said they would send them to another school or recruiter if I found something.

I've almost lost track of the number of recruiters I've applied with and emails I've sent.

Ordinarily applying with multiple recruiters is frowned upon, but when nearly 80% of them don't even respond to your application, it makes sense to keep trying. I would say out of the at least 20 recruiters I've sent apps to only about 5 have responded with only 2 actually seeming like they were actually trying to place me.

I placed my resume on Dave's, got tons of emails. After I sent my picture, no replies! haha.

I sent an app to CDI...nothing. (I heard from Aclipse they weren't hiring again until Jnauary/February)

I sent an app to POLY...nothing.

I've asked people to look at my resume and photo. All seems fine.

It also gets tricky because my statewide criminal background check expires after October. They are only valid for 6 months. After that, I might as well get the FBI check because that is what will be required in 2011, and that check takes 1-3 months to get.

I'm now questioning whether I want to even go back now. I mean there is a big part of me that wants to go back. I had an enjoyable year last year. I never expected to WANT to come back for another year or two. Also going back there can make the process of achieving some of my future plans and goals much easier (I want to travel and work in photography). Plus it kills two birds with one stone. I get to travel on my breaks and work and make money.

At the same time, I could definitely keep looking for work here in Michigan (HA! I'd still be in the same boat) or elsewhere and accomplish my same goals, only it would be a bit harder.

Right now, the only thing keeping me afloat, is my website which I run. I've also done a bit of freelancing on the design side. I'm also sending out job apps to companies here in Michigan.

So...we will see what happens as I always say. If I can't find something in Korea by October, I may just wait until 2011 and try again. Or I may wait until the year after that. Or I may just say forget it LOL. I definitely don't like just giving up, but it's frustrating when you KNOW people are not looking to hire you or place you.

Either way, I will survive. I'm taking a photography class late this month which is another step. My website continues to grow. It's funny...I've heard comments here and there from frie...people who want to doubt me and judge me for being where I am right now. No one starts off on top, and like a friend of mine says, if you really want to motivate me, doubt me, and say I can't do something.

Which is one reason why even though I'm talking about saying "fuck it" about Korea, it seems just can't let it go because it does motivate me to find that job and show that I can do the job just as well as anyone else. Also I do know that not all recruiters or schools are just looking for that white face in the classroom. So it's just a matter of searching.

Anyways...rant done for the night. It is a great weekend in Detroit. Michigan football starts tomorrow against Uconn...I'm going to listen to one of my favorite artists tomorrow at the free jazz fest all weekend in downtown Detroit (and get some pictures), and the Eminem/Jay Z concert was going on tonight.

Hey.

So hey people whatsup?

So I'm back in the states. My one year adventure in Korea is over and it was a good experience. I'm in the middle of the process of applying for another job over there so I hope to be back over there by June.

I really miss that place. Hongdae...Insadong...the hiking...the people. I think another year is needed over there. There are still some places I haven't seen and I still have money to save hehe.

Anyways, life has been pretty boring since I've been back. I did go to California for 5 days one week after I returned though. I figured since I have some extra money, it was time to finally see the west coast. I met up with a Korean friend over there which was cool too.

Sand Diego is very nice, and I think that's the place where I want to move. Beaches...sun (most of the time...toni toni is a liar)...palm trees. Lovely. I also drove up to LA and went to a lot of things there. Finally saw the Hollywood sign, and went to Korea Town there. Also hit up Santa Monica Beach and saw the famous pier.




There is definitely a lot to see and I will definitely return soon...hopefully.

It was also funny that the morning I was leaving to return back to Detroit, I felt an earthquake. It wasn't a weak one either lol.

Anyways, since then life has been pretty normal and boring. I try to go out most days and take pictures for my website on Detroit that I run. And I also just go to random things around the city. My social life here pretty much sucks because well, almost all of my good friends are all spread out throughout the country now (mostly from college). Cali, Maryland, Florida, Pennsylvania, etc etc. I feel like a person who moves to a new city for a job and has to build their social network all over again. So annoying.

From how I use to be, I'm pretty proactive in trying to meet people, but I haven't here for some reason. No meetup groups interest me, but I may head to the cultural district and just hangout as that's where the more "Artsy" people hang out and just randomly talk to people. I'm also thinking about volunteering somewhere. Been looking at some Craigslist ads so hopefully I can find somewhere.

But yeah other than that, just working on my website business, working out, driving around, doing some reading, and just patiently waiting on the whole teaching process again.

But I just have this NEED to travel now. I've been in Detroit all my life and although it's my home, I am sick of it in a way. I've seen everything, the same things all my life. I feel like I'm, going to be a type of person that cannot stay in one place for too long.

The only problem with the passion of traveling is....money. Meh.

Oh yeah the NBA playoffs have been keeping me busy as well. Been pretty good overall so far.

So I missed my flight back home!

First time I've done this. I know many people don't ever want to take the blame, but seriously this wasn't my fault. Here's how it went down.

My flight was scheduled to leave at 1020 in the morning. I knew I had to be at the airport by 8/830. I took the airport shuttle from Suwon at around 645am.

Traffic was brutal coming in and I got to Incheon at about 815. I get inside and ask I proceed to go to check-in, and the lady asks me where my destination is. I tell her, and she says I'm at the wrong check-in line. So I go to the one she tells me to go to, stand there for 40 minutes, get to the front, only to hear that this was the wrong one, and that the one I was at originally was the correct one.

:/

So I go back there, and luckily there's no line. The lady starts checking me in, but then tells me I have to go to immigration first. I knew I would have to go there so no problem. I wait for about 15 minutes, and then the lady tells me that the lady at check in should've given me my ticket first. Well by this time, there's a half hour left before I leave and it's pretty much a lost cause.

And I take what I said in the first few sentences back. Perhaps I could've left a bit earlier considering it is a weekday and traffic would've been worse.

Also I was VERY frustrated at first. I'm not the person that goes "ghetto", but I was quite close for the first time in a long time. The ebonics was starting to come out a bit. But I afterwards, I figured I can't do anything about it now. Might as well enjoy another day here in Korea. I'm going to try to find a hotel and get some rest.

I'm now on stand by for the same flight just tomorrow morning. Hopefully I'll get on! Update later.

UPDATE:

So I stayed in a nice hotel last night...got some rest. Woke up this morning and thankfully I was able to get a seat on the flight this morning. I'm to Detroit! Hopefully be back in the ROK this summer. Peace yall.

So just about a week left until I complete my 1 year contract here in Korea.

Still can't believe time flew by so quickly. This time last year I was sitting in my room back home wondering wow am I really about to do this? Haha awesome.

This week has been going by surprisingly fast. Tuesday the English teachers all had a dinner for me. I got to choose the place and I chose to go to a Bossam restaurant which has become one of my new favorite dishes here. I don't eat kimchi, but the sweet kimchi that is served with Bossam is delicious and I nearly ate it all.

They gave me a present as well. Some face/wash thingamajig which I insisted that is was for women, but they insisted that it wasn't. Meh...I appreciate the gift and I'll see what it is.

I said goodbye to the teachers at the meeting today. I got to talk with very few of them because of the language barrier of course, but nonetheless I got some good greetings goodbye in Korean.

My friend gave me the idea of taking pictures of all my classes, so I plant to do that in the next two days.

Tomorrow i Thursday which is my longest day....5 classes...but thankfully the last busy Thursday I'll have in awhile.

Last weekend, my friend Wu who left this Tuesday had his going away dinner. Pretty awesome night.

We went to this Indian food place in Hongdae (Which has become one of my favorite places in Seoul) called Yeti. Awesome place. I want to try to go there at least one more time with some friends before I leave. Afterwards, the big group of 12 decided to head to the Noraebang!

Now I hadn't been to the Noraebang since last summer with friends up in Pocheon, where we stayed for about 8 hours. Thankfully this session lasted only about an hour and a half. I sang two songs even though I suck, but it was cool anyways.

After the Noraebang, it was time to head to the ever so popular Zen Bar. I saw pretty much everyone I knew in Korea (not everyone, but you get the picture). It was pretty awesome. I saw friends who had just returned to Korea, and friends who were leaving.

I usually hate the dance/club thing so I basically sat and chilled and talked with a couple of friends.

I also guess friends think I'm lonely because they kept trying to set me up with random girls there. First as I said above, I hate the bar/club scene. Second, I'm not dancing because I HAVE NO RHYTHM. Yes it's true. A black man with no rhythm...how could that be?

Third, even though I don't mind talking to people, how can I with loud music? I don't want to have to shout everything. Eh.

It reminded me of an episode of How I Met Your Mother where Ted basically said the same thing. If anyone watches that show, I guess you could say my outlook on relationships pretty much resembles his. Guess you could call me a bit of a romantic.

Anyways, after that, the group of 12, was down to 6, and at around 4am, we decided to go to the coffee shop to wait for the trains to start running again. By this time everyone is tired, I'm eating chocolate ice cream of course, and we just sit and talk. Good times.

Anyways, this weekend I plan to head to game 5 of the KBL Finals with my friend Mike who I haven't seen in awhile. I also want to try to hang with some other friends before I leave. So little time.

I'm looking forward to my time back home and to do a bit of traveling. I also CANNOT WAIT to see some NBA playoff basketball again. The playoffs start the Saturday I get back and I'm so ready. I seriously hope the Cavs lose. I literally cannot stand that team. I'm getting off track here.

Well, I hope everyone has an enjoyable week and my advice which I've been trying to follow lately is don't worry about the future, and let the past stay in the past. Enjoy the present as best you can.

Holla.

Whatsup people!

So one month to go here on my contract here in Korea. I really can't believe almost a whole year has passed by. When I first came here I said I would only do one year, now I find myself searching for another job here so I can experience another year here. Funny how life works.

So what has happened during the past month or so?

Well February featured the last days of desk warming at school and at the end of the month I celebrated my first birthday in a foreign country which was kinda weird. I invited several friends out and we had some dinner, then headed to Sinchon for a get together which was funded by a Women's Rights group or something like that. Anyways there was music, spoken word, and a large crowd. I enjoyed it.







Next we headed over to Hongdae which was basically right next door and stayed out the whole night. I did have a bit too much Soju that night, but it was a fun night. Talked to many people (a lot of characters) and proceeded to leave the area at around 8 am.

The very next day I headed up to Pocheon for Leonard and Khiana's going away dinenr. They left about a week ago and it was really sad seeing them go as they've been some of the coolest people I've met out here. That dinner also turned into an all night affair with food, drinks, and taboo which always gets out of control. It was guys against the girls and of course the guys won ;)



So I headed into March ready to knock out the last month or so of my contract. Job hunting has been going, so to speak. More than likely I won't find one until I go back home. Theoretically I could find one here and just transfer my visa but I actually would like a bit of a break back home (plus I need to take pictures and other things for the website I'm working on). Also a Korean friend of mine who's doing an exchange program back in Cali gave me the idea of traveling out there to visit so I plan to do that. I also have another friend out there and I've never been to Cali, so I'm making plans for that right now.

One of the best things about finishing a contract is the pension, severance, last months pay, and room deposit money that you receive. Altogether it adds up to a pretty nice amount which will definitely hold me over back home until I find another job back here.

So have I grown since I've been out here? Definitely. Could I grow some more? Definitely. A friend pointed something out over dinner the other night, which other people have pointed out many times, but I really need to work on my planning.

Basically my biggest problems are procrastination and looking for the easiest way to do something. Tow horrible things I know, but I still manage to get important things done in my life while having these problems, so I never really address them as I should, though I think I made some big strides this year.

Anyways it's still cold here. I'm waiting for spring to come. I have no idea where it is. We actually had a bit of snow last week.

I'm out.