I recently received my mother’s Christmas card for this year, and I have to say… I think I blocked out a lot of 2021. I did not remember 2021 being all that bad.
But, yeah. It kinda was.
It was a hard year. From pandemic nonsense to personal problems, it suddenly hit me that I have a very real reason for my high level of stress. This damn year really put us through it!
However, given that I really didn’t remember 2021 as a “bad year” until I read all about it from someone else’s POV, let’s talk about what I remember from this year:
2020 Background Information
Anyone who’s been following me for a while knows I graduated university in 2020. (Wow, that was hard.) I had to finish my degree from across an ocean and a five-hour time-difference. Getting up at 4am for a 9am class, wow.
- I moved back to the States from England at the end of March (curtesy of COVID).
- Classes ended in April.
- Exams were in May.
- Final Papers (aka my Dissertation) were due in April. Then, May. Then, June.
- The school year officially ended in June.
- We were supposed to get our grades in June.
- I got my grades in August.
- I got my DIPLOMA in September. -_-
Needless to say, this put a kink in every future step I was trying to set up for myself.
I wish I had known Korea would take as long as it did. I would’ve gotten a big-girl, full-time job like my parents wanted.
However, at the time, I thought I’d only be in the States a few months. So, I got a retail job at Francesca’s.
Retail Work (Fall 2020-2021)
In August 2020, I finally accepted the fact that I would be in America for a while, so I got myself a job. My plans at the time had me leaving the country again during the same year, so I opted to get a part-time job rather than a full-time job.
(As it happened, I had this job for over a year, but… Oh, well.)
The Next Step (Summer 2021)
Christmas 2019 had led me to a new friend. She was on her way out from being an English teacher in Korea, and it was she who originally put the idea in my head.
I would play with the idea for the next year before it became even a vague plan.
It was early spring when I got truly serious about moving on with my life. I did very much like my retail job–thanks to the amazing people I worked with–but I still wanted to save money to go back to school.
South Korea was a great place to do that. (The cost of living even in Seoul is exceedingly low and as an English Teacher, your employer usually pays for your rent. Two major expenses cut out right there!)
Getting to Korea (August-October 2021)
Getting to Korea, however… That was shit-show.
I used recruiters for the whole time I was applying. As someone who had degrees and paperwork from two different countries, this was absolutely the right move.
Recruiters are companies that make money when they place you in a teaching position. This also means they are the source of information for the red-tape dance that is moving across the world.
There are, of course, good recruiters and bad recruiters. I’ve had both. I worked toward the public school “EPIK” program for most of those months. When the August deadline rolled past, I opened my mind to the “hagwon” private schools.
I interviewed at two hagwons. The first contract fell through due to one straggling piece of paperwork from England. The second contract was signed soon after, but that campus was still being built, so there were construction delays for several weeks before I got the green-light to buy a plane ticket.
Once the flight was secured, things started moving. October all but disappeared out from under me:
- I was picking up shifts left-and-right at work trying to save as much money for the impending quarantine period.
- I was meeting up with friends on all of my days off.
- My room was an up-ended mess for weeks as I tried to separate out the things I needed from the things that would be sold or given away.
- Extended friends and family kept showing up.
In fact, my very last weekend was spent with my mother’s side of the family in Georgia because they’d all come down for her birthday.
I felt physically ill for all of October. The stress was eating me alive. My hair was falling out, I couldn’t eat anything, I didn’t sleep much, my emotions were fried and numb at the same time, and my brain all but melted out my ears.
I’ve always been a great traveler. I’m a confident flier and comfortable expat. I never get nervous about traveling.
But I was terrified. I didn’t feel it emotionally. But my body felt it. Wow, it felt it. Sitting in the airport with my parents and grandmother, I was both so nauseous I couldn’t breathe and I was physically shaking.
It didn’t feel like terror. It felt like I needed to go to the hospital.
That was the most ill I have ever been on any flight. That poor stewardess — she was so patient with me. I kept asking for things: water, WiFi, food, napkins. (Turns out I was seated in the wrong seat the entire flight.)
Thank god it was a COVID flight so almost no one was on the plane. I had an entire row to myself. I might have melted into a full-on panic attack if someone had been seated with me and I hadn’t had NCIS reruns.
Moving In (October 2021)
I landed at Incheon Airport in South Korea at 4:21pm on 18 October 2021.
I was not okay.
However, I had made a new friend in the Atlanta airport. (Hey, girl!)
She was making the same move as me, from the Atlanta to Incheon Airports, for the same reason of teaching English in South Korea. Our parents befriended each other on the outside of security, and both sets immediately texted their respective child to tell us to make friends.
We chatted at our take-off gate. Our seats on the plane were not near each other, but we did wait for each other after leaving the plane and we went through COVID check and security together.
I was very lucky to make such a good friend right off the bat.
Quarantine (October 2021)
Quarantine is exactly what we’ve all experienced already.
My wonderful director had found me a house that was much bigger than I expected. I have views of the mountains on both sides and a new, warm futon for my bed. (As the real one had been delayed.)
I found out I really like sleeping on a futon mattress on the floor with the heating running (because it comes in through the floor).
She’d also set up my WiFi and left me so much food! It was amazing. (Fun Fact: You cannot order food delivery unless you have a Korean phone number and internet banking with a Korean bank.)
She kept my stomach well stocked until my quarantine care-package arrived in the mail in Week Two.
My New Job (November 2021)
November brought both my freedom from quarantine and my training for the job. (Which thank god they did!)
Because my campus was not open yet, my training was at another campus. Everyday, I took an Uber to Seoul to that other campus. The first two days I was alone, and then I was joined by another girl. (Hey, girl!)
Over the last two months, my students have opened up in their personalities and are finally having fun in class. They’re all crazy smart as it is. And while sometimes their behaviour leaves something for the wishlist, I love them all dearly.
Teaching is a lot of work, but I really, really love my job.
New Friends (November-now)
If you’ve been following my YouTube, then you’ve already met my lovely fellow teacher, Daniela. This girl was my SAVING GRACE in my first weeks. Every question I’ve ever had about training or teaching or settling in to Korean life during COVID, Daniela has me covered.
Over the last two months, Daniela and I have walked to and from school together almost every day. She has become my best friend at work.
We are both quickly becoming close friends with our respective Korean teachers. Us four have gone out to lunch a few times, with more planned on the horizon.
I was also lucky enough to have a bunch of contacts from someone else. That girl I’d befriended at the end of 2019 who had been a teacher– When I moved here, she called all her friends who still lived in Korea and asked them to look out for me.
Every single one of them as reached out and said hi. I’ve met a couple of them in person.
And that made a world of difference in moving here, especially during a pandemic. During training week, I met the first friend, Crystal (who you may have met during Vlogmas this year), and she helped me get a subway pass.
How Am I? (now)
I love my job. I love my job.
I cannot even begin to explain how much I love my job, and honestly, so little of it has to do with the kids.
Yes, the kids are adorable and so intelligent and fun. Obviously. But my glowing reviews of my teaching job comes from the people I work with:
My director, the managers, the Korean teachers, and Daniela — These are the people who make me love my job. My hagwon feels like one giant family. It’s amazing.
And I honestly don’t know how I’m ever going to leave them.
But, London?
…is somewhere in the future.
My London life is obviously on hold, and I don’t know for how long that will be. The long-term goal is still to move back to London to (A) finish school and (B) live there long-term.
But, London is expensive. And I am broke. So, I came to South Korea to work and save money.
Then, after a couple years of working here, I will have saved enough money to move back to London. (Saying it like a promise to manifest that dream life.)
