My Plan

Chris: I know it seems like I'm hogging the blog but after seeing my previous entries I don't think Rowena wants to post here. Go figure.

So anyway, we should be in Korea in under 2 weeks and those of you who know me know that organisation/preparation aren't my strong points. But I'm trying to at least mentally prepare for my impending year-long out of body experience. I thought it would be helpful to flesh out my thought process a little and even create some goals. It should at least be interesting for me to look back on this post in a few months and see how naive/accurate/stupid I was.

Okay so I'm planning to just dive head first into as many opportunities and situations as I can. Up to this point I probably haven't been all that adventurous. Instead of a "dive in head first kinda guy" I'm more of a "dip the toe in, check the Ph, and then lounge by the pool with a beer kinda guy". Well that's gonna change. Think Jim Carey in "Yes Man". I haven't seen the movie but apparently he says "yes" to every opportunity that comes his way and hilarity ensues. Realistically, "Yeah Probably Man" would be a more accurate title for my movie ...or even more accurately "Yeah Probably, Right After I Finish Watching This Episode of '*Boys Over Flowers' Man".

I plan on doing my best to adapt and assimilate to the Korean culture. It's like what they say about prison - I've you're gonna survive, you've gotta forget about the outside world and get your head on the "inside". Maybe that analogy is a little unfair (hopefully). But just to torture the prison analogy a little further, I think when it comes to actually teaching the kids I'll have to, on my first day, either punch somebody out or become somebody's bitch.

I also plan on using this year as a kind of "personal development" experience. Chiefly, I'd like to develop some more discipline. Our Korean home town of Chungju has a population of around a quarter million. More than 3 1/2 million less than my Austraian home town of Melbourne and of course much less again than Seoul. While this should mean Chungju will have a certain quaintness and beauty, it will also certainly mean that it won't be the most exciting place. But this may be a positive thing because it will allow me to practice discipline. I'm picturing myself living a kind of semi-monastic existence. Like a young Budhist monk ....but with more meat eating. I guess it doesn't really matter how I practice my discipline, eg. physical exercise, ....ummm.... that's th only example I can think of right now. It's gonna be a long year.....

*'Boys Over Flowers' is an uber popular Korean soapie