Practicing Spanish in Korea

Part of my 'excuse' for going gypsy and traveling for 6 months (2 back home & 4 in South America) was to work on my Spanish and learn guitar.

Well.. those two things haven't exactly been happening :).
I practiced guitar for 2 months back home, but decided not to buy one down here and continue practicing because I have a hard enough time keeping up with all of my bags when going town-to-town, and the stress of carrying around something else that is bigger than me was daunting. So I ix-nayed the guitar idea and decided I would practice whole-heartedly in Korea.

I was also 'supposed' to be studying Spanish while I was at home for 2 months.. but I only practiced guitar and applied to a million jobs in Abu Dhabi. The Abu Dhabi thing didn't work out, 2 interviews, 1 year of experience, and no CELTA in hand threw me off track. The Spanish didn't get practiced, and I honestly couldn't have cared less.. UNTIL I was about to leave for South America and realized, HOLY COW I don't remember any of my Spanish from University.. I'm screwed! So.. the decision on not buying a guitar on my trip was remediated by deciding to concentrate on Spanish while I traveled. The Abu Dhabi thing wasn't too disappointing, but it swayed me back to the idea of Korea, and I had decided I definitely wanted to teach at a public school there.

F-A-I-L

My friend Dana and I applied to EPIK, which is the main government organization you go through to find a public school job. We made the decision not to go through a recruiter, because we assumed we would have a better chance getting the job ASAP in the city we wanted, Busan. Anyways, we go through the interview and the night before we both found out that we got the job.. our friends told Dana N-O-T to go through EPIK because you'll get screwed and never find out which city you'll be teaching in until you arrive in Korea. So Dana and I were just confused, period. We started working with a recruiter a few weeks back and he told us that he had jobs in Busan and Changwon. THEN we find out that the jobs he have for Busan don't start until the end of September and he thinks it will be more difficult to get a job in Changwon because there are so many recruiters there (What the heck?! Busan is definitely the more difficult job to get.. and he just confused me even more!)

So anyways, I applied to Chonbuk University in Jeonju, Korea for the heck of it. Because I figured everything else was a confusion and up in the air, might as well make this whole thing more interesting. I got a reply the next day. I'm thinking WOAH. That was quick. Long story short, I thought the interview went horrible... they thought it went well, and I just had my second interview with the Director this time and I GOT IT!!!

I will be teaching at Chonbuk University in Jeonju starting August 29th. A UNIVERSITY!!! I'm sooo sooo thrilled!

There.. I promise myself I will be studying Spanish, practicing guitar, and studying to take the GRE! I hope there will not be another blog in the future about how I didn't accomplish any of these goals!!