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I came back to Korea in late January after six weeks in UK & CZ drinking and this year felt so different right from the beginning. I was recharged and glad to be back, and in the mood to just quietly get it right. That frame of mind was a nice surprise: a bit of drive, of all things!
University was better: great new apartment, new director Jason with proper attitude, even had me doing teacher training, this was another year. My friends were generally different as well, some of the old ones left, Nicki, Lara & Sam; this year was more Jason Sparks, Daniel Hark, Brett Tomashek, Dale Patterson, Andrew McCambridge, Wendi Rogers, Kim Littlefield, Eva Capkova, Rene Fejl, Oh Seung-Hoon... very nice set! Very good class relationships as well, I was clicking with the Korean students so much more now and some of my best ever classes were from this year. Isn't it funny. 1997 was so in my comfort zone. I have a lot of affection for this year, all good fun and good conversation, seemingly on tap. Also a vintage for Paul Hanley and I. We DJed in a big Hongdae club called "Underground" on Saturday nights and did incredibly well at that. I can still see all those girls' smiling faces. And their legs...
After coming back from UK & CZ again in the summer, it felt like I was slowly moving on from CZ and not thinking of it all the time like last year, I had a life here now too. Another Hongdae club to play in, this time "MI", and people to go out with all around. It was a very good year.
At the end of the year I decided to go back to UK and leave teaching and get some kind of other career. One close student was a Hyundai manager who read my palm and reiterated the obvious, go back and jump into a career, if you do you'll make a success of it. He looked like he knew what he was talking about anyway. A big moment but it had been forever coming: I only went to Ukraine in 1992 to have a look and here I was almost six years later in Korea, aged twenty-seven. Time to go. And interesting times: what about Eun-Jung? What about her. In December I thought about the biggest decision of my life for a few moments and proposed to her just like that, she said yes and we had a plan: me go home, via Thailand and a two-week holiday for both of us, and half a year later after I have more of a clue about what's going on back home, I'll come and get her and we'll get married in London.
This is going on in my 7th floor apartment in Imun-Dong. Outside in my bank account my Korean won is depreciating and my future is scaling down its scope before my eyes, as the won fell foul of the Asian Financial Crisis of 97. My money! Everyone's money! The end of the year was one interesting time for everyone, we all lost loads of money but at least I can say I've lived through a financial crisis. (I'd rather have the money though of course.) I bought my UK pounds at the very worst point in the story, just when it looked like the won would get ripped to shreds and just before the IMF came in with its $58bn loan. Talk about selling low... if only I'd got caught in traffic that day.
We left on Xmas Day for Bangkok. I'd spent a week after semester ended getting everything together and saying some goodbyes but most of my friends had already gone... Just shows you. In KR you're either Korean, a soldier or a teacher. Anyway, I was gone from another country but I'd be back...
1995 ~ 1996 ~ 1998 ~ 1999 ~ 2000 ~ 2002 ~ 2003 ~ 2004 ~ 2005 ~ 2006 ~ world cup 2002 ~ korean personalities ~ korean places ~ the people ~ my own photos of korea from living there and visiting & revisiting it ~ it's quite a place you know, and well worth a visit ~ except you probably won't!