2008-10-24 - 11:08 p.m.

Mirror entry to the one at Xanga
HOW I ENDED UP IN KOREA~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once upon a time, or "Yet nahl," in the Korean language, when I was a little girl, I dreamed of traveling to Asia. My grandfather had a collection of National Geographic magazines that went clear back to the 1890s. My brothers and I loved to go up to the top floor of his house and read them. Articles that stand out in my memory were about Model-Ts crossing the Gobi Desert, explorers visiting Tibet, sailing on the Yangtze River in a Chinese 'junk', a visit to the Korean royal court and riding the streetcars in Seoul. Back in the early 1900s, they spelled it Corea and the King was the last of the Chosun Dynasty.

In high school, I seriously considered joining the Air Force, mainly so I could travel. On my 16th birthday, my dad took me out to dinner at a Korean/Chinese restaurant. He said, "You've got to learn how to use chopsticks. You never know where you will end up."

Little did I know that my mother and my maternal aunts had decided that I was going to follow family tradition and go into teaching. Of course, by the time I was old enough to start thinking about work, teachers had to have a college education. My aunts put up the magnificent sum of $200, to cover my first year's tuition, on condition that I go to what is now the University of Maine at Farmington. It was a tempting bait, and I bit. My folks covered my first year's textbooks and I got a part-time job. So, I worked and went to college, and, somehow, found time to date a guy who was going to college on the G.I. Bill. [Picture a lean, young Frank Sinatra with black curly hair and Bob Hope's ski-jump nose.]

Long story short, I married the guy, taught until I had kids, and sorta forgot my dream. We always seemed to be short of cash to pay the mortgage and utility bills. I was working (after the kids got in school) at whatever jobs I could get. Couldn't teach then because my husband hadn't wanted me taking college courses and my teaching certificate consequently lapsed. Seventeen years into that marriage, he ran off with another woman and I finally figured out where all the extra money had been going.

The next twelve years, I was a single mom. I found out I could make a decent living managing a homeless shelter and working as a counselor in a hospital (which involved a lot of teaching, "patient education"). When my youngest child headed off to college in 1991, I was dating a really sweet man,- a big, redheaded,Teddy bear of a guy . I asked my son what he thought about me marrying this fellow, and he said, "Mom, Go for it!"

Soon after that, 1993, my older son graduated from University of Maine at Orono and got a job teaching in Chong-ju, South Korea. He'd heard that it would be quick and easy to pay off his student loans. He discovered he loved it. When another teacher left his school unexpectedly, 2 years later, he called me to find someone who could come immediately. His brother had just gotten laid off from his job, and went. They had a wonderful time together. I kept hearing all these great stories.

Then, in 1996, my husband passed away. The next few years are kind of a blur. We had started a recycling business together, and I tried to keep it going, but just couldn't do it all myself. I hired the wrong helper and things went downhill. After closing the business, I signed on with a temp agency. At one point I was living on $25 per week, plus food stamps. I had debts,- my husband's hospital bills, my medical expenses, and so forth.

My older boy came to me in the summer of 2001, and said, "Mom, you've got to get out of this house. I'm going back to Korea; come with me." He and I went to see my dad and talked it over with him. He thought it was a good idea, and his eyes twinkled. "Well, at least you won't starve. You know how to eat with chopsticks."

Dad passed away shortly after this. [I'm glad he didn't live to see 9/11 and the things done after that.] I applied for several jobs in Korea. Then on the fourth of October, my furnace broke,- no heat and winter coming on apace. I was getting a little nervous, and kept telling myself to "trust, it'll be all right." Three days later, I got a call. A school north of Seoul wanted me if I could get there within 2 weeks!

I drained my house's pipes, found homes for my animals, and headed for Boston to get a visa. My brother bought me an airline ticket and I flew off to Asia.

This is the beginning of my Korea diary. The pre-Korea diary is long gone, but you can click the "next" button at the bottom of that page to read the play-by-play journal.

Thanks for reading and Happy Trails!

~ Sil

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