7 Months In

I'm 7 months in to my one-year contract, so it's time to start thinking about whether or not I want to renew for another year. I don't need to make the decision right now, but it's something I've been thinking about. It'll be hard to leave my job. I enjoy it, even when it's working me ragged, and I think I'm pretty good at it. Not to mention the money: I live in one of the most expensive areas of Seoul; I eat out at least once a day, everyday; and despite the 15% devaluation of the Korean Won over the past 6 months, I should be able to save about $15,000 by year's end. That's without doing privates, which is illegal, though common. It's not a bad deal.

The language barrier is significant, though, and Korea is not a good place for those who are uncomfortable being alone, or who are prone to feelings of loneliness. You have to get used to mood swings; "mood swings" isn't the best choice of words, due to its usage in psychology, but it'll have to do. There's no neat way to describe the up-and-down feelings most expats experience here.

My supervisor--who I'm fortunate to count as a friend--says that I'm generally a positive person. I've heard this before, and I suppose that it's borne true. I don't complain about Korean people or culture as much as most expats. I'm generally fond of Korea, despite its faults. And it's not for a shortage of faults: racism, sexism, and xenophobia suffuse the attitudes of many, probably most, people here. It's frustrating. My sense is that many expats allow that frustration to breed resentment (it should be said, though, that far from all of the resentment directed at Korea is fair). I don't feel that way, but many do. My attitude about this is not unlike my attitude about Korean racism directed at the Japanese: I understand the reasons for it, and I sympathize with those reasons, but I don't follow them to the same conclusions. I understand the feelings, but I don't share them.

Anyway, these are some of the things I've been thinking about lately.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell By Susanna Clarke

Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is long. You don't see many paperbacks exceed 1,000 pages. Then there's the footnotes: JS&MN is full of them. Maybe that's what you'd expect from a well-researched annotated history of 19th-century Britain--except JS&MN isn't a history book; it's an alternate-history fantasy novel. Footnotes aren't new to genre fiction: Terry Pratchett, for example, uses them. Clarke's usage, however, often leads to pages-long digressions into British history. The footnotes not only add to JS&MN's density, but also add to the reader's impression that he is reading a narrative history of Britain. So complete is the illusion that, more than once, I began to wonder: Why haven't other historians delved into the history of magic in Britain. It's so richly interesting!

The book moves forward through the lives of its title characters, who are both practitioners of the hitherto lost tradition of English magic. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell are giants in the alternate-history of Britain, so it's no surprise that they find themselves amidst the momentous events and among the most important and influential people of their day (e.g. Napoleon and Waterloo). But JS&MN is at least as much about its characters and their culture as it is about the history of Britain. There's lots of Jane Austin's influence at work, from the subtle social commentary to the empathetic--though flawed--title characters; and like her great books, JS&MN tells an essentially human story.

JS&MN has been called Harry Potter for adults, but that's not exactly correct. It's not correct both because adults have, and do, read Harry Potter, and also because JS&MN won't appeal to nearly as many adults as Potter does; though where there's inaccuracy, there's also some truth. Children will appreciate JS&MN when history becomes the most popular subject in school and they read Jane Austin for pleasure--which is to say that almost none of them will. It's a different kind of book. Partly for that reason, it's well worth the time investment--great as that investment may be.

Bang Bang Bang, Or, A Pun That Almost No One Will Get

I've been without inspiration to write for the last few months, but I've begun to suppose that the best way to get it back is to start writing again, with or without it. I'll start things off with the simple observation that bagels stuffed with cream cheese and chopped apples--yes, apples--are surprisingly delicious.

Bear Market

Once again I'm stepping in briefly to say that, hopefully, I'll be writing here more often in the not too distant future. One of my earlier posts, however, is worth recalling:

I've become increasingly concerned about the US economy, and by extension international markets. Maybe, if I have time next weekend, I'll write about my reasons.

I didn't have time to write about my reasons; as it happens, though, all you need to do is open a newspaper to see why I was worried. There's more coming, I'd bet. My money's staying out of the market for awhile yet.

This was entirely predictable: the inevitable consequence of a collapsing real estate market. The real question was always when, not if, a significant chunk of the financial sector would collapse along with it.

It's History

Namdaemun (Hangul: 남대문) burned to the ground yesterday. My students are devastated. It's a sad day in Seoul.

February

I haven't written anything in a long time, and I feel like when I do find time to write something, it centers around my not writing. That should change next month. As it is, I continue to have my hands full with my teaching duties. What's more, this weekend I managed to catch a cold. I suppose the timing could be worse: today is the last day of the 5-day Lunar New Year holiday. But those sorts of thoughts are cold comfort when you're stuck in bed, hopped up on pseudoephedrine (something I brought from Canada) and ibuprofen (something I got here--thankfully, if you can read Korean, it's not difficult to find good drugs here, since the chemical names are the same).

I'll close with an anecdote: before I got sick, I went to a request bar on a date. I asked my date what she wanted to hear. After some coaxing, she said that T-Rex's "Cosmic Dancer" was one of her favorite songs. It was an interesting choice for a Korean--certainly not mainstream by any means--though I have learned not to be too surprised by this particular Korean. Anyway, about 30 seconds after she said this the next song began to play. The song was none other than "Cosmic Dancer." Strange.

Work & Money

The reason I haven't been blogging lately is because I don't yet have Internet access in my apartment. Also, I've been extremely busy. I'm teaching 45 hours a week; add in prep time and I'm working about 55-60 hours. Add in showers, meals, transportation time, and the like, and I'm busy at least 16 hours a day, every weekday. I'm peaking at 5 hours of sleep a night during the week. During the weekends, I try to relax and recover.

Despite this schedule, I've managed to remain (mostly) happy and healthy. That said, the honeymoon period is over and I've begun to feel the effects of homesickness. Culture shock happens to everyone and I was aware of its phases before I came, so whenever I feel down, I pick up a book and escape to another world. So far, it's worked well.

I haven't been following the news lately, besides cursory glances at the Korea Herald and the New York Times website. What I've been reading, though, hasn't been encouraging. I've become increasingly concerned about the US economy, and by extension international markets. Maybe, if I have time next weekend, I'll write about my reasons. For now, though, I'll have to leave it at that.