How It All Began

In case you have come across this blog and don't already know me... my name is Peter West, and I am from Morrison, Colorado. I recently graduated from an overpriced private liberal arts college in Boston, with a degree in Marketing Communications. It just so happens that hundreds of thousands of other young aspiring marketers obtained this same degree, in the same month, during the worst economic situation since the 1930s. After months of applying for countless entry level positions I didn't really want, and with student loans a knock knock knockin' on my broke ass door, I decided to seek an alternative route to employed bliss*.

This route began with a move from my quaint** cockroach infested apartment in Allston, MA to a guest room in my parent's log cabin in the mountains of Colorado. It has taken me through a three month process of obtaining a visa, and finally, on December 11th, it will be taking me to Suwon, South Korea. I will be in Suwon for one year, and will be teaching English to 9-16 year old students at the Leehaeyoun Language School. I speak little to no Korean, (I can say "hello" and "easy tiger"***) and have been told that there is no training session for this position. I will be landing in Seoul on a Saturday, sleeping off jet lag on Sunday, and will begin teaching first thing on Monday. I am nervous and ish panic attack-y, but I am ready for the change and excited to see what the next year has in store.

Check back soon for more updates

*for me, at this point in time, bliss simply means being able to afford rent, cell phone bills, minimum payments on student loans, food, and minimal calls from debt collectors. Note, moving out of the country should also help with the "no calls from debt collectors" goal.

**I actually really, really miss this apartment and my Boston friends. I do not, however, miss the cockroaches. Terrifying. Let's hope they don't have cockroaches in Suwon?

***I can say "Hello" (Ahn-nyung) for two reasons. The first being that it is the name my mom gave a tiny kitten we found in the forest and decided to keep. The second, and actually the inspiration for the kitten name, is the show Arrested Development. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXYSjyZCmKI




I can say "Easy Tiger" because it was the funniest post in my Korean dictionary, so of course, it is the only one I can really remember.