As you are reading this, Nighean Gheal is either in-transit to or has arrived in South Korea.
Longer term readers may recall that in January of this year she moved home after having realized that a career in the big world of business was not for her (or at least, not now). She applied for - and was accepted - into a government program teaching English at primary and middle schools. She is arriving in Seoul but will go to Incheon with other participants for initial training and then be assigned her school (which she still does not know yet). She does know she will be in the province of Chungheongbuk, which is not quite the Seoul I think she was hoping for but sounds like a place of natural beauty and unique cuisine.
It is likely we will not see her until Christmas, if that.
We are, of course, proud of our daughter. She applied for this program all on her own and navigated the application process (which was pretty extensive, including an FBI background check). The commitment is twelve months: nothing is certain of course, but my money is on her being there a while.
What I am most proud of her for is figuring out that what she was doing was not working.
I am in a career field that I sort of stumbled into, and while it is been a very good one it has never been my passion. My children - be it in teaching or speech pathology or archaeology - seem to have found their way. Which makes me glad - there are few things worse than finding yourself locked into a career that can be endurable at best.
I will update as I get information; if you could spare a thought or prayer I would be deeply appreciative.
Your Most Obedient Servant, Toirdhealbheach Beucail
Everyone gets to navigate Life and your daughter is on a unique part of her journey now. Experiencing life in another country for an extended period of time will be eye opening for sure TB and not being in Seoul means she's further away from that DMZ.
ReplyDeleteShe has lived abroad in years past - Italy and Hong Kong - so that will not be a first for her, but having a fully time job will be. She has been to South Korea twice or thrice already (including, as it turns out, a tour of the DMZ).
DeleteWhat a wonderful opportunity! Congratulations to her for her successful appointment. You do indeed have many reasons to be proud. I'm really impressed with her self-analysis and boldness in taking steps toward change. Truly admirable qualities.
ReplyDeleteThank you Leigh! We are pretty proud of her and excited for her.
DeleteOveranalyzing herself. Pretty sure she gets that from me...the boldness is, of course, from The Ravishing Mrs. TB.
You raised a sensible child. Too many people I think go for the high salary high pressure job and are cursed with being unhappy at their occupation which spills into the rest of their life. We spend a third of our time at occupations - it should be pleasant and fun. Certainly not stressful. Picking an occupation you would be happy to do for free would be a fantastic job in my book.
ReplyDeleteAnon, I have every reason to believe all of our children are sensible (although that they likely do not get from me).
DeleteHer job experience was quite an eye-opener for her. Seeing people who literally dedicated their lives and all their hours to their career, sometimes becoming not great people or getting let go after all of their efforts made an impression on her.
Thank you for the chance to be involved in your daughter's life. It's an honour to pray for her... and her parents. I was very fortunate to find work that was more like being paid for having fun. My first job out of college was awful, and thanks to volunteering at radio station, I got into broadcast engineering. What a hoot. Not much money being behind the scenes, but all the tee shirts you can eat! Nothing like running cables for cameras for the final game of the I10 shootout. We booked before the game, hurrying back to the station to work on editing bays... only to boogie back after the game and wind up all that wire and navigate the after celebration traffic jam on 59 at 0100 in a marked station vehicle..... Didn't get to see the game at all.... So much fun. Remind me to tell you the joke about the elephant stick man someday.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your prayers STxAR.
DeleteI like your story. It shows how a passion for something can sometimes turn into a career.
I think she'll have a better appreciation of true Korean culture in Chungcheongbuk-do than she would in Seoul. But that might be just me, I prefer the Korean countryside as opposed to the big cities. (And the name of the province translates to North Chungcheong Province,
ReplyDelete충청북도 in Hangul.) That area of Korea is beautiful indeed!
Sarge, I think the same although she is very much a city girl. My preference is much the same as yours (I have had enough cities for one lifetime).
DeleteThe scenic beauty was mentioned more than once in the Wikipedia post. Hopefully I will get out to see it.
Although too late for me now, I wish such things had been on my radar when I was younger. It appeals to my senses to go to a foreign country for a year to learn the culture in a more deep manner. Perhaps this might be in the cards still in my future but I'm guessing with family obligations, it will never approach a year in length.
ReplyDeleteEd, me too at this point. That said, there are many opportunities for shorter term sorts of trips - not the immersion in culture we might want, but certainly an opportunity beyond just being a tourist.
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