Arcane
Posted 05-23-2008 at 04:55 PM by miles
On the good news front I finally got my F5 Visa after 4 months of waiting. The F5 essentially means that I am a completely free man here and never have to deal with immigration again. I deserve it really. Ive worked bloody hard out here all this time and Ive never once cheated the system. Ive always maintained that I make the system work for me. But that hasnt always been so. My first boss out here cheated me out of pension, taxes and health insurance. I eventually had to make a case for unpaid wages. I won, but it took a long time. Things are not so fortunate for a lot of other foreign teachers out here. They have Visa's that allow the employer to get away with shit and end up going home full of resentment. I have been fortunate. Im still here and I battle on my own terms.
I could complain and bitch all day long but I wont. I found my wife here, I have my own place and Ive got a very healthy bank balance and a gluttons job market. Korea has treated me very well over the long haul. Im still adamant that im going to do this for another decade and then build a house and grow my own potatoes. In Korea. I dont see myself living back home again. The UK is decaying.
I could complain and bitch all day long but I wont. I found my wife here, I have my own place and Ive got a very healthy bank balance and a gluttons job market. Korea has treated me very well over the long haul. Im still adamant that im going to do this for another decade and then build a house and grow my own potatoes. In Korea. I dont see myself living back home again. The UK is decaying.
Total Comments 6
Comments
 |  Did your family come to your wedding out there? |
Posted 06-09-2008 at 11:41 PM by Fenster  |
| |  Nobody came here. My Mum wont step foot out of Europe!! Me and the wife will come home for a proper ceremony on my next return home. Its impossible getting both ends of the family to do something at the same time. Never going to work. I actually miss the UK. It might not have sounded so in my blog. But ultimately I find so much to complain about here because it just isnt home. The UK is a jumble but it is home. |
Posted 06-10-2008 at 03:44 PM by miles  |
| | Have you wed recently then? I remember (maybe a year ago?) you talking of your 2/3 week home visit to England. I only ask because I imagined the problems a marriage gathering between people that live light-years apart would cause  Another thing.. when you meet fellow English speakers out there - do you speak English or Korean? |
| Posted 06-10-2008 at 04:26 PM by Fenster |
| | Ive been married for closer to 3 years than 2 now. My last trip home was quite a while back actually. I had a great time. I always plan a trip home once a year but will not actually go home again until 2010. That is going to be a jumbo sized trip though. Its almost impossible to have a proper wedding with both families in tow. No one from back home is brave enough to come all this way out. And at the same time the family on the wifes side do not speak English and have never stepped outside Korea. The costs of transporting herds of people to the other side of the world is too much to think about too. Yeah, quite impractical. English is the language I use everywhere. I have enough survival Korean to get around in terms of shopping and transportation but outside of that I have no use for Korean. Ive made no real effort to learn the language but you naturally pick a lot of things up. The Koreans that I know generally speak English well. In the home with all my music, books, BBC and all my pontificating you would think you were in England itself!! |
| Posted 06-11-2008 at 02:19 AM by miles |
| | ha! I assumed you were fluent in Korean.. especially considering you're a teacher. How convenient for the English speaker living abroad  |
| Posted 06-11-2008 at 12:23 PM by Fenster |
| |  You lead a fulfilling life miles... By measurement on my own life, you are experiencing some good stuff... The struggles you've had over there, to me that is living... My struggles are completely unintersting... "I know I need to get up and brush my teeth, but it wouldn't hurt to just go to sleep and do them in the morning".... That type of thing.. You've made your way in a new country/culture... That's cool! |
| Posted 06-15-2008 at 02:22 PM by Dizaster |
Recent Blog Entries by miles
- Beef (06-11-2008)
- Metal Ape Parts (06-10-2008)
- Indy was a let down (05-31-2008)
- Done and Dusted (05-30-2008)
- Closure (05-27-2008)
