Log7: A New Outlook

So I've caught up on the past two weeks, but here's what's new.

In less than 12 hours, I will know in what school I will teach and in which city in which region of Korean I will live for the next year.

This has been a rather unnerving process.  We have filled out preference forms requesting certain characteristics from our placement: i.e. type of school (middle/high, girls/guys/co-ed), type of environment (rural/suburban/urban), geographic layout (inland, coastal, etc.), etc.

After living in a rural small village town for the past five years, there were three things I absolutely wanted (and which I made clear on my preference sheet):


1. Music.  I want to be able to take advantage of musical opportunities at my location, via community orchestra, chamber music, traditional music center, whatever.
2. People. I want to be close to people I know and have befriended here.  I want that support system, or even just knowing that they are near me.  I mentioned specifically that I hopefully be placed near my 2010 Pitzer friend who reminds me of Gerber-Baby (aka Nick; see Log6.6, Friends).
3. Food. Okay, seemingly silly, but really important in my mind.  Having eaten the same cuisine the past few weeks was difficult.  I had more than one occasion when I almost became sick of the food (kim-chi, actually, which I could eat without a problem but apparently not without some diversity injected every once in a while), a scary thought if one were to consider seriously the huge role food has in all of our lives and will have in my life this coming year.  I don't want to be in a situation where I can't eat the food that's being provided to me, or that I become resentful.  I want to have that burger, that burrito, that other cuisine at least available and accessible so that I know I can have them, even if I don't have them everyday or every week even.  


Where do these preferences point me?  Hopefully a suburban or urban city where the aforementioned elements will already be inherent to it (music, people, food). 

All this said, yeah I know Republic of Korea (aka South Korea) is the size of Indiana; it's really not that big.  So yeah I know I can easily get access to the above things with reasonable travel times.  

But I'm going to be busy.  


In years past there have been both shouts of elation and tears of disappointment at this meeting (people not getting what they wanted).  I'm obviously going to try not to stress about it because all is said and done and, as my Week 5 CAC says, I will make the best of whatever situation is given (because I have no other choice)...but...I really hope I get a decent placement next to some good people.  Just saying.


Hm.  I'm a bit nervous.  I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow.