Goodbye Conor Teacher

So today, one of our fellow foreign teachers, Conor, is leaving Korea and heading back to Canada. As you might imagine, it's always a sad time when another teacher finishes their contract and leaves as we all become friends and get used to having these people around. Conor has been my main soju drinking buddy (other than Alex) when we go out for our weekly dinner with some of the other teachers; Conor and RJ took Alex and I out for our first dinner in Korea; our first noraebong experience in Korea was made extra comical by Conor, when he got really drunk and passed out and we had to carry him to Mark & Bridget's (teachers we replaced) couch to pass out on; and I'll miss listening to Conor and RJ shoot the shit about sports and other funny stuff from my far end of the teachers' room at school. One less guy to talk sports with is never a good prospect. Conor's experiences in Korea have been varied, many good ones of course but some of his low lights have been some of the weirdest and funniest stories I've heard from a foreigner since being in Korea. Some are definitely worthy of blog mention: for instance, being attacked by a machete-wielding Korean when answering the door at his apartment (long story) or my personal fave: being punched in the face twice by one of the owners of our school, Mr. Lee. Mr. Lee has since developed a healthy man-crush on Conor as seen in these pics (crotch touching and all)...



If you didn't know, Korean men are quite friendly, specifically with other men. You will frequently see Korean men walking down the street holding each others hands, but I assure you they are just exchanging long protein strains (a la Bill Clinton and Bob Dole in The Simpsons treehouse of horror VII, fwd to 16:30), or something like that, because homosexuality is kinda a faux pas around here.
Conor and angry Fred (looking pretty happy to spend some time with Conor).

The same night that Mr. Lee was cozying up to Conor, I was also accosted by one of the Korean middle school teachers, who insisted on wrapping his arms around me and continually licking his fingers and attempting to put them on my lips. Maybe this is some Korean custom that I am still unfamiliar with, but I'm leaning towards it just being another occurrence of overly-friendly drunken Korean men. I thankfully escaped without having to "kiss" his fingers, by sneakily distracting him with free shots of soju courtesy of the very hammed Mr. Lee.

That's him on the left showing his kissing fingers.

But as amusing as all this stuff is, this post is actually more about appreciating your time in Korea than awkward drunken man love.
Fred getting possessive.

Conor was counting down the days 'til his contract was up, which becomes a common practice among teachers nearing the end of their stay. We would talk about how excited he was and what he wanted to do when he got home, but as his final days crept up, he said that he was beginning to feel nostalgic and would be sad to finally leave his home of the last year. Maybe it was the stack of goodbye letters and drawings that he had received from all his students (many asking him to stop smoking in broken english or via illustration) or maybe it was just the booze talking, but either way, it got me thinking.

Many things haven't really gone as we expected since arriving in Korea, so at first I got the feeling, as I'm sure many teachers do, of what the hell am I doing here. But as the days turned to weeks and I became more comfortable and things started improving, I realized I am more than happy to be here. Even though I get sad sometimes when I think about home and the things that I'm missing out on (and the multitude of reasons that I love Canada), I have to always remember to appreciate this opportunity that many people will never get the chance to experience and take advantage of everyday in Korea.

Last night was Conor's goodbye party (which the bosses are claiming is also our welcome dinner, 2 months late), so we wished him well on his travels and thanked him for all the sweet gifts he gave us (big plant that Alex loves, little plant, speakers, Korean language books, mini ironing board etc)...
But most importantly he reminded me to cherish every day of this experience, because once it's time to go home, I'll miss Korea - its people, its culture, its food, and, of course, its booze.

-mark