Yesterday evening I was expecting a call from overseas, so I took my phone out into my mother's garden (I get shoddy reception in the house) and I waited. I inspected the blueberry plants and I pulled big lemon balm leaves off the bush so I could rub them between my fingers for the smell.
I waited for the call. Every ten minutes or so, I went back inside the house to check my email. Nothing.
My mother came out to water her garden.
My little brother came out and hopped on a bike. I got on the other bike and we chased each other. Then I picked some little unripe apples off one of the no-good trees hanging over our fence, and we threw them at each other while riding.
Of course, after a few apples to my leg, I was done, but my brother kept it up and so I did as well.
I kept checking my phone. I kept going inside to check my email.
Eventually, I brought out Anna Karenina and sat outside to read, one eye on my phone the other eye on my brother who was still throwing apples.
The call never came. I emailed my recruiter and finally came inside, still kinda waiting for the call over two hours after it was supposed to happen.
Although I'm unhappy about not getting the call. I'm really kind-of glad that I got to spend the evening with my family and it was fun and because I knew I was waiting for something, I didn't feel obligated to be doing something else or "get something done." That, I think, is why I sometimes enjoy waiting more than any other thing.
This morning I got an apology email from my recruiter full of blah-blah-blahs and I-don't-know-what-happened's. Oh, well.
For those of you who don't know, the process of getting an English teaching job at a public school in Korea this fall is going quite slowly. Everything has been delayed by my August 17th graduation date and really, it's nobody's fault. It's just how the timing has worked out. But the difficult thing, which I'm just now discovering, is that the PROMISE of a diploma means nothing in the world of Korean recruiting. The promise of a diploma will not get you a job or guarantee you a spot even if you're qualified. It actually won't really even put you in line for a position.
There's a whole paperwork process and without a (physical) diploma you cannot get a teaching visa.
When we first started this process back in May/June-ish, my friend Michelle and I made an agreement with our recruiter that he would place us both in the same program and in the same city so that we'd be nearby. Our recruiter said that he could do this for us and he knew from the beginning that my diploma would be a little later in arriving. Since Michelle has a fantastic resume and she has her diploma already, she was placed around mid-July in a city called Suwon. We were both stoked because Suwon has a an ancient wall, and real history, strawberries, galbi, and it's a big enough city that surely there would be another job for me (after all, that's why we have a nice recruiter who is going to put us both in the same city!) and so it all seemed really settled and really fantastic, and dammit, I even bought connected with Suwon.
Meanwhile, I still had to wait for my position. So, I did.
Near the end of July, the South Korea branch of our recruiting agency called me and told me to prepare myself because a school in Suwon really wanted to interview me and had chosen me out of a number of candidates. I prepared, I had the interview, and it went well. But later that week after I had asked, and asked, my recruiter finally told me that since I did not yet have my diploma the school could not hire me and they did not want to wait. It had been a long process that included me canceling my birthday plans to have the interview via skype and now it was clear that it had all happened in vain.
About a week later, I realized that my recruiter was sounding more and more ambivalent about finding me a placement in Korea, not only in Suwon, but with a public school in general. So, I went online and I emailed a few other agencies and now I have a few more recruiters working for me. But things on the Korea front still seem a little bleak. In fact, according to a few of my recruiters, most of the public school positions have already been filled and there are many, many applicants fighting for the few positions that are left. To make myself more marketable and more available for other positions, I've enrolled in a 100 hr TESOL program. Private schools are a little more open, but the pay is sometimes not as great and it's really a gamble. Now, I'm applying to both public and private schools whereas before I was only considering public schools.
Right now, my best bet is a position with the EPIC (public school) program in Cheonan. This position is good because it isn't far (I'd say less than 45 minutes by train) from Suwon and the pay is really good and the position is supposed to open up in October, according to my new, wonderful recruiter, Rachel. If you're the praying type, you could pray that everything goes smoothly with the EPIC Cheonan position, and that my relationship with my recruiter Rachel flourishes (because that seems to be important) and that I'm in South Korea by mid-October.
In the meantime, I'm waiting and I'm still hopeful because I know that, as cliche as it might sound right now, it's really all in God's hands.
"And since we've not learned how not to want, we've had to learn, by waiting, how to wait..."
-Li Young Lee
