This next part isn’t public knowledge at the school yet, but this blog is not read by my Korean co-workers, so it’s probasbly safe to post here: his sister, Young Sook, who is currently the manager and runs all of the class schedules, etc., is ready to move on, too. So, with her potentially leaving and my leaving, its almost a sure thing the school will transform into something other than a full English academy. Hiring both a manager and foreign teacher would be daunting. Not impossible, just difficult.

So, having gotten that part of things squared away, I feel better about it, especially know Young Sook’s plans. If she were leaving before I left my remaining time on the contract would be difficult. She’s a great friend, but new managers always like to shake things up.

Meanwhile, in my own head, things have taken a turn for the surreal. But first, a little history here.

My lovely wife, Myeong Hee, is the daughter of a fisherman. A poor fisherman, but one who was able to put his two sons through college and his daughter through cosmetology school. They lived in a little fishing village on the outskirts of PoHang.  Myeong Hee has always proclaimed she’s a country girl. Having been to her family’s home, there was never any doubt. But when she declared that because she is a country girl and she likes American country music I was a little skeptical. Korean country music bears little resemblance to American country music but when I bought her an MP3 player two years ago I loaded it up with all the country music I have in my collection. That wasn’t much, as most anyone who knows me knows that there two forms of music I least enjoy: one is country and the other is western.  I downloaded a few more than I thought she might enjoy. Her list of favorites include Kenny Rogers, Brooks and Dunn, Roger Miller, Toby Keith, Tammy Wynnette, Alan Jackson and Willie Nelson.  Go figure. So, over the months, she  listened to country music on her way to and from her hair shop.

Sometimes, we’d listen to country late at night while laying in bed. We’d hold each other and she’d ask me what the songs meant. Her English has gotten much better, but discerning lyrics at two-step speed is asking a bit much. She would sometimes have an idea of what the song was about and sometimes she just liked the beat and  melody. Of her favorites she didn’t fully understand I would explain the concepts of cowboys, pick-up trucks, horses and Texas, among other things, while doing my best to translate who left whom, who was crying for whom, who left in their pick-up and who went boot-scootin’ and who came runnin’ back to whom.

And here’s where the surreal part comes in. I’ve already mentioned I’m coming home next year. By then it’ll be four straight years in Korea with only a few short trips to the land of apple pie and mom. I’ve been missing not just my family and friends, but America. But then to be engrossed in discussing what I’ve come to realize is a music genre that is uniquely American has caused me to turn a corner in my mind. I actually enjoy listening to country music.  I’m not about to start wearing a Stetson, boots and a dinner plate for belt buckle, but I like country.  But the surreal part is not the music so much as the lyrics.  There’s not another form of music that so succinctly describes for me America, American places, American activities  and American values. When I hear some of the songs she plays I can get pretty nostalgic about coming home. In particular, the ones that mention places like Chatahoochie, (no, I’ve never been there) or vague references to American history like Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town, (never went to Vietnam) or even dancing like Boot Scootin’ Boogie (which I cannot do) I get the I-Wanna-Go’s and be a part of the country that raised me.

When it’s music I want, country still isn’t what I turn on. But it’s great for when I want to get all warm and fuzzy about America again.  It’s just fun to enjoy something with my wife, albeit we both enjoy it for sometimes different reasons.

And I dropped the bomb on MyeongHee.

February 2011 is when her son, DongHyun, will graduate from highschool and either go to college or off to the military. He must go sometime before he’s 28, although most boys do a year or so of university before signing up.

Either way, I decided it would be a good time for a change. I’ll have been teaching at this school for four years straight and another in 2004-05. Five years is about my limit, it seems. But the bigger bomb I dropped is that I want to go back to America. Probably not forever, but longer than the week or so I’ve been able to come back in the previous three years.  Who the hell knows what forever is anyway?  But the longest I’ve ever held a job is seven years and five seems close enough.

Lately, I’ve been feeling like I want to be able to experience America again – nothing so dramatic as the old Simon and Garfunkel song. Just the feeling of going outside and speaking English to a neighbor or chatting with the salesclerk in a store. Not that either of those happened very frequently in America, but when I see a Korean just having casual conversation it makes me miss that. One of the TV shows that really gets me is America’s Funniest Home Videos – just goofy stuff -  but seeing the homes, the yards, the kids, the sports… I miss my country and my culture. I’m probably idealizing to a great extent, but the fact remains that I miss my home country and despite my ever increasing Korean-language ability I am still an outsider here.

Of course, the bigger question is what would I do when I got there?  It’s hard to imagine what job I would qualify for after doing nothing more than speaking English for four years. And that’s if there are jobs to be had – given the economy that’s a big-ass what-if.

Other questions involve MyeongHee – she’s not interested in coming to America. She didn’t enjoy it much.  She’d rather stay. And leaving her hairshop would entail a great expense upon reopening should she come back. She’s happy doing one or two weeks visits but no more.

If I do come home, it looks like it might be just an extended month or two rather than years.  All of that is still a year away and a lot can happen between now and then. We’ll have to see how things go here and in the US. Stay tuned. More will be written as it becomes clear to me.

MyeongHee cried a little when the puppy left last night. Just for a few minutes. She’s fine today. But the dog that went was her least favorite. We’ll see how it goes with the others she likes much more.

Three more should go this week. The mostly brownish male will go to MyeongHee’s nephew’s girlfriend. And two others will go to one of her hairshop friends. That’ll leave us with just one pup, GaMyeon (mask) the smallest of the puppies. She’ll take her to the hairshop with her and then home every night.

The mother, SaTang, on the other hand has turned into quite a problem. She seems to be having control problems. For 3 years she’s done well about going outside for her potty business. Lately, she’s been scratching at our bedroom door early in the morning to be taken out. But as soon as the bedroom door is opened, she’ll pee. A lot. Last week, it was poo, and I hurried her out to the back veranda rather than downstairs and across the street to the park. She left some poo, but seemed rather upset about it all day.

Today, she scratched at the door and I immediately got up to take her out. She made it outside to the veranda without peeing and I left her there for about 3-4 minutes. When I went to check on her, as soon as I opened the door she came into the hallway. THEN she pee’d – a lot – in the hallway in front of our door. Why she couldn’t have done it when she was outside and she waited until she was semi-inside? Beats me. I’m trying not to beat her.

There’s some dog psychology at work here and I’m not sure what’s going on. Talking to the vet here will not be possible unless I get MyeongHee to do the talking. I still suspect that even a conversation in Korean won’t help – Koreans have a different take on pets than Americans do. They have a different take on psychology, too. It’s subtle, but psychology isn’t among the issues that comes up with pets. No surprise, as psychology isn’t an issue they’ll discuss about people, either. Going to a psychologist is still considered an admission of weakness, or worse, craziness.

Any insight any American readers have on what my dog is dealing with would be appreciated.

I liked their photos, although it highlighted the part of Dallas I didn’t like, indeed hated: sprawl.The two images are from 1984 and 2009. The change in Dallas over those 25 years was amazing, although no surprise to one who has lived through it.

When I moved there in 1975 it was even smaller. The city had undergone tremendous growth prior even to my arrival as a teenager and continued through the 70s and into these photos.  It seemed that no matter what time of day I’d drive I’d run into traffic congestion. No matter how much the construction went on, it never ended. There was always something, particularly roads, under construction. I wondered if it would ever end. It still hasn’t ended, despite the economic woes of the nation.

Anyway, I liked it. I thought I’d share since not everyone gets a weekly email from space.