Miracles do happen for those that wait...
I ended up working for Prime Language School for about two months before I had to go back home to Redding, California in-order to do it correctly this time with a teaching visa and not a vacation visa like I had been doing. Mr. OH wanted to hire me and this time I would be signing a contract for a year with a teaching visa this time. That way I did not have to worry about teaching illegally this time.
While I was teaching ESL in South Korea I started the first "Miracles of God" magazine in 1996 at Prime Language School sending it to family and friends back in the USA.
During this adventure I ran up a major phone bill over a two-month period that amounted in the neighborhood of nearly $5,000.00. Yes, that is right five thousand dollars. Now talk about stepping out in faith. I did big time but there were other reasons as well as to why I ran up such a large phone bill.
As I first arrived in South Korea, it was my first experience of leaving the continual USA. It was like Disneyland and the Twilight Zone all at the same time. Talk about culture shock. Well, I never quite understood that term until I arrived in South Korea. I thank God that the Lord saw to it that I was employed by a Christian couple. In fact, I was given the honor of attending their wedding.
The one great lesson I learned from the phone bill is I learned how to save money like I never have in my life before. During this time in South Korea, Kumi City working at Prime Language School for Mr. OH at 40 Doryang-Dong, Kumi, Kyungbuk, South Korea 730-020.
During this time I first worked for Prime Language School in October and November, for two months in 1995 and then returned to Redding, California to get a my teaching visa. Not like the first time, like when I left and I entered the country with only a vacation Visa. Which can get a person into lots of trouble with immigration. Which at the time of the major phone bill is exactly what happened.
I was assigned to a room mate by the name of Tom who ended up being a person with a obsessive compulsive behavior problem. At the time I had never noticed or knew anything about mental illness or chemical imbalances to that extreme other than my own personal problem of being a manic/depressive from when I was diagnosed in 1993 when I went out on sick leave and went on State disability when I was working at HomeBase.
Tom would rearrange all the cupboards in the apt and ask after he arranged the shelves if it was OK with me the way he had arranged them. He would label all of the shelves with his name "Tom's" and "James".
No wonder I was assigned to be Tom's roommate as the other teachers before me had already experienced Tom and his ways of arranging things. Tom would even rearrange all of the teacher's shelves in the teacher's lounge when Prime language school was only one school where now it has grown to three schools in the Kumi City area.
One night Tom decided he would exert his authority in the apartment as if it only belonged to him. In fact Tom made it a point to let me know that at exactly at 9 a.m. every morning it was his bath time and that he would be always taking his bath at exactly that time precisely. Tom would soak in the bathtub and talk on the phone to his Korean girlfriend, which Koreans frown on and yet Koreans feel it is Ok if they have girlfriends on other nationalities but foreigners (megu) are not allowed the same considerations. The same can be said when Korans get drunk and end up puking in the streets. If foreigners (megu) were found or observed doing the same thing it is considered an insult to the Korean culture.
In other words do as I say not as I do? And I just loved the term always used. "It is impossible". When foreigners first arrive and until they finally learn their way around and begin seeing things as they really are most Koreans try and keep foreigners in the dark as much as possible in-order to take advantage of the foreigners they say they care so much about.
My faith in God was so strong during this time I spent in South Korea. In South Korea churches are identified with red crosses that light up at night on each and every church throughout the entire country. I even spent time in a Koran Church listening to the Word of God in Koran for two months at a Presbyterian church in Seoul, South Korea. I was living in a motel room they provided for me until they finally got me a house with no bed. And I was not happy about sleeping on a mat. As an American I was used to sleeping in a bed. And when I asked about getting a bed, I was told that it was impossible and beds were too expensive. I quit that job and flew to Hawaii.
Well, Tom decided he wanted to show that he was in charge of the apartment one night and told me he was in change of the apartment and that I was not to let Mr. OH know about his Korean girlfriend. Tom did not ask me but demanded and threatened me if I ever said anything. Tom was a short stocky man just a bit over 50 years old and I was still just barely 40 years old myself at the time.
Tom was like darkness or the dark side of life and I was like daylight. In other words, like bad vs. evil. Tom got so angry one night he chased me out of the apartment and he had this evil look in his eyes that were enough to make anyone be careful with this madman in this short body frame, but scary enough to make a person feel they better step softly around this person. Tom seemed at times to be processed and locked up with all kinds of evil inside this little man. Tom finally decided he wanted to move in with his girlfriend and told me that I better not say a word. Like I really cared what he was doing, but he seemed to think I did. Tom finally moved out that night and on his way out he left his mark on my bedroom door by pissing on it on the way out, after I had locked myself in my room. Where he had chased me down the hallway and where he tried to throw me over the balcony. Yes, Tom was off his rocker and unstable in my opinion.
Comments
Post a Comment