A New Chapter

Its been 3 years since the last entry... Trinidad was just too much fun: the beautiful beaches; boat trips down the islands (or "DDI" as they say); the sweet SOCA music that gets your body moving; the amazing people of the islands; ...Carnival ah yes, Carnival... "The Greatest party on Earth"; and my personal favorite vice - the rum. Everything was just so perfect and flowed so smoothly on a daily basis, like we were meant to be there, made it so that we never seemed to have time to come back to this blog and make an entry. It was a big party, it was fun, you can check our Facebook pages and you'll see and maybe feel what it was... Needless to say, T&T is a must visit for every person, it is an amazing place! We will be back one day, we made too many good friends there not to have permanent links.

Moving on to 2014 and 15.....

Our family has accepted another posting, this one is in Seoul, South Korea. We moved into this fantastic little housing complex called "Yunhee Manor" this summer. It is located in an area called Seodaemun-gu ('gu' is for municipality), next to Ansan mountain. Ansan is filled with wonderful hiking trails and viewpoints of the City. The complex also has a great little playground for the kids and is literally located right next to their new school SFS (Seoul Foreign School). An old and prestigious American International school of the highest standards within Korea, and if you haven't heard about how important the education system is in Korea, this school is the epitome of it. We'll get more into our struggles with the education system later.

(Charles) Korea for me is an interesting adventure, it starts a new chapter not only because I have received a promotion, but it is my second time living in Korea. The first being when I was 21 years old as an English teacher. This makes living here sometimes feel like a déja vue for me... and one nice thing I haven't seen for a while: SNOW!!!

When you live as an expat, you come to understand that there are emotional cycles associated with the process of integration that you need to go through before accepting a new place as your home. This is usually a 6 to 8 month process where you go through many phases such as the honeymoon, where everything is new and exciting, the quest, trying to explain why you are there, the acceptance, of the new place for its differences, and finally, the integration, where you feel comfortable in your new home. Laura took pre-posting training in Ottawa before we left for Ghana years ago, and this was an integral part of what they taught spouses going off on first mission. As this is my second time in Korea, I believe that this process has been shortened quite a bit.  The honeymoon phase this time around is shorter for me. I bike to work when I can. Work is extremely busy, I'm the boss now, lots to do.  I've started playing squash again in a league at a prestigious Club called the 'Seoul Club'.  I'm not a member of the Seoul Club, but I did inquire on the costs to join, just for fun... a $76,000 US deposit (returned to you minus 10%), plus $300 monthly, and an extra $150 in food & drink expenditure need to be spent on a monthly basis to retain membership.  A hefty price to pay!  But I do enjoy the company and the competition at squash.  Rebuilding my skills, I won the last game, not doing too bad.  Laura also has me doing Crossfit on Saturday mornings after E&C's soccer.     

  (Laura) So many friends and family have been asking me how we're doing, 'how's life in Korea?!' I apologize for not being in touch but I'm finally feeling better now. The cherry blossoms are blooming and it's just beautiful.  It only took 8 months... We've each been through our ups and downs in Korea, and that's understandable considering how much of a MAJOR change Seoul is from the Trini lifestyle of beaches, limes & friends... E&C ask me every few weeks when we can go back. Trinidad is their home. It's all they know.

Coming to Korea was very difficult for me at the beginning. I wasn't sure what my purpose was or where I was needed after we arrived. We came here with in mind that 1) the girls would be going to the French Lycée and 2) I would be able to work as a nurse on the American military base in Yongsan. Since, we've discovered that both would be impossible. The Lycée was supposedly at maximum capacity for French students, turning away even native French speakers, and we later found out that they do not even hire non-American or non-Korean nurses on base. I later found out from another Canadian nurse also on posting here, that they don't even hire Canadian nurses anywhere in Korea because our license and education (BSN) are not recognized AT ALL. I was dumbfounded! And a bit at a loss. So, I started going to a nearby gym and hiking the mountain behind our house. I'm now taking a Korean language class that will be done in about 2 weeks and is going well. I can read signs and understand what they are saying in the bus and subway so that helps a lot. Especially when dealing with local merchants on the streets, in stores, at the hair salon, etc. I've been doing some seasonal invigilating for university students' exams at the Embassy, and have also started subbing teaching at the school which is a fulfilling experience to be with the students. These help keep me busy and earn a bit of extra cash. The cost of living in Korea is much higher than we originally anticipated it would be. So any extra income we can earn is welcome.   

So some of you may remember Snowy, our cat in Trinidad... Unfortunately, we decided to leave her behind with a loving family and friends' of ours, Chloe's auntie at pre-school. With this exchange came a (not-so-smart) promise we made to E&C that they could each get a new kitten when we came to Korea. Maybe we should of thought that one through a bit better... But neways, the girls are in love with their new kittens Blue and Cuddles. Welcome to the family boys! (PS: Never take your kids with you when shopping for a new pet - they jump on the first one they see and Velcro themselves to it!).  For Charles and I, they've been a major pain in the derrière, with all-kinds of "purebred" health problems (we never had troubles like these with our little bastards Napo and Loki).  Although they are very cute and good company, they've been somewhat of a source of frustration for me.  I like my house to be neat and clean.  They keep pooping in other spots than their litter box.  Blue has had ear mites, an eye infection, fungus (ringworm) on his claws and skin, and something like a cold - which the vet is attributing to Feline Herpes that's supposedly incurable. Cuddles is a fluffy Persian, and just looks annoyed all the time.  So that's where a lot of our energy has been going into trying to get them healthy.  They are doing much better now. We've put them back on the healthier, more costly cat food, and I recently bought a second litter box... needless to say, they are happier and pampered now.  The inappropriate pooping has stopped :)  But enough about them...

Eva is adapting slowly... Her personality has changed a bit since we first arrived here. She seems to be into the whole "BFF" thing and puts all her energy into one friend at a time, even though Charles and I have been explaining to her that it's important to be inclusive of others and have lots of friends since in this lifestyle of ours, they will come and go, as will we.  She just had a very close friend leave Seoul four weeks ago and she was very upset about that... She now clings to her one expat friend (a sweet German girl, who's father works for a Korean cie. that deals in explosives) at school.  Well, more like they cling to each other.  It seems as though in her class there are "cliques" of Korean girls and expat girls. The only problem is that the school is almost 80% Korean so that doesn't leave Eva with much choice. We've been pushing her to get closer to some of the boys in her classroom, if it's too difficult to integrate the girls but she has been reluctant to say the least.  And so, the "Pre- Pre-Teen" mind-games begin, I guess!! Anyways, we are confident that she will be OK.  She has good days and bad, like all of us. On a positive side, her character is somewhat insensitive (like her father), so that's good because these things don't seem to upset her too much.  But I know her all too well, like a tinier version of myself.  

Back to talking about our struggles with the education system in Korea.  E&C go to SFBS (Seoul Foreign British School), the British side of SFS.  The reason we sent them to the British side was because they had French language instruction as a second language for Eva.  Chloe is taking Mandarin as a second language (our little half-Chinese speaking baby!).  Unfortunately, Eva has not been able to attend any second language classes because she is still in the process of catching up.  It's incredible what the Koreans do with their children's innocent childhood...  Fun, play time, learning through play...  NO WAY!  It's practically non-existent.  Every minute of every day, whether on holiday or after-school and on weekends, Korean children are expected to study and be schooled on various topics like piano, mathematics, English literacy, and many others.  There are thousands of institutions across the nation dedicated to this purpose called "hogwons", and thousands of English teachers brought in from overseas to be employed by the latter.  Sometimes I wonder if they are more like an added babysitter service so that some parents don't have to take care of their children.  With this in mind, Eva's schooling is slowly progressing but we've been told by her learning support educators that she still has to work hard to catch up to the same level as the rest of her fellow classmates, especially in maths and literacy.  I have to point out that Eva can think up and write a page-long story, she can independently read a short novel, in math she is doing multiplications, simple algebra, and has now started short divisions. She's in Year 3, the equivalent of grade 2 at SFBS. She's 7 going on 8 years old... really... how much can you push a child?  Actually at our last parent-teacher meeting, they told us that she would never catch up to the same level as some of her classmates and that she would require learning support every year as long as we were posted here.  Chloe doesn't have this problem because she is starting school within the system.  She's 4 going on 5, and can already read small sentences, write her name in full and count up to 20.  Brilliant!

Chloe is great. Such a sweet little girl always seeking approval from her older sister.  She's very sensitive, unlike Eva, and takes things personally, especially if you laugh around her.  She may get upset if she thinks you are laughing at her when really you are not.  But like Eva at that age, she is happy to play with just about anyone, and has lots of friends in her Foundation class.  She is doing very well at school and in general here in Seoul but she still talks about 'going back to Trinidad and staying there forever.  Like that everything will be perfect'.  Ahhh, sweet and innocent.  She doesn't really understand the concept of being on posting.  She loves to sing and dance, and make people happy.  Maybe I'm biased but she'll always be my baby.

So that's it for now, but we will have more for you coming soon... They call Korea 'The land of the morning calm' and with a population of 50 million, any quiet moment is welcome.  Plenty of new and exciting places to explore and things to see.  For us, this chapter is just beginning... So Stay tuned. 

C,L,E,C