Where (and when) it all began

"When did you come to Korea? Why did you come to Korea?"

Yeah, I've gotten those questions often over the years, mostly from students who claimed to care about the answers.

I arrived in Korea for the first time on July 12th, 1995, barely one month after my graduation from the University of Guelph. I stayed in Korea for what was expected to be a one-year stay. Then, after taking a 5-month break in Canada, I came back to Korea in December 1996 and stayed until May 1998. The economic meltdown that engulfed much of East Asia convinced me to return to Canada to seek greener pastures. But the pastures weren't so green there (as in the colour of money) but more like red (as in the colour of debt).

By May 2000, my wife and I came back to Korea where I have been ever since. The lure of easy money with little responsibility was too much to ignore.

As for why, well, my original intent was to get out of North America... and perhaps to avoid looking for real work in Canada. Ideally, I wanted to travel and spend some time overseas, so when I heard from some university buddies who had come to Korea before me that they were having a reasonably good time here, it seemed like a match. Not to mention that I had trained in taekwondo at university.

So, it has been nearly 11 years (at time of writing) since I first came to Korea, and I have spent 8 1/2 of those years actually in Korea (three different stints). By the time I expect to finish in April 2007, I will have spent close to 10 full years here.

I never imagined that in 1995!