The Expats of Global

Unlike ULI, there weren't any expats at Global who I actually hated. There were strange people to be sure, but they could be characterized as eccentric, I suppose. I also met one of my best friends there.

Dan was the suit-wearing dude at Web Village whom I later recognized when I walked into Global. A fairly straight-laced guy, I think I first got his attention one day when we had classes in adjacent classrooms, and there was just a glass wall dividing us (so we could actually see each other's rooms). He had his class doing something quiet, while my class was doing a party activity. My guys were noisy, I guess, and there I saw Dan peeking around the white board into my room to see what was going on.

Dan eventually moved to a new apartment in my neighborhood in Jamsil (more on the Projects later). From then on, we would spend a lot of time hanging out together after work. Towards the end of my year at Global, Heather and I got married in a traditional Korean ceremony. Dan had a part in the ceremony, carrying the wooden duck that I was to give to Heather's mom as a gift. Neither of us really knew what was going on during the ceremony, and I remember the two of us looking at each other and laughing a little bit, standing in hanboks and 'funny' hats in front of hundreds of people. Such is the way longterm friendships are forged.

Global was also the place where I met Sara. She actually only worked at Global on a part-time basis, but we would remain involved in each other's lives for quite some time (I was best man at her and Sang-mo's wedding, and she later helped me get my job at JLS). I can definitely see the difference between Sara and myself in the field of teaching: she actually cares that students learn, and takes the time to work with people who don't understand things right away (I tend to be less patient). Sara spent many years in Korea, the last six of them at JLS where I presently work, and now she and her daughter are back in Canada, where she is a "real" teacher in a French-immersion school in New Brunswick.

I will now high-light some of the other expats at Global and what they meant to me.

Kelly was a guy who I had actually met a year earlier, and I didn't get a good impression of him that first time (talked too much). Then when I met him at Global, I was worried that it was going to be problematic. We ended up going to Osaka, Japan together for a visa run, so we bonded a little bit there. Eventually, I just teased him a whole lot, which made it easier to deal with him. In the end, Kelly proved to be an okay guy, and he has made many attempts to maintain contact in the years since. Now he lives in the U.S. and is getting married in late 2006.

Another guy we worked with was Wesley, who had come north from Kwangju to work in Seoul. Ironically, he turned out to be a former roommate in Kwangju of a guy who I had known at university (Ronan). As I like to say, what a co-inkidink. Wes was a good guy, but Dan and I had a lot of fun at his expense. The three of us spent quite a few evenings after work getting shit-faced and playing Asshole.

Michelle, or "Meesh," was a Canadian chick with a chip on her shoulder from the day she walked in the door. Her personality, when mixed with the guys' aptitude for sarcasm, was not unlike nitro and glycerin. Yet, over time, Michelle began to warm up to us. We always took jabs at each other, but it was more or less good natured.

Alicia was one of those expats who wasn't really a Global teacher (part-time, on occasion only), but she hung out with us on a semi-regular basis. It was believed by some that Alicia had had a thing for Dan, but to the best of my knowledge never admitted it. She was a sweet girl, but she could be moody and distant at times.

The guy who actually hired me for that first morning class in April 1997 was Kenny, a Canadian east-coaster who enjoyed a beer now and then. I think he ended up going to work for ELS, too, but he would still show up if we were going to Cass Town.

Then there was the couple from San Diego, Aaron and Jessica. She seemed very nice, while he reminded me of a bull in a China shop. He would openly criticize Koreans in English, evidently believing they could not understand him (or else he just didn't care). My most vivid memory of him was the night we all went drinking and then got into a street fight with some Korean guys. The police ended up taking us to the station, and Aaron kept threatening the police with some U.S. embassy action. This was so funny, listening to him talk about the "international incident" this detainment would cause. What wasn't so funny was the busted lip I was nursing at the time as a result of the fight.

The last guy I'll mention here was a kyopo, Johnny Park. He was a good guy, but he was one of those expats who had me wondering if he lived in a dream world. Why? Well, there is a song by the Foo Fighters called Hey, Johnny Park! Johnny insisted on numerous occasions that this song was about him because, according to him, he and Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters were close friends in school. Whatever, dude.