It's easy to see now, sitting at this desk in 2011 in the ROK how my love of travel began... First I'll let you in on a little secret... I was 22 going on 23 before I left my home country of New Zealand for the first time. What? That's right... not such a spring chicken anymore by that time! And, compared to a lot of other kids(cause that's what I still felt like at 22) I hadn't been on my big O.E. which is like a right of passage for every young 'kiwi'. SHOCK HORROR!
I had been through design school (4 years of my life which included experiences both valuable and a waste of time), and spent the following year feeling disillusioned, working three shifts a week at McDonalds to supplement my free government assistance, or as we call it, the dole (and I don't mean the pineapple company), occasionally painting(art) and trying to prepapre an advertising portfolio. The latter - even though it was a work in progress for myself and my advertising partner Bex - never really came to fruition as she took a job in a shoe store with aspirations of becoming their Italian traveling shoe shopper person. I on the other hand was tiring of the McDonalds-time wasting routine that had become my life! This was the point at which I opened the newspaper to look at the job prospects and happened to stumble across an ad that asked if I would like to earn $40,000 a year... I sure would, I thought to myself.
The ad stated simply that there were positions available in South Korea, (Where was that? Didn't they host an olympics once?) that there would be a free apartment, and free airfare, and that the visa would be paid for... What could possibly be the catch? I earnestly applied for the position and waited to see what would happen...
A month later, and I had moved out of my flat in town and home to my parents house, well actually to my grandparent's because there was no room at my parents. I painted a lot of pictures and had a mini exhibition at my parent's place to raise some money for my first month in Korea... (you get paid monthly and you have to live there for a month before you get your first pay!) Part of the reason why I was so keen to go to Korea without knowing anything at all about the place was because I was broke, B-R-O-K-E... and most likely in overdraft! So with a bit of cash in my pocket and more in my bank account than there had been for a long, long time (all four years of design school, plus the year that followed, thanks to a penchant for Nike sports shoes and art supplies) I flew off to Korea!
