I’m blogging a mile a minute, but most of you don’t want to know about all the other blogs or what I’m doing daily at work or all the aspirations I have. Rather, you probably want to just know how the boys are, how JY is doing or how life is…so I’ve finally decided to just update you on the “goings on” in my life here instead of what I’ve been blogging in all the other sites.
First question you guys ask: How are the boys?
Well, they are great. Kade and Kamden are wonderful kids, but I don’t get to see them as much as I hope. Four weeks ago, they met the famous Korean swimmer Tae Hwan Park and took photos with him. He even gave Kamden a personal lesson for a few minutes. JY is going to give me photos later, she says. I’ll try to post them here, if I get them scanned.
The boys take swimming lessons and it’s one of their bigger focuses lately. Thus, the meeting with the famous swimmer.
They also go to an English academy called Korea Poly School. My boss referred it to the “Academy for Royalty”, but we’re definitely not royalty. However, I do send about 80% of my monthly income to JY … so maybe we’re “acting like royalty.” I don’t question her on it yet. I think it’s $500 each for Kade & Kamden even with the twin discount. What do you think? Any comments on what’s too much for spending on the kids?
I feel a bit guilty since I only see them like twice a month these days. It’s horrible, I know. I live in Busan and the kids and JY live in Daejeon which is about 2.5 hours away from Busan by KTX — 40 mins on the subway and 1 hr 50 mins on the high speed train. It’s also not cheap every time I go there. Hopefully, after I build my salary up a bit, I’ll get to go more often. Otherwise, I’ll have to send less.
On the note of sending less, the other question sometimes people ask is “How’s JY?” To be honest, I don’t really know that much these days. It’s going to be 9 years this fall for both of us, but we may not last that long. I’m in the middle of trying to legally separate with her. Unfortunately, we weren’t destined to be with one another for the long run.
For some, this may be a suprise, but for others I’ve been able to confide in over the years, this was probably in your minds destined from the beginning. JY is a great woman in many ways. However, we were honestly not meant to be with each other for the long run. We fight too much to stay together and our interests and goals are really different, to say it lightly.
However, the great thing is that both of our interests in the boys are the same: to provide them the best conditions available to allow them have the most opportunities in life in a healthy and relatively comfortable environment. No matter what, I will always be there for them despite the lack of contact. When I do visit them, they do ask me constantly if I will be back the weekend after. They are curious, I can tell about why I don’t come as often or see them as often, but they don’t seem to be hurt yet. If they are, I will have to look into other ways of satisfying the needs for a father, but for now, I think they are o.k.
I do miss them. I wish I had them with me, but I also know the same is true for JY if not with a greater need because she doesn’t have a lot of things on her plate to preoccupy her mind. The boys are her life and I understand that and so I’m willing to sacrifice on some levels. So, the long and short of it is that I will sacrifice for now, but I will always be around for them.
In terms of work and personal interests, I have this to say (in bullet points) ;)
- I’m trying to keep up a dozen blogs that I’m not sure if I really can keep up over the long term, but it’s good to write down the thoughts while I have them. The topics include everything from working here in Korea, to an actually corporate blog for my company to ideas about businesses moving forward and my idealistic wish of trying to save the world.
- my company has tasked me as a Director (small company though) to basically manage all the HR affairs that a foreigner can handle like negotiations, recruiting, online marketing, new programs for retention, policies to keep them in line, promotional opportunities and everything that HR basically deals with minus the paperwork for the local gov’t.
- while doing this plus teaching (but I’m reducing the teaching hours next quarter to 3 classes, maybe at the max), I’m trying to do my own things, but was just approached by the CEO to actually launch a few things. I may actually try to leverage the CEO’s wishes to do my personal projects “within the company” and try to get a slice of all the little entities I create. They include an affiliate marketing company, a SEM consulting company for local businesses, and a few content sites that charge money for advertising jobs teaching English as a 2nd language. With the boom occuring in China, there may be some really large upward profitability at stake.
- doing a bit of pondering if I’m going to stay here forever. However, given the state of the world and how most things are going global, I think it wouldn’t be a bad bet.
So, that’s it in a nutshell for now. My brother had a baby boy earlier this year. My parents are running their new grocery store outside of Olympia. It’s huge on like 3 acres of land, but the gross profits aren’t as big as they were used to in the past. It keeps them busy and that’s what matters.
I feel like a heel for not keeping up as much with people despite the interconnectedness of the Internet, but I hope this will help. Also, I’m on Facebook.com and LinkedIn.com which I recommend highly to join. It’s a nice way to keep in touch.
Oh, by the way, I haven’t lost the initiative to do WhenILeave at some point. I will get to it regardless of what others do out in the space. However, I am more motivated than ever to do it. Basically, one of the biggest reasons is because my cousin has tried to commit suicide 3 times while I was away. One thing I wanted to let her know is I really care for her & that she is loved. However, I wasn’t able to communicate that to her as much while abroad. I think her family like her mother and sister also feels the same way, but they are always so busy that they also don’t communicate important thoughts like that. So, WhenILeave needs to be created to prevent losses like this in life. It really, really does…if you anyone wants to ever support it, just let me know. I think it will be financially lucrative over the long term, but truthfully, the purpose in helping people let each other know that they love one another is the bigger and more important reason, I believe.
