Introducing Me & My Korean Adventure

My adventures in South Korea began in January of 2003. I want to go back and write about some of them until I catch up to the present. I have so much material that I just don't want to miss using. And, who I am now is so much because of the experiences I had. I just feel that if I don't start at the beginning nothing makes sense.

Here is a bit of information about me. It's a profile of me an what I hope this web blog will be about. Hi, my name is Ann. I am a Canadian English Teacher in South Korea. I left for Gumi, South Korea January 22, 2003. It took me more than 20 hours of actual flying time to get to Korea. I had never lived abroad so I was in for a huge culture shock and lots of adventures. I had teaching experience in Canada but only a little of it was ESL [English as a Second Language] experience. Most of it was in teaching swimming, lifesaving, first aid, and life guarding.

If you're wondering about the title of my web blog is it cause of the fact that foreigners joke that it doesn't matter what you look like if you are a Western woman in an Asian country you are "Queen For A Year". That you are a sort of "superstar" and will never lack for attention - especially male attention. I certainly found that as a "Westerner" I attracted a lot of attention. So my friends and I joke about in all going part and parcel with me being "Queen For A Year".

My life in Korea has been an amazing experience! I have had the chance to travel all over the country as well as go to Japan [several times] and China. I never would have thought that I would have so many experiences and have such a rich and varied life in Korea. It's not always fun to teach English but I love teaching and Korea so much that when my year was up I went back for a second and then again for a third. Hopefully, I will soon catch up with my story and eventually my posts will be in "real" time and about my daily life living as a foreigner in Korea. But I feel that so much of who I am now is based on what I experienced and learned especially my first days in Korea that to just start posting now would seem like I am starting the story in the middle and it just doesn't make sense to me.

*** I have changed all names to protect people's privacy with the exception of Korean people with very, very common names like Mr. Lee (Lee is a more more common name in Korea than Smith or Jones is in North America) or Korean people who have popular nicknames so that I am not using their REAL name. ***

I am just learning how to make a web blog so please be patient. This is just the beginning of my project. I want to start at the beginning. So stay tuned to this site for up-dates. - Thanks, Ann