Basketball at Airports – The PreMove Day 1

I have known for quite some time that I would be making a big change in my life. I have been living in Seoul for the last four years and teaching at a great international school there, Korea International School, but it was time for me to move on as a person and as a teacher. I was in fear of growing complacent at the school I was working in because the years were starting to become routine, and I needed to find a new challenge so I could remain relevant as a teacher. I also needed a new adventure, so I looked into new jobs last October and found a new position in Bangkok in December. I did not want to say anything about it until the school year started to wind down because that knowledge compromises what I can do in the classroom, so this is the first time I have made the information public.

I am pretty excited about the move, but it does cause some stress in my life as I try to get everything together for my new job while wrapping up the school year at my old school. Luckily for me, KIS has three day weekend in May and I took the opportunity to move a lot of my stuff to my new school to make the transition a little easier. So I loaded up way too much stuff for a weekend trip on a budget airline and flew down to Thailand to look at my new school, my new neighborhood, and meet some new colleagues and get some paperwork taken care of. It will make for a busy weekend, but it will make things easier in the future.

I left Friday night to get the most of the weekend, but before I left, I had a couple of hours to kill in an airport. Most of you know that I come from Denver, Colorado originally and love the sports teams out there. And if you are following the NBA and the NHL, you know that Colorado is having a year that they have not experienced in a long time. The Nuggets look like serious contenders for the first time ever, and I wanted to watch the game. So I pulled out my tablet, found a place near my gate, and started watching the game.

It seems like a boring story I know, but it was the reaction of the Koreans that made my evening complete. The NBA is huge in Korea and there are many times that I have to tell my students to turn the game off and focus on the work of the classroom. The adults always love the opportunity to watch a game, so when they saw that some random waegookan was watching the Nuggets/Portland matchup from earlier that day, they started to gather around me to watch a play or two. I didn’t get to finish the game before my fight left, but I did have a couple of people peer over my shoulder to pass the time they were forced at an airport.

It is those small things that I am going to miss when I make the move to Bangkok. South Korea has been frustrating at times, but that is true for a lot of places in the world. But I found that I need to ignore those things that frustrate me, and focus on the moments that make me smile. If I do that in Thailand, it will be an experience like no other over the next couple of years.

I am excited to see where this weekend will take me, and I am excited to take that first step towards a new adventure. The weekend will probably fly by really quick, but I should take the time to pause and watch what life presents me. I will find those small moments that make life worth treasuring.