"Up from here" Chapter 6 : Prime Language School

Miracles do happen for those that wait...

I ended up working for Prime Language School for about two months before I had to go back home to Redding, California in order to do it correctly this time with a teaching visa and not a vacation visa like I had been doing. Mr. OH wanted to hire me and this time I would be signing a contract for a year with a teaching visa this time. That way I did not have to worry about teaching illegally this time.

While I was teaching ESL in South Korea I started the first "Miracles of God" magazine in 1996 at Prime Language School sending it to family and friends back in the USA.

During this adventure I ran up a major phone bill over a two-month period that amounted to the neighborhood of nearly $5,000.00. Yes, that is right five thousand dollars. Now talk about stepping out in faith. I did big time but there were other reasons as well as to why I ran up such a large phone bill.

As I first arrived in South Korea, it was my first experience of leaving the continental USA. It was like Disneyland and the Twilight Zone all at the same time. Talk about culture shock. Well, I never quite understood that term until I arrived in South Korea. I thank God that the Lord saw to it that I was employed by a Christian couple. In fact, I was given the honor of attending their wedding.

The one great lesson I learned from the phone bill is I learned how to save money like I never have in my life before. During this time in South Korea, Kumi City working at Prime Language School for Mr. OH at 40 Doryang-Dong, Kumi, Kyungbuk, South Korea 730-020.

During this time I first worked for Prime Language School in October and November, for two months in 1995 and then returned to Redding, California to get my teaching visa. Not like the first time, like when I left and I entered the country with only a vacation Visa. Which can get a person into lots of trouble with immigration? Which at the time of the major phone bill is exactly what happened.

I was assigned a roommate by the name of Tom who ended up being a person with an obsessive-compulsive behavior problem. At the time I had never noticed or knew anything about mental illness or chemical imbalances to that extreme other than my own personal problem of being a manic/depressive from when I was diagnosed in 1993 when I went out on sick leave and went on State disability when I was working at HomeBase.

Tom would rearrange all the cupboards in the apt and ask after he arranged the shelves if it was OK with me the way he had arranged them. He would label all of the shelves with his name "Tom's" and "James".

No wonder I was assigned to be Tom's roommate as the other teachers before me had already experienced Tom and his ways of arranging things. Tom would even rearrange all of the teacher's shelves in the teacher's lounge when Prime language school was only one school where now it has grown to three schools in the Kumi City area.

One night Tom decided he would exert his authority in the apartment as if it only belonged to him. In fact, Tom made it a point to let me know that at exactly at 9 a.m. every morning it was his bath time and that he would be always taking his bath at exactly that time precisely. Tom would soak in the bathtub and talk on the phone to his Korean girlfriend, which Koreans frown on and yet Koreans feel it is Ok if they have girlfriends on other nationalities but foreigners (Megu) are not allowed the same considerations. The same can be said when Koreans get drunk and end up puking in the streets. If foreigners (Megu) were found or observed doing the same thing it is considered an insult to the Korean culture.

In other words, do as I say not as I do? And I just loved the term always used. "It is impossible". When foreigners first arrive and until they finally learn their way around and begin seeing things as they really are, as most Koreans try and keep foreigners in the dark, as much as possible, in order to take advantage of the foreigners, they say, they care so much about.

My faith in God was so strong during the time I spent in South Korea. In South Korea, churches are identified with red crosses that light up at night, on each and every church throughout the entire country. I even spent time in a Korean Church listening to the "Word of God" in Korean for two months at a Presbyterian church in Seoul, South Korea. I was living in a motel room they provided for me, until they finally got me a house with no bed. And I was not happy about sleeping on a mat. As an American, I was used to sleeping in a bed. And when I asked about getting a bed, I was told that "it was impossible" and beds were too expensive. I quit that job and flew to Hawaii.

Well, Tom decided he wanted to show that he was in charge of the apartment one night and told me he was in charge of the apartment and that I was not to let Mr. OH know about his Korean girlfriend. Tom did not ask me but demanded and threatened me if I ever said anything. Tom was a short stocky man just a bit over 50 years old and I was still just barely 40 years old myself at the time.

Tom was like darkness or the dark side of life and I was like daylight. In other words, like bad vs. evil. Tom got so angry one night he chased me out of the apartment and he had this evil look in his eyes that were enough to make anyone be careful with this madman in this short body frame, but scary enough to make a person feel they better step softly around this person. Tom seemed at times to be processed and locked up with all kinds of evil inside this little man. Tom finally decided he wanted to move in with his girlfriend and told me that I better not say a word. Like I really cared what he was doing, but he seemed to think I did. Tom finally moved out that night and on his way out he left his mark on my bedroom door by pissing on it on the way out, after I had locked myself in my room. Where he had chased me down the hallway and where he tried to throw me over the balcony. Yes, Tom was off his rocker and unstable in my opinion.

A month or so had passed and Tom decided that Mr. OH was getting on his case about finding out he was not staying in the apartment and was living with his girlfriend. Well, Mr. OH asked me how come Tom was no longer staying in the apartment and I told Mr. OH, he would have to ask Tom that question but I was not about to lie when asked by my employer if Tom was staying in the apartment. All I said was he does not stay there and hasn't for quite some time and I have no idea as it is none of my business where Tom stays or what he does in his personal life.

Tom decided after the heat was on him and if he did not stay in the apartment that Mr. OH had threatened to terminate his teaching contract with Prime Language School. Well, one day that week Tom decided to move his stuff back into the apartment. The only thing was Tom expected to get the same room he left behind. And he stood in the room and put his hands on his hips and gestured that he was moving back in and for me to move my stuff out of the room he left to go live with his girlfriend. And I said. "Like hell you are". He lunged at me as if to attack me. Well, I had about enough of this guy like Kurt did in one of the Star Trek movies. He started removing my personal things and moving them to the other smaller room.

And as he did I picked up a chair and beat the holy crap out of Tom and chased him out of the apartment the same way he had done to me that one night he chased me out of the apartment. Now the reverse was happening, as I was chasing his ass out, but during the day time. This time the sun was shining and I chased him in the opposite direction down the hallway and attempted to give him the same treatment he had given me by getting ready to throw him over the balcony, the same way he had tried to do to me. What comes around goes around.

Over the years since then Mr. OH and I have been great friends ever since. In fact, he and I tried to start a recruiting business together hiring ESL teachers for Asia. We gave it the name "Prime Recruiting and Placement Service" in May of 1997, when I had finally got burned out, after 17 months straight of teaching ESL for Prime Language School, and the Immigration situation we went through, due to Tom finally being fired after he and I got into the tussle in the apartment that day.

John another bad apple, that had been one of the first teachers Mr. OH had hired. The got into an argument one night and John got right in Mr. OH's face, about some situation, as to this moment, I do not recall what it was, or what is was all about between Mr. OH and John. John and Tom were good friends and John defended Tom, at every turn. Well, both John and Tom let immigration know that I had worked for Mr. OH illegally for two months before I left and came back with my teaching visa, so we had to go to immigration because John and Tom became finks or rats.

I almost got thrown out of the country for teaching on a vacation visa. In the meantime, so that it would never happen again, I admitted every school I had worked at, except for the very first school. The one school that I first got my feet wet, for the first month back in December 1994, and taught not only in classrooms, but in peoples homes and Korean factories all over Seoul, South Korea.

A few years later I ran into Greg again, my past roommate and teacher I worked with at the very first school I worked at, when I first came to South Korea in December 1994. Greg told me what happened after the driver came to pick me up that day I left. Greg said that he had no idea where I was, and as far as he knew I was in my bedroom, but he told them that he thought I was feeling depressed, after all December 1994 was my first month in South Korea. He told them he thought maybe I committed suicide. Greg said it took them the longest time to finally open the door to discover, I had packed my bags and I was gone.

I decided to quit that job and find another teaching job and I did. I found another job at another school and quit the first school and left. The new school manager helped me move my stuff to a motel, then they moved me to a more suitable house. In mid-April of 1995, I quit that Job in Seoul, South Korea teaching ESL, in the third largest city in the world. Because they would not get me a bed to sleep on. Then, after leaving Hawaii I worked at Tun Tun, and quit that job too, until I was hired at Prime Language School by Mr. OH, two weeks later and ended up working there 17 months because I was treated right by Mr. OH, my employer and boss.

When I first returned home to the USA from teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) in South Korea at Prime Language School in Kumi City, in the center of South Korea. Where Mr. Byung Wook OH (owner of the ESL Schools) and I had become good friends. While I was employed by Mr. Byung Wook OH as English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher at Prime Language School for seventeen months.

I left in May of 1997, to return home to the USA because I was worried about my Mom and homesick. I wanted to be closer to her in case she needed me for some reason or another. While I was teaching English as a Second Language ESL I had saved $7,000.00 and invested it into the business venture that eventually failed after I ran out of money and I could not sign up any teachers. It was a partnership between Mr. Byung Wook OH and I. Even though he was willing to pay me a salary, I wanted to do it on my own as a business partnership, that we are still trying to get the recruiting business venture up and running, with no success, after all these years and still no success at hiring teachers for Mr. OH and Prime Language Schools.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

What is obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)?

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a type of mental illness that causes repeated unwanted thoughts. To get rid of the thoughts, a person does the same tasks over and over. For example, you may fear that everything you touch has germs on it. So to ease that fear, you wash your hands over and over again.

OCD is a chronic, or long-term, illness that can take over your life, hurt your relationships, and limit your ability to work or go to school.

What causes OCD?

Experts don't know the exact cause of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Research suggests that there may be a problem with the way one part of the brain sends information to another part. Not having enough of a brain chemical called serotonin may help cause the problem.

Some experts believe that a problem related to infections, such as strep throat or scarlet fever, can suddenly bring on the disorder or make its symptoms worse in some children.

What are the symptoms?

Symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder tend to come and go over time and range from mild to severe. Anxiety is the most common symptom. For example, you may have an overall sense that something terrible will happen if you don't do a certain task, such as check, again and again, to see whether the stove is on. If you fail to check, you may suddenly feel tense or anxious or have a nagging sense that you left something undone.

Symptoms of the disorder include:

Obsessions. These are unwanted thoughts, ideas, and impulses that you have again and again. They won't go away. They get in the way of your normal thoughts and cause anxiety or fear. The thoughts may be sexual or violent, or they may make you worry about illness or infection. Examples include A fear of harm to yourself or a loved one. A driving need to do things perfectly or correctly. A fear of getting dirty or infected.

Compulsions. These are behaviors that you repeat to try to control the obsessions. Some people have behaviors that are rigid and structured, while others have very complex behaviors that change. Examples include Washing or checking that something has been done. Counting, often while doing another compulsive action, such as hand-washing. Repeating things or always moving items to keep them in perfect order. Hoarding. Praying.

The obsessions or compulsions usually take up a lot of time more than 1 hour a day. They greatly interfere with your normal routine at work or school, and they affect social activities and relationships.

Sometimes people may understand that their obsessions and compulsions are not real. But at other times they may not be sure, or they may believe strongly in their fears.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) from WebMD at webmd.com

"Up from here" Chapter 7: Pacifica, California