Transition.

Just to give some pause for the transition, I decided to go for a ride, away from Seoul. My usual weekend getaway place of Mui Island provided me an excellent hideout. Last day of three days of transitioal period dayoffs, I took Vicky and my sis along.

Alea iacta est.

So it is, the die has been cast! It was rather frustrating until the moment the decision was needed to be made and become known to those related, yet the moment is gone now and I feel lucky and much more optimistic for whatever may come ahead, mostly because I know he will be with me every step of the way. Yes, it will be a lie if I say I am not nervous about an unknown kind of work and new environment, etc., yet surprisingly peace residing within me overwhelms the nervousness or frustration that may occur during this transition, along with deep appreciation for him to answer some of my calls.

The work will begin from June 19, and my heart beats from sheer excitement and hopeful expectation.

1987.

I was twelve years old when I first saw this painting of a bleeding college student, Lee Han-yeol. Too young to comprehend what was going on then, all I remembered about the occasion in 1987 was pretty much only this painting. They say memories have a tendency of being encarved as images, they may be true of this case. Periodically organized details of the incident and stories of young social activists, now most of them being big shots in Korean politics, are fascinating to read, particularly only a few months before the election. Click the title of the article to see more details.

A change, again?

An offer from a seemingly prestigious employer certainly boosted my ego and made me feel honored, yet I had to spend my whole weekend speculating over possible pros and cons to take the offer. Perhaps, write all those down would help me to make the decision.

pros.
1. an employer with a better-known label,
2. possible step stone for a career path,
3. approximately CAD 7,000 of an annual salary raise,
4. possibly more extrovert work characteristic depending on how I manage the work,
5. up close contact with people having quite interesting backgrounds,
6. better work environments including more perks with a strong union (for better or for worse).
7. access to information.

cons.
1. three-months of provisional period; i can be laid-off aftermath,,(god, this would be horrible!)
2. I can be completely isolated if work is mismanaged,
3. seemingly more competitive work condition (a handsome amount of politics will be foreseeably involved),
4. leaving the current position, which I get relatively stable and friendly work condition and relationship with coworkers,
5. this can be seen as another career change in my CV,
6. my work will be evaluated by a single person, most likely, which may be advantageous or vice versa depending on situations.
7. need to get accustomed to a new environment.

What would you reckon?

Zeal for life.

Seriously, I am not going to trade an hour of sleeping with anything else in this world. I can't stop yawning for hours now, and this seems not too uncommon lately in my life. Some say why bother to sleep when knowing that you will be sleeping eternally when you're dead. Well, though I have to say I just love taking time in my comfy bed with a crisp cotton bed sheet wrapped around my thighs until late mid-afternoon, reading and sipping morning coffee therein.

At a tea table on a rooftop of a tea shop in Insa-dong last nite, fellow colleagues from the previous job gathered around and shared thoughts on our future path and what hopefully could give us a purpose or a zeal for our lives. Dramatic blue prints made by the UAE's city planning strategies introduced by one of the previous bosses was particularly interesting to listen, since it almost sounded to me as aiming for the impossible. What he described is this;

The UAE sets a target to increase an average capital per person from the current approximately slightly over USD 20,000 to USD 1,000,000 by 2025(?), if I remember correctly. Can you believe a nation bold enough to aim making all of their people millionnaires? It sounded ridiculous in the beginning, but it wasn't much so as I listened to what he eagerly delivered to us under the bright cresent. He wasn't emphasizing whether they would achieve the target or not, but seemingly wanted to point out that certainly setting a higher goal would enable those believers to achieve more than what the others with smiliar qualifications and backgrounds would do. Creativity and ambition; boldness to take risks to carry out thereof, if i may summarize his lengthy talks into a sentence.

The manuevers taken so far were striking and even sensational for a big entity as a state to adopt, and the risks potentially following are needless to mention.
What they do is creating a building paradise, proudly touched by cutting-edge techniques from top engineers around the world, in the middle of desert. ... hey, this sounds a lot alike the stories of Bugsy Siegal, the legendary founder of the hotel "Flamenco" in Las Vegas, a thug dreamed an impossible but turned into reality. Now back to those in the UAE who built a hugh mass of sand island along the shore, their perks to allure foreign investors were building grandeur structures with very odd concepts such as an indoor ski slopes in amid of sandy desert, THE most luxurious seven star hotel of Birds-al-arab, etc. But to everybody's surprise, the real estate of the sand island has been skyrocketing for last some years. Here, he didn't forget to advise us to invest some money if we're interested in.

Surely, listening to what he said helped to broaden the scope of my agendas, which lately have been suffered from a dramatic downsize thereof, due to routined repetitive life circles and work. well, i have been inquiring around information to invest in stocks and funds like most of Seoulites would do when they begin to see their bank account growing. Bank interests are just so mere to expect any no matter how long you leave your money there, so~yeh, why not turn my eyes a little bit further!