Recent Life [last updated 2011-06-07].
I am currently on my tenth career (approximately). I have been working as an elementary EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher in South Korea. From 2007 until 2009, I was working at a private academy in Ilsan (northwest suburbs of Seoul). In April of 2010, I worked at a public elementary school in rural Hongnong, Yeonggwang County, Jeollanam Province (southwestern part of the peninsula). This was a very enlightening experience. I have now returned to Ilsan, again, as of the beginning of May of 2011.
I'm pretty happy with my life. I like living in Ilsan - It's one of only 4 places I've ever moved back to. And two of those (Humboldt, and L.A., in California) were more from necessity than from any actual to desire to live there. Minnesota, my adoptive home, is the other place in that category.
My previous careers (in roughly backwards order) included: database programmer/analyst; high school Spanish teacher; graduate student (that's a career, isn't it?); UPS night-shift box-sorter (box-destroyer! -- a Teamster); bookstore clerk; US Army truck mechanic; book-bindery factory worker; assistant manager at a hostel (Mexico City); homeless college dropout living in a VW Bug.
I often think myself as a writer, but I don't seem to get much actual writing done - at least not in line with the ambitions that I harbor. I have, however, been quite prolific with my blog, recently. I intend eventually to try to post some of my past work, such as it is, but so far I haven't gotten around to it - I have about 5 kilos of notes and notebooks that I've been lugging around with me from continent to continent, however.
Beyond my recent return to teaching, I've been known to harbor certain vague entrepreneurial fantasies. The website name "raggedsign" (which is where this page is hosted) is a sort of "brand" which I developed, many years back, to identify myself as a web-creative and/or computer-consulting business. That whole project is utterly dormant, at the moment... but it's possible to visit the professional section of this website for more info, such as it is.
To learn more about me, you can see my
resume, or visit my
bio section for an idea of who I am. I also created a separate website (jaredway.com) to present myself professionally during my most recent job search, at the beginning of 2010.
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