South Korea; 14 Years in the Making, Part I

It's crazy. 

IT'S CRAZY.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU THINKING?!" 

That seems to be the general consensus of opinion over the last few weeks or so since I announced that we are moving to Korea. I know it seems crazy and makes no sense, even to people who know me. So I thought I'd try to explain a bit. This decision is a very personal one. Even some of my closest friends are shocked and can't fathom what I have done. It is completely understandable as my love affair with Asia and my desire for this particular job are well - or semi-well - kept secrets. To try and understand, let's go back to the year 1989...

I joined the Army Reserves in 1989 to help pay for college and ended up serving 7 years with one year in the inactive reserve. In 1998, after being completely out of the Army for a year I was tired of my job and I decided to enlist active duty because they offered me a position in Germany which is what I wanted - to see Europe. In the years that followed, I saw Europe in spades; every weekend I jumped a train somewhere, usually to a random location that I literally chose at the train station. I was young, dumb and full of...wanderlust. After two years in Germany I got a transfer to Italy, the land of my dreams. I never thought it possible, that I could live in such a beautiful and fairytale land as this; but it was real and from the very first day here, I embraced this land and all it had to offer. But I still had the damned wanderlust and it was quickly outgrowing the small continent of Europe. I'd seen most of Western Europe and wanted more - much, much more.  

First trip to Hong Kong, learning how to use chopsticks

One day in 2000, I was at work and had nothing going on so I started fooling around on the internet. I hadn't taken leave in a while so I started checking prices of plane tickets to places around Europe that I hadn't seen; Barcelona, Lisbon, Dublin, Stockholm, etc. And then for some reason, I put in places back home to see how much it would cost to fly home; Boston, Manchester, Portland, etc. And then, again, for some unknown reason I started plugging in the most exotic places I could think of to see how much it would cost to fly there and they were expensive but one place in particular was cheap and caught my attention - Hong Kong. Now all I knew of Hong Kong was from a rubber gorilla toy that I had as a kid because it said "Made in Hong Kong" on it. So to me it was as exotic as it gets. I did an online search for hotels and found some really cheap one. My wanderlust was in overdrive. I HAD to do this. I booked a trip and went to Hong Kong and just absolutely fell in love with it. It was immediately my favorite city I had ever seen. I was desperate to go back but it had opened the gate to Asia for me and I thought I wanted to see other places in Asia first so I did a trip to Thailand first. Again, absolutely loved it. My wanderlust was out of control. Here was an entire continent that I had yet to discover. The possibilities were endless. And then, as it often does, fate intervened; I met Virginia. 

She was originally from the Philippines but had been living and working in Hong Kong for about 10 years. I fell in love with her immediately. It was so hard to leave her but we spent a lot of time chatting online and talking on the phone and eventually I scheduled another trip where I brought her a ring and proposed to her. Most people thought I was crazy but I knew. I just knew. 16 years of marriage and three kids later...I'm pretty sure I made the right choice.  

Mak's Noodle Shop; Where I first proposed to Virginia.

I often think that part of the reason I fell in love with her was because of Hong Kong itself; she'd been there 10 years and was a master of the city and I fell in love with the city as I fell in love with her. We explored parts of the city and the region that few people have seen. We hiked the mountains of Lantau Island by day and partied in the nightlife of the Wanchai by night. It was a love affair founded on the romance of Hong Kong itself. Don't believe anyone who says that Hong Kong is just a big, boring city. It is so much more. It changed my life. It remains, to this day, my favorite city in the world. And that is no small claim. By the time I left her the second time, I'd been to Hong Kong three times and Thailand once. Limited as it was, my experiences showed me that I loved Asia and wanted...no...NEEDED to explore it more. Here is the Hong Kong page of my old website:

Rik's Hong Kong Page

A lot has happened to me since those days. We had Xavier pretty quickly; he wasn't planned but he arrived in 2003 in the beautiful medieval walled town of Soave. He grew up in Italy, went to school here, became fluent in the language and is more Italian than anything else. I got out of the Army back in 2004. When I was getting out, the first call I made was to the unit in Korea to see if they had any civilian jobs available in my field. I wanted to work in Korea for the obvious reasons; closer to the Philippines, closer to the wife's family, closer to Hong Kong and closer to all the other places I wanted to explore in Asia. It was hard to reach the right people but I was told that there were no jobs there at the time. I was crushed but with a one year old at home, I was too concerned with finding a job - any job - to care about not finding a job in Korea. As most of you know, I ended up getting a job as a contractor here in Vicenza followed by a jump into the Department of Defense Civilian world up in Germany shortly thereafter. All the while, Asia grew further and further away. Luca was born in Heidelberg in May 2008. In November 2008 we moved back here to Italy as a DoD civilian and stayed until 2014 when the government sent us to Redneckville (aka 'Scumter'), South Carolina. About a year before we left, Maximus Amadeus Thibodeau was born right here in Vicenza. All my kids were born overseas. We are a true international family...



Stay tuned for Part II...