So, this is my 5th year living in Korea, and I always meant to start a blog to keep a journal of all my travels and just just life as foreigner in general. So... here I go, starting somewhere, and hopefully be able to remember and thus record my favorite happenings of the last half decade.
Right now I'm 6 months into my 6th contract in Korea, this time down on Jeju Island. I absolutely love the island life, much more laid back than the mainland. BUT.... I do believe i should've taken a break before signing on again. My relationship with Korea is a Love/ Hate kinda deal. I love the people, my students, my friends, the lifestyle here, but as with anywhere, being a non-citizen of almost any country can take its toll on you after a while. The day to day living, the little things, trying to explain that you DO NOT want potatoes on your pizza this time (although it can be quite good if done properly) or ordering a "double-shot Americano" but instead ending up with two single ones.
Maybe you're wondering "why dont you go home for a vacation?" well, I am also wondering the same thing.
I dont really consider myself an indecsive person, but for some reason, these days I cant seem to decide on what to have for breakfast, let alone whether I will stay here for another year, with yet another, better, (and higher paid, I might add) position. In which case, I seem to keep prolonging said vacation, assuring myself that between contracts I will go home and relax on my mothers lovely veranda for a whole month drinking beer and eating greek salad with my dad. everyday.
But having spent the last month or so questioning why I didnt run off to the Greek islands to be a bartender, Korea has once again surprised me by challenging me to a new game. I really like games, so my interest was peaked right away. I'm not sure what the "official" name of the game is, but I will refer to it as " How to Keep Your Sanity".
This game got started, when I realised that I was in fact, not going home for my christmas vacation and had to put my noggin to use, to try to keep myself busy. I've always been into photograhy- my dad gave me his old manual Pentax SLR when I was in high school. and I like writing too. But haven't really been into since "creative wrting class" in my first year at Uni.
And so the first challeng was presented to me: An essay contest about your life in Korea... with pictures. neat! so I did it, mostly for the $500 grand prize, but I did it, twice, none the less (the first copy got lost somewhere in cyberness) and I won. pretty cool me thinks. Also winning me the long awaited respect of my school principal and the parents of my Korean boyfriend. Yay!
This little game Korea had started with me then opened doors that I thought had been shut and locked. I was invited to give a public lecture for new teachers in Korea about, of all things, How to adapt to life in Korea as a Foreigner. Ha! ...And was then asked to do interviews with 2 newspapers here on Jeju, and interviews with 2 national TV stations!... again, HA! It sure shocked the kimchi outta me.
Ironically, and the point of this blog, is that, out of my rocky relationship with Korea, it has set off a chain of opportunities for me, and thus being able to make ammends with Her, and remember all those things that I thought were so great when I first came here, but then, slowly became part of everyday life.
....Yea, Korea is cool. but I'm still goin home to drink beer with my dad for a while.
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