One Month

Which is how long I've been here in South Korea.  I still find it hard to believe that I'm actually here and I'm not sure when, or if, I'll ever get used to it.  It seems as if it was just yesterday when I made the decision to go on this adventure, which was sometime during the summer, and that I blinked my eyes in Atlanta and ended up here.  Sometimes I think I'm in a dream, especially since I have problems remembering the day of the week and time.

I have left some great people back home in Atlanta.  There were a few of them who made my last few months back home extra special and they know who they are.  I'm just happy that the internet exists, which makes it easier to keep in touch with people back home.  The internet makes a huge contribution to my "sanity" while living in this foreign land.  Of course, this thought still runs through my head and probably will for the rest of my stay: "Did I make the right decision?".  A new one seems to have popped up: "What am I doing?".  This is normal.  There are quite a few who also have these thoughts.  Do we ever truly know what we're doing?

Although I've only been here a month...I've met some great people, been on a DMZ trip and Jindo Island trip (stay tuned for these posts), and I get to see my brother in person while I'm here.  This, if any of you know, is something I wasn't able to do for quite a while.  He taught in South Korea for a year, came back home for about a month or so, went on a six month trip through Central America, then left again this past December to teach in South Korea after returning home again for about two months.  However, I did make a ten day trip in July to hang out with him in Nicaragua.  But that's beside the point.  I seem to have gone off on a tangent...

Never mind, it wasn't a tangent.  My former coworkers back in Atlanta were probably shocked, excited and grateful that I finally decided to take a trip to Nicaragua during the summer since I had racked up 100+ PTO (Paid Time Off) hours over three years.  I rarely took any days off from work.  When I think back on that I wonder "Why?!".  I know...I was falling into"Zombie" mode and realized that I had to escape.  Taking that vacation during the summer cleared away the fogginess and made me realize that I needed to do something different.  I no longer wanted to spend most of my time in a slightly padded cell.

And that is how I ended up here in Seoul, South Korea teaching English to Korean Kindergarteners for a year.

I want to thank everyone who is supporting, and believes, in me.  And also for understanding why I'm doing this...I'm still trying to understand it myself.  I love all of you!