Time to catch up...the rest of my time in the ROK! (March2012-March 2014)

So I took a break, a loooooong one, from blogging.  I got caught up in life, I guess.  My last real update was way back in March 2012, almost 2.5 years ago.  Time to fix that and play catch up.   So here's what happened during the rest of my time in the ROK since March 2012.  I'll try to just stick with the highlights...

I accidentally fell in love.  Unfortunately, the relationship only last for 9 months, but I had a great time.  We met the end of March 2012.  After the breakup, I made a couple of besties.  Worked out much better in the long run.

Cheongdo bull fighting festival.  Only the bulls fight each other.  (April 2012)

SantaCon Seoul  (December 2012)

World Baseball Classic in Tokyo with one of my besties, Mel (she LOVES baseball and I LOVE Tokyo).  (March 2013)

My friends and I went paragliding in Boryeong  (March 2013)

Seoul Jazz Festival at Olympic Park.  We saw Damien Rice, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Kings of Convenience...  (May 2013)

Hiked Mt Fuji  (July 2013)

Takahata & Miyazaki Animation Exhibit.  I went on a Miyazaki film craze following this exhibit.  The artwork on display was incredible.  (August 2013)

My Asus laptop decided to die and me.  As a result, I upgraded and invested in a 13" MacBook Air.  Birthday present to myself.  (November 2013)

Seoul Lantern Festival  (November 2013)

SantaCon Seoul  (December 2013)

 Winter Vacation 2013 - Thailand

 Winter Vacation 2013 - Thailand.  My friends and I decided to rent scooters on Koh Phangan where I had two, not one, accidents...  This picture above shows the result of my first accident.  The second accident was MUCH worse.

Winter Vacation 2013 - Hong Kong

Winter Vacation 2013 - Hong Kong

Last ladies' wine night in Seoul at Braii Republic  (January 2014)

Sticker photos with another bestie I made in the ROK, Steph  (February 2014)

Saying goodbye to my bro, Woody, before he leaves the ROK  (March 2014)

A delicious goodbye galbi meal with Steph  (March 2014)

My last weekend in the ROK  (March 2014)

My last meal in the ROK, at Incheon Intl Airport, before going on my grand adventure  (March 2014)

Lost in transit...

Imagine going from this rinky dinky railway system...

Atlanta, GA (USA)

to this...

Seoul, South Korea

(I'm still trying to figure out the bus situation in Seoul.)


Okay, now imagine having to use this...

Tokyo, Japan

(I'm not even going to try to figure out the bus system in Tokyo.)

It's quite overwhelming for someone who has had to rely on having her own car in order to get around town...

Four Months

Oh goodness...four months have passed.  I don't really have much to say at this moment...except for the fact that I know, I have decided, that I will definitely not extend my stay here in Korea once my contract is up.  I will be moving on.  To where?  I haven't the slightest idea...

I was going to provide you with a different quote, but I can't keep going without providing you with what may possibly be my favorite.  This quote, along with others, was posted in my slightly padded cell (cubicle) at my previous job back home.  It was there to keep me motivated, to remind me that I would move on to something else, perhaps better (?)...and that I would experience, discover for myself, more of what the world has to offer.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed

 by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do.  

So throw off the bowlines. 

Sail away from the safe harbor.  

Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore. Dream. Discover." 
~Mark Twain

The Black Hole

That's what I'm calling Seoul.  Whenever I meet another expat who's been here for 3-4+ years, I always ask them how long they initially planned on living and working here in Seoul...the answer is always one year.  After one year they would return home and after a few months back home they would return to Seoul.  I can see how that could happen.  It's easy to get used to, or sucked into, the lifestyle here.  You go out every night for a few drinks with your coworkers and friends (especially when you don't want to go back to your lonely one room apartment), you can easily get away with never cooking for yourself, public transportation here is wonderful, your apartment is paid for (minus the utilities), and it's easy to save some money for whatever you may have planned in the future.  Oh yeah, Seoul also serves as a great "home base" for traveling to other parts of Asia.  But then it's also easy to get stuck in a routine, or rut, if that's what you would want to call it.  Some of the expats I meet make a life out of teaching English here.  I don't see myself staying here another year.  Life here can be very convenient.  

But then again it's also difficult to not get out of, over, the depression after a few weeks or months of living here.  One of my coworkers who arrived here on the same night as me turned in his six weeks' notice earlier this week.  I heard the news from my other coworkers, but I definitely understand what he's going through.  However, I promised myself that no matter how bad things got for me, except for an emergency of some sort, I would stick through my one year contract.  Living and working here is no vacation and it's absolutely nothing like home.  South Korea is quite the experience for a waygook, foreigner. Of course, you also meet some great people here.

"have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer." ~Rainer Maria Rilke

Three Months

Today is the three month mark of my twelve month duration here In south korea.  I still find myself in a daze quite often, but I think that might have a little something to do with lack of sleep.  Of course, I am in a foreign land.  Which is something I’m gonna have to get used to not just for my stay here, but once my contract is up.

So the replacement for one of my co-teacher’s arrived in Korea Thursday.  Met her yesterday.  An Australian being replaced by an Irish.  I knew she was Irish as soon as she said her name was Ciara.  (As a friend before once put it, who has the same name and an Irish mother, it’s pronounced Shakira without the Sha.)  She seems really nice.  I will definitely miss working with Cath.  She has one week left in Seoul, then she’s off to Australia for a couple of months and then to Oregon.  I will definitely be visiting her when I make it back to the States.  =)

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

“I don’t much care where…” said Alice.

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.             

…..I believe you don’t always need to know your destination.  Just do your best to enjoy the journey.

Two Months

Two months have passed by and I still can't believe I'm here, in South Korea.  Not sure if this surreal feeling will change.   I still have my moments of homesickness, which have a tendency to hit really hard.  Unfortunately that feeling will never go away.  Of course I still question my decision for coming here.  However, the wheels are a turnin’ in my head for my travels once my contract here is up.

Now I remember what it was like being uprooted a few times during my childhood.  Back then I had no choice and it was a little difficult for me to make friends as my family moved around.  It didn’t help that I was extremely shy.  Here I am now, uprooting myself from family, friends and I guess “familiarity”…  I would become comfortable and felt as if I was “home”, then we were off.  I’m the one who’s responsible for what’s happening in my life now.  It’s kind of funny how things have turned out.  But then again, that’s how I grew up.  Although I am finding it a little difficult with being away from my loved ones, I’m not as shy anymore…I can’t be.  I’ve definitely come a long way.  Another thing to think about…even though I uprooted myself from “familiarity”, I’m still in a familiar place when it comes to moving somewhere I’ve never been before without any friends.  Even though my brother is here in Seoul, we’re about 30 minutes away from each other and he has his own life to live.  We’re not going to see each other every day, but we will see each other. 

I’m having no problems with meeting people and making friends.  However, I still encounter the feeling of loneliness.   Unfortunately, with this lifestyle, the new friends I make will not always be around.  They will leave to go back home, or to some other country, for other new and exciting experiences, and vice versa.  The same goes with the kids I teach.  One of my students' last day at school was yesterday.  Her family is moving to Fairfax, VA.  Quite the change.  

I leave you with an excerpt from a book I read this past summer…

"Virginia Wolfe wrote, “Across the broad continent of a woman’s life falls the shadow of a sword.” On one side of that sword, she said, there lies convention and tradition and order, where “all is correct.” But on the other side of that sword, if you’re crazy enough to cross it and choose a life that does not follow convention, “all is confusion. Nothing follows a regular course.” Her argument was that the crossing of the shadow of that sword may bring a far more interesting existence to a woman, but you can bet it will also be more perilous."

~Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)

P.S.  I know I'm behind on my blog posts.  Don't worry, I'll get to them soon enough. I need to get my lazy butt into gear. 

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!

Seoul Weekends

It's easy to stay out until 6:30-7 in the morning here in Seoul.  So far I've only stayed out that late a few times, but I haven't been here long.  I predict many more nights of partying until the break of dawn.  Unlike back home, the joints here stay open past 2am.  With pubs, bars, clubs and norebangs (Korean singing rooms), you'll never fall short of having a good time with your friends.

Welcome to Itaewon, Hongdae and Gangnam.  Itaewon is the multicultural community, Hongdae is the university  district and Gangnam is considered the business district.  Out of the three, my co-workers/friends and I have frequented Itaewon the most since I've stepped foot in Seoul.  The cab ride  may take around 5 minutes, but we can definitely walk to Itaewon from where my apartment is located.

Get ready for a ton of pics!

Itaewon

Making new friends.

Farewell to Eamon (on the far right).

This was a 6:30-7am outing.

Farewell to Andrew (in the pink hat).

Walking to Itaewon.

This was a 4am outing.

Hongdae

And another 6:30-7am outing.

Woody acting a fool.

Norebang!

En route to Gangnam. 

The wine buffet kicked my butt.

My first week in Seoul!

Despite the name of my site, I was a zombie during my first week here in Seoul.  After less than eight hours of sleep from Thursday night (Feb. 17th) through Monday (Feb. 21st), which includes my 15 hour non-stop flight from Atlanta to South Korea, I was definitely out of it.  I landed in Oz and didn't know what to think.

It's Monday, Feb. 21st, around 4:30pm.  My plane has landed at Incheon International Airport, I picked up my luggage and walked through customs to find a sign with my name on it, along with a Korean man waiting to drive me to Hannam-dong in Seoul.  The drive from the airport seemed as if it took forever.  Traffic was heavy, but then again, it was Monday evening around 6pm.  I was dropped off at my apartment and was in a complete state of shock while eating dinner.  There was definitely a system overload.  There's so much to take in.

My apartment is small, but that's expected.  It's one big room with a kitchenette and a bathroom where the shower head is connected to the sink.  The bed is extremely hard, so I definitely plan to splurge/invest in some bedding.  I need my rest since I will be teaching 5 year olds, they're really 3 to 4 year olds.

Day two, my first full day in Korea, consisted of arriving at the school, Bambini Education Center in Hannam-dong, finding out what I will be teaching, opening up a bank account and aimlessly wandering around.  I was originally supposed to meet up with my brother, Woody, but this zombie had to sleep.

 Walking along the north side of the Han River.

Oh yeah, I can't forget about the Korean BBQ for lunch...yummy!

On day three, the new foreign teachers observed a few classes, met the current foreign teachers, had lunch at the school and went on our merry ways.  I was able to muster up enough energy to meet up with Woody for dinner.  It was great seeing him.  

On day four, the 7 year olds graduated from kindergarten.  It's the end of the school year.  I won't start teaching until the next school year, which begins on March 3rd.

Day five, it's Friday.  The new teachers had to get a health screening...no big deal, standard procedure.

Phew!  I actually made it through the week (the weekend is a different story and post).  I have never consumed so much coffee in one week and I don't think that's going to change.  Now I just need to work on my sleeping schedule.  Haha...easier said than done.

I would be lying if I said that "did I make the right decision?" wasn't running through my mind as the plane was landing.  I will be teaching Phonics to Korean kindergarteners in Seoul, South Korea for a year.  The closest I've ever come to teaching is training co-workers.  Talk about a huge change!  As far as I'm concerned, I'm stepping into the unknown...a different culture, language, way of life.  Surprisingly enough though, I'm neither scared nor nervous.  I'm excited and curious as to how this experience will turn out, and at the same time I'm sad about leaving behind my family and friends.