I'm sitting here playing on the internet and listening to somewhat melancholy music. I've always been a fan of depressing music; it makes me happy. Okay, maybe not happy, but I like to sort of lose myself in it. Is there really any better form of expression? Even those of us who are not musically inclined (as my classes full of Korean kids who have heard me sing the cheesy songs in their textbooks can attest to) can be taken to higher level of existence through music. And the depressing stuff brings out the best in the artists.
Anyway. Another good weekend. A weekend filled with food, alcohol and new friends. Walking the streets of Daejeon. Shopping in stores made for tiny Asian women. Meeting people from all kinds of places. Introducing my new British friends to margaritas. Introducing myself to a soju and margarita hangover on Saturday morning. Practicing my new Korean reading skills.
There are some exciting things coming up in the next couple of months. The organization where I take Korean class is hosting a trip to Jeonju, a traditional Korean town, at the end of the month, as well as a hiking/tree planting trip in April. I'm going to sign up for a 10K run in Gyeongju, where the cherry blossoms are supposed to be phenomenal. I also plan on signing up for a DMZ tour, but I may have missed the window for that one. Another one will come along. In the next couple of weeks, I'm going to head up to Seoul to see my dear friend Brandy from home. I feel like life here has been extremely busy so far, but I like it. I feel like I'm actually a part of life here rather than watching it from the outside, which I have felt too many times before. Of course I'm still in the adjustment period, but I'm pretty pleased with how everything is going.
There are times when I feel pangs for home, but I know that if I were at home, I would wish I were here. And there are times when I wake up in the morning surprised/scared to be in Korea, but the fear passes relatively quickly and I just go on. I remember what I am proving to myself and how lucky I am to be able to experience all of this.
I wish I had more interesting and intelligent things to say at the moment, but I'm at a loss.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Saturday, March 3, 2012
getting my bearings
Just thought I'd write an update for everyone who was worried about me the other day. Things are going MUCH better.
It's been a whirlwind of a few days. It's hard to believe that it's only my third full day here. Friday was a little difficult, mainly because of the jet lag, but other than that, it was good. Matthew, the head English teacher, walked me to the school that morning, and as soon as we walked into the teachers' room and he introduced me to Kelly, the director, she hugged me and I instantly liked her and knew it was all going to be okay. I met the rest of the teachers: Istelle and Tania from South Africa, Daniel from Mississippi, Helen and Pierre from England, and many Korean teachers, all of whom were friendly. It's nice because the foreign and Korean teachers really seem to get along and work well together, which wasn't the case at my old school (although I'm going to try really hard not to compare the two all the time, at least not publicly). My co-teacher's name is Sarah as well, and she was very nice and helpful.
They feed us free lunch at the school, which is really nice, and the building that houses the school also contains our bank, a gym, a swimming pool, a deli, and there are other shops, a fruit stand and some other things on the same corner. The schedule seems good too. The classes are 40 minutes, and we each teach many classes but have several breaks throughout the day. That's really all I know at this point. Tomorrow, I begin teaching and I have to go get my health check to get the process of getting my alien card started. Once I have the card, I can get a bank account and a cell phone.
So anyway, so far, so good at work.
Friday night, Daniel and Helen showed me around the neighborhood a bit: grocery stores, restaurants, etc. We ate kimbap at a place a couple of blocks from the apartment building. $3 for a giant roll of kimbap (sort of like sushi), a bowl of soup and kimchi. I see myself eating there a lot. After that, we had a couple of drinks and played cards, and then Daniel and Helen went out, but the jet lag was beating me by that time so I just went to bed. I'm happy to say that I slept 7 hours straight, a vast improvement from the night before.
Saturday, I woke up, showered, and headed out to the grocery store. I took a little detour on the way to explore the neighborhood a little more. There are coffee shops, bars, restaurants, and few shops. I picked up some essentials at the store and then went home and SCRUBBED this apartment, particularly the kitchen, from top to bottom. The guy who had it before me was pretty nasty (which is funny because I met him Thursday night, and he told me he had cleaned the place for me...right).
So then a little bit later, Helen came upstairs (she lives right below me) and asked if I wanted to join her and some people she knew from a different part of town at the Yuseong foot spa (this is part of the famous hot springs in Daejeon). I said sure, of course, and we headed across town. Taxis are so cheap here. Anyway, the spa was this large rock hot tub type thing where you rinse your feet, get in and sit on the ledge with your feet in the water for as long as you want. And it's free. So I met a few other foreigners. After the spa, we went to eat dak galbi (a sort of spicy chicken stew) and Korean man in the restaurant bought us all Cokes. Korean people are generally very friendly and often fascinated by us waygooks (foreigners).
By this time, my new friends had learned that I have a CostCo card and wanted to accompany me there, where I was headed, to buy sheets. So we got on the subway (my first subway adventure in Daejeon) and made our way there. We weren't exactly sure where it was from the subway stop, so a Korean man led us there, which was really nice of him. I got some desperately needed bedding (last night was MUCH more comfortable), a giant block of cheese and some Hormel ham. Then, since Helen and I were pretty much back in our neighborhood, we headed home.
A little while later, Daniel, Helen, their friend Mark and I went to dinner at an all you can eat Korean barbecue place. So delicious. I had missed it. The boys probably ate an entire pig. I got full after a few rounds.
After dinner, I called it a night. I think I was asleep before 10 p.m., and despite waking up for just a little while around 3 a.m., I was able to go back to sleep and stay asleep until about 8:15. Progress! Today, I plan on walking around a bit more to continue getting my bearings. Anyway, that's all for now. I'm just pretty relieved things have gone so well so far.
It's been a whirlwind of a few days. It's hard to believe that it's only my third full day here. Friday was a little difficult, mainly because of the jet lag, but other than that, it was good. Matthew, the head English teacher, walked me to the school that morning, and as soon as we walked into the teachers' room and he introduced me to Kelly, the director, she hugged me and I instantly liked her and knew it was all going to be okay. I met the rest of the teachers: Istelle and Tania from South Africa, Daniel from Mississippi, Helen and Pierre from England, and many Korean teachers, all of whom were friendly. It's nice because the foreign and Korean teachers really seem to get along and work well together, which wasn't the case at my old school (although I'm going to try really hard not to compare the two all the time, at least not publicly). My co-teacher's name is Sarah as well, and she was very nice and helpful.
They feed us free lunch at the school, which is really nice, and the building that houses the school also contains our bank, a gym, a swimming pool, a deli, and there are other shops, a fruit stand and some other things on the same corner. The schedule seems good too. The classes are 40 minutes, and we each teach many classes but have several breaks throughout the day. That's really all I know at this point. Tomorrow, I begin teaching and I have to go get my health check to get the process of getting my alien card started. Once I have the card, I can get a bank account and a cell phone.
So anyway, so far, so good at work.
Friday night, Daniel and Helen showed me around the neighborhood a bit: grocery stores, restaurants, etc. We ate kimbap at a place a couple of blocks from the apartment building. $3 for a giant roll of kimbap (sort of like sushi), a bowl of soup and kimchi. I see myself eating there a lot. After that, we had a couple of drinks and played cards, and then Daniel and Helen went out, but the jet lag was beating me by that time so I just went to bed. I'm happy to say that I slept 7 hours straight, a vast improvement from the night before.
Saturday, I woke up, showered, and headed out to the grocery store. I took a little detour on the way to explore the neighborhood a little more. There are coffee shops, bars, restaurants, and few shops. I picked up some essentials at the store and then went home and SCRUBBED this apartment, particularly the kitchen, from top to bottom. The guy who had it before me was pretty nasty (which is funny because I met him Thursday night, and he told me he had cleaned the place for me...right).
So then a little bit later, Helen came upstairs (she lives right below me) and asked if I wanted to join her and some people she knew from a different part of town at the Yuseong foot spa (this is part of the famous hot springs in Daejeon). I said sure, of course, and we headed across town. Taxis are so cheap here. Anyway, the spa was this large rock hot tub type thing where you rinse your feet, get in and sit on the ledge with your feet in the water for as long as you want. And it's free. So I met a few other foreigners. After the spa, we went to eat dak galbi (a sort of spicy chicken stew) and Korean man in the restaurant bought us all Cokes. Korean people are generally very friendly and often fascinated by us waygooks (foreigners).
By this time, my new friends had learned that I have a CostCo card and wanted to accompany me there, where I was headed, to buy sheets. So we got on the subway (my first subway adventure in Daejeon) and made our way there. We weren't exactly sure where it was from the subway stop, so a Korean man led us there, which was really nice of him. I got some desperately needed bedding (last night was MUCH more comfortable), a giant block of cheese and some Hormel ham. Then, since Helen and I were pretty much back in our neighborhood, we headed home.
A little while later, Daniel, Helen, their friend Mark and I went to dinner at an all you can eat Korean barbecue place. So delicious. I had missed it. The boys probably ate an entire pig. I got full after a few rounds.
After dinner, I called it a night. I think I was asleep before 10 p.m., and despite waking up for just a little while around 3 a.m., I was able to go back to sleep and stay asleep until about 8:15. Progress! Today, I plan on walking around a bit more to continue getting my bearings. Anyway, that's all for now. I'm just pretty relieved things have gone so well so far.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
the jet lag talking
I quite literally wept from the moment my parents left me at security in Dallas until I went to bed in my new apartment in Daejeon.
This was not a continuous cry. It was pretty steady from Dallas to Denver, relapsed between Denver and San Francisco, and I fought it between San Francisco and Seoul because I was sitting between two really nice people - a Korean girl and another American English teacher - and I didn't want to talk about it or make them feel weird.
Once I was safely alone in my apartment, I had another bawl fest. I think it's a combination of a lot of things. One, moving across the world is a stressful experience, no matter how many times you do it. Two, I like to act like I'm Miss Jetsetter, Miss Independent, but I'm really a big Mama's girl. Picturing my parents and the family dog has been enough to set me off again all day. I miss them so much. Three, coming back to Korea is causing a whole lot of mixed emotions associated with my previous experience here to resurface. Do I think I made a mistake by coming back? No. But I am reliving the fear, the anxiety, the loneliness, the homesickness that I felt last time, and that ultimately broke me. I am much stronger now, but it's possible that I never really dealt with some of those issues before and physically being here is forcing me to. This is probably good in the long run. Four, I'm freaking exhausted. It's 3 a.m. here (noon in Texas), and I am wide awake. I expected I would wake up about now, but I really only slept from like 11 to 12:45 or something! I know I was/am way more tired than that. I'll probably be a zombie tomorrow, but I just can't sleep right now.
The positives: I'm also remembering all the things I liked about Korea too. It's nice to be somewhere where the people are so friendly and helpful, everything is within walking distance, and you typically have a lot in common with the other foreigners. Also, amid all my anxiety about work and being back in the classroom and everything else, I keep having these bursts where I feel like it's going to be okay. Where I feel confident and open-minded and just...ready for it.
The bottom line is that although this is not a perfect situation (what is?), and I will no doubt curse my decision to be here on occasion, I need to do this to prove to myself that I can. A year is short, but it's also long. And I'm scared, excited, nervous, sad, and happy all at once to be starting on this journey. I look forward to reading this again in 12 months and seeing how I've changed. (In this moment, I also look forward to my parents greeting me at DFW Airport in 12 months. Home sweet home. But that's just the homesickness/culture shock/jet lag talking.)
This was not a continuous cry. It was pretty steady from Dallas to Denver, relapsed between Denver and San Francisco, and I fought it between San Francisco and Seoul because I was sitting between two really nice people - a Korean girl and another American English teacher - and I didn't want to talk about it or make them feel weird.
Once I was safely alone in my apartment, I had another bawl fest. I think it's a combination of a lot of things. One, moving across the world is a stressful experience, no matter how many times you do it. Two, I like to act like I'm Miss Jetsetter, Miss Independent, but I'm really a big Mama's girl. Picturing my parents and the family dog has been enough to set me off again all day. I miss them so much. Three, coming back to Korea is causing a whole lot of mixed emotions associated with my previous experience here to resurface. Do I think I made a mistake by coming back? No. But I am reliving the fear, the anxiety, the loneliness, the homesickness that I felt last time, and that ultimately broke me. I am much stronger now, but it's possible that I never really dealt with some of those issues before and physically being here is forcing me to. This is probably good in the long run. Four, I'm freaking exhausted. It's 3 a.m. here (noon in Texas), and I am wide awake. I expected I would wake up about now, but I really only slept from like 11 to 12:45 or something! I know I was/am way more tired than that. I'll probably be a zombie tomorrow, but I just can't sleep right now.
The positives: I'm also remembering all the things I liked about Korea too. It's nice to be somewhere where the people are so friendly and helpful, everything is within walking distance, and you typically have a lot in common with the other foreigners. Also, amid all my anxiety about work and being back in the classroom and everything else, I keep having these bursts where I feel like it's going to be okay. Where I feel confident and open-minded and just...ready for it.
The bottom line is that although this is not a perfect situation (what is?), and I will no doubt curse my decision to be here on occasion, I need to do this to prove to myself that I can. A year is short, but it's also long. And I'm scared, excited, nervous, sad, and happy all at once to be starting on this journey. I look forward to reading this again in 12 months and seeing how I've changed. (In this moment, I also look forward to my parents greeting me at DFW Airport in 12 months. Home sweet home. But that's just the homesickness/culture shock/jet lag talking.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)