September 1st will be mine and Korea's anniversary. And even though I had planned on only being here for a year, when the end of winter came and the arrival of warm weather, vacation and blue skies arrived, I entered a stage of happiness and re-signed for another year. I now will be under contract until September 1, 2014. (Come winter, I, with out a doubt, will regret this decision)
Coming to Korea was an escape from having to face real life. I consider this a pause, a vacation, a break on the inevitable time where I will have to begin to establish myself in a career, pay grown people taxes, own adult things like houses and cars, give up spending Friday nights in the club and Saturdays attempting to detox before spending Saturday night at the bar. Possibly participating in an adult relationship with long-term commitment, putting somebody other than myself first and giving up spending Sundays unshowered, looking like chewbacca, in my underwear, eating ice cream from the carton, while immersing myself in the cheesiest of romance novels or trashiest of television shows.
Teaching in Korea minus the hours that I sat and thoroughly warmed my computer chair as I flipped through mindless websites with nothing to do but try to pass time without offing myself, I have loved. (In Korea we have 20 vacation days to use in our first year, the school has about 40 vacation days, so those extra 20 days we are required to come in to work, despite NOBODY else being around and "desk warm." ) My co-workers and school have both been nothing but great to me. And because I have a zero crap tolerance, my students who started out as insubordinate creatures, have now become well behaved teacher's pets. I couldn't have asked for a better situation.
Life in Korea itself ..... has been interesting. Here every time I walk the streets, enter a room, get on a bus or subway EVERY SINGLE eye that isn't a foreigner is on me as if I were Hitler, Jesus or Tupac returned from the dead. Unfortunately it isn't because I am outstandingly good-looking or endowed with the body of a goddess, it's because I stand out in every single way possible, my appearance, nationality, ethnicity, height, size and language I speak. Despite me being here for a year, people are still surprised that I can eat with chopsticks, like Kimchi, and can eat "spicy" food (to a person coming from a minute north of Mexico, there is nothing spicy about Korean food). When I read something in Hangul, despite it being the easiest alphabet to learn in the world, I receive a bigger reaction than the death of Michael Jackson. And because I am a westerner, which is also defined as a fast, easy and slut here, I have been petitioned for more sex than 6 prostitutes could handle in a lifetime.
But despite the annoyances that any foreigner living in a different country would encounter, life here has also been amazing. I have met people from all over the world and now have acquaintances that span the globe. Next year when my time comes, I will be leaving with a small amount but wonderful lifetime friends. I have been exposed to the orgasmic flavors of Korean food. I have been able to experience a city with public transportation that puts the rest of the world to shame, a city where being hung over is not just accepted, it is expected. A place where floors heat, where there is quick, cheap and delicious front door delivery service for ANY Korean food you could want. A land of self-service bars, alcohol that cost less than water and "service." (service is what Koreans call free gifts that you receive at stores and restaurants for shopping there, ranges from accessories, side dishes, discounts, extra amounts of whatever you buy ext..) I have a job that allows me to not only travel the world and spend money on whatever my heart desires but also to save for what my dad calls "a rainy day." And on top of all of this, I am able to work on my master degree while maintaining my social life.
While I am more homesick than a pregnant woman in the morning, I have high hopes for the next year. I will be adding more stamps to my passport, finishing a large chunk of my degree, setting myself up for a grown up job in America, gaining more weight by feeding all of my cravings with no guilt, hopefully saving enough for a "rainy year" and preparing myself for that unfortunate thing called adulthood.
#CHEERS2MAKINGITTHISFAR
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