Needless to say, I'm not in Korea anymore. January brought on a month-long school break, which meant being able to relax at home in January; my head teacher was my favorite person that month. Unfortunately, the boyfriend wasn't so lucky, and I ended up being quite the housewife. Cue grocery shopping, washing dishes and doing laundry for two. Don't think that I'm complaining! Heating was on nonstop and I somehow found myself with an entire apartment acting as my closet.
February came before I knew it, along with my last two weeks of "school" in Korea. Those of you who knew my schedule during my second semester in Korea can attest to my usage of quotation marks. I taught a maximum of ten lessons each week for my last semester. And yes, I still turned down the contract renewal for the easiest job that I will ever have.
Most of the children were lovely and the job wasn't difficult, but Gyeongju isn't for me. It never felt like home, even with the great friends that I made there. I want to live in a place that I'm comfortable in and smile thinking about. That doesn't mean not getting lost or having to ask for help or not knowing what kind of meat ends up on your plate. I love those experiences wherever I am. But after the first six months, it definitely felt like a one-year deal.
I'm beyond blessed for the experience. For my first time living outside of California (let alone the United States), no major crisis happened where I felt the need to book an immediate flight home. It exposed me to so many new types of experiences, foods, people and different sides of myself. It also allowed me to reflect on how I lived in the states. WOW did I spend a lot of money online shopping.
Even after all of my badmouthing about Korea, every cloud has a silver lining. Or in this case, a few. Not only am I still friendly with people in Korea, but I'm also enjoying traveling the world with my boyfriend. And. AND. The cherry on top is that my younger sister is looking into being an ESL teacher as well. See? My stories couldn't have been that bad if she's still interested.
This still only brings me to mid-February.
More to come x
