31 teaching days left!
I have been freaking out a little about how I am going to support myself when I get back to the states. I think my plans for extensive travel before I return home may have been a little unrealistic. Since I have been traveling a lot here, I really haven’t saved a lot of money. Also, transferring won to dollars is not ideal especially considering that when I came to Korea, the won more or less matched the dollar.. now I will be taking about a 35% cut. That’s worse than taxes!!
Thinking about taking on a part time job in Florida makes me cringe. I don’t want to go back to the days of Pet Smart/CVS . I know I am going to have to do something to keep at least a little bit of a cash flow, but being a clerk is my least favorite job ever! My two main goals are to keep improving my teaching skills and becoming more fluent in Spanish, so the search is on. I am going to have to get creative.
As my time grows shorter and shorter in Korea, I begin to feel the bittersweet feelings of leaving a place that I both love and hate at the same time. I miss home, but Seoul will have a special place in my heart. I am going to miss so many things even though there are many things that I proclaim that I will never miss. Like the old adjumas pushing their way through the line or men haucking loogies and spitting. Life here is easy though. I haven’t really worried about money until I realized that I had to go back to no job, no car, nothing to call my own. Something about Seoul, or my journey in general, that has made me feel more appreciative of my friends and family. Maybe it is because I have had a lot of time to miss the wonderful people I have back home waiting for me. I also think it’s because I have made such solid connections with my friends in Seoul. I will be leaving behind Thursday Burrito night, Wednesday wine night, Tuesday coffee nights… I have made my own life here; it is so surreal to leave it with the probability of never coming back to it.
In this past month, I have had some great conversations with my friends, Lauren, Jess, Lara and MinJong also known as ‘Skitch’. MinJong and I have been hangin out on Wednesdays for chicken, beer, and good conversation. She is an amazing person and a great artist. This past Wednesday she took me to see her work. She works for a Japanese animation company. It was like any other office space except for MinJong’s desk. It was decked out with her drawings, some of her favorite artist’s drawings, there was something creative in every space she had. We went up to the roof of her building. We could see all of Guro from there. Since it was after work hours, no one was there, so we just sat on the roof and talked for a few hours. It was a great night and just one more thing I’m gonna miss about Korea.
The lovely MinJong
I feel this sense of freedom here that I hope I can recreate wherever I go. Every day, I wake up and think “anything could happen today”. I just go where the day takes me. I’m no longer uptight about where I go, when I go, what time I have to be home, or how long it is going to take me to get home. I run into people I know on the street, they suggest we grab some food or get a drink and I’m there. It seems like such a simple thing, but it is something that I hadn’t experienced in places where I need a car to get everywhere.
Thinking about taking on a part time job in Florida makes me cringe. I don’t want to go back to the days of Pet Smart/CVS . I know I am going to have to do something to keep at least a little bit of a cash flow, but being a clerk is my least favorite job ever! My two main goals are to keep improving my teaching skills and becoming more fluent in Spanish, so the search is on. I am going to have to get creative.
As my time grows shorter and shorter in Korea, I begin to feel the bittersweet feelings of leaving a place that I both love and hate at the same time. I miss home, but Seoul will have a special place in my heart. I am going to miss so many things even though there are many things that I proclaim that I will never miss. Like the old adjumas pushing their way through the line or men haucking loogies and spitting. Life here is easy though. I haven’t really worried about money until I realized that I had to go back to no job, no car, nothing to call my own. Something about Seoul, or my journey in general, that has made me feel more appreciative of my friends and family. Maybe it is because I have had a lot of time to miss the wonderful people I have back home waiting for me. I also think it’s because I have made such solid connections with my friends in Seoul. I will be leaving behind Thursday Burrito night, Wednesday wine night, Tuesday coffee nights… I have made my own life here; it is so surreal to leave it with the probability of never coming back to it.
In this past month, I have had some great conversations with my friends, Lauren, Jess, Lara and MinJong also known as ‘Skitch’. MinJong and I have been hangin out on Wednesdays for chicken, beer, and good conversation. She is an amazing person and a great artist. This past Wednesday she took me to see her work. She works for a Japanese animation company. It was like any other office space except for MinJong’s desk. It was decked out with her drawings, some of her favorite artist’s drawings, there was something creative in every space she had. We went up to the roof of her building. We could see all of Guro from there. Since it was after work hours, no one was there, so we just sat on the roof and talked for a few hours. It was a great night and just one more thing I’m gonna miss about Korea.
The lovely MinJong
I feel this sense of freedom here that I hope I can recreate wherever I go. Every day, I wake up and think “anything could happen today”. I just go where the day takes me. I’m no longer uptight about where I go, when I go, what time I have to be home, or how long it is going to take me to get home. I run into people I know on the street, they suggest we grab some food or get a drink and I’m there. It seems like such a simple thing, but it is something that I hadn’t experienced in places where I need a car to get everywhere.