My Journalism 101 teacher used to open current events discussions with this phrase. It seems appropriate for our latest new from South Korea too.
Many of you probably know that we've been planning on a 2nd year in South Korea. Our plan was to come home this summer for 6-8 weeks and then come back around late August or September for another year of teaching. This past weekend Bob and I rather suddenly decided that when we come home in 15 weeks it will be for good.
We even surprised ourselves a little bit with our decision, but we both feel it's the best one. We thought when we didn't feel much homesickness or culture shock after 4 months that we'd bypassed all that and never would experience those feelings. It seemed to take us 7 or 8 months for those feelings to finally come. Lately we've been feeling a bit down and are anxious to go home and feel more comfortable. I think neither of us wanted to be the first to admit that we wanted to "throw in the towel."
We feel so blessed and grateful to have had this cultural experience and we've been able to save a lot more money here than we could at home. But in the end we decided those things don't outweigh the benefits of being at home. We miss having more than one room to live in, or going to the grocery store and being able to read the food labels!
When we finally said it out loud that we wanted to go home for good, we both felt a huge wave of relief wash over us. I think that means it's the right choice. That's not to say we regret coming here. If we could go back in time we'd absolutely do it all over again. And we'd still recommend it to anyone who's thinking of doing the same thing. It's just that we realize our callings in life don't involve teaching . Our entire lives here revolve around teaching and it's not something either of us is particularly passionate about (or frankly good at!) And a year is a good amount of time. Two would be too much.
So we're extremely happy to be heading home in 3 1/2 months, but now we have so much we still want to do in so little time! I think it will make everything here a little more enjoyable. We still want to see the sea cliffs at Tajeondae, take a ferry ride to one of the hundreds of islands dotting the coast, climb the mountains behind our apartment, take another weekend trip (or two) to Seoul and so much more. We also have a lot of souvenirs left to buy!
We also plan to visit Japan for 5 or 6 days on our way home. Since we might never be on this side of the world again, we'd like to do some more traveling in Asia if we can...
...so, that's the breaking news on our end. We'll see you all in about 15 weeks!
***Bob and Lindsey***
