Teachers Share their Experiences While Living Abroad!

After Seoul, my family traveled by train down to Busan. The first couple things I knew I had to show them were the large, bustling fish market Jagalchi, and the equally bustling food and shopping district, Nampo. Before we sank into the Jagalchi harbor, we decided to do some pre-dinner shopping.

During the last few weeks of December and into the New Year, my family came to visit me! They traveled all the way from Las Vegas, NV to spend some time with me in South Korea. Their first stop was Seoul, so I left Busan, my home city, for a weekend to come visit them there. I was excited to introduce them to the ROK!

In the days before I left America to teach for a year in South Korea, I was a mess of emotions. I was excited. I was afraid. I was eager. I was uncertain. I was pensive, and I was worried. As I hugged him goodbye, a good friend told me “don’t worry. Nothing will change.” I didn’t say anything, but I was thinking, “You’re delusional. Of course things are going to change! I’m leaving for a YEAR!” As it turns out, however, he was right.

After ten months in Korea, I came home last Saturday for a week-long vacation. I am surprised to find that I feel no nostalgia upon returning. I have no sense of satisfied longing. Rather, I feel as though I never left at all. Southern California still has beautiful Mediterranean climate: innumerable towering palm trees sway in the cool ocean breeze that makes the 80 degree weather down-right perfect. Although a few shops in my hometown have gone down, predictable ones take their place: Where did the gas station go? Oh, another CVS is there now. (But wait, isn‘t there one across the street?)