Whenever I decided to move to teach English in South Korea, I had no idea the far flung effects this choice would have. Sure, I knew the experience would probably change me in some ways and could have effects on my future, but I mainly thought this would just be an isolated one year experience that would not relate to my life in the U.S. Or to put it in other terms, I never thought my American life would intersect with my life in Korea. The countries are too far apart and the culture is just too different. It is funny to me now how naive I was because I could not have been more wrong. Let me tell you how...
This mixing of lives began when I started to plan for my next step after Korea. I knew that I wanted to move to California, but I wasn't quite sure where. That answer was provided to me when I was accepted into a graduate school program in Los Angeles. Los Angeles is a huge city though and figuring out where to live in the city can be a nightmare, especially for someone like me who does not know the city. Knowing that this could be a problem, I decided to use some of my vacation days for a trip to Los Angeles to scout out the city.