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Published: October 27th 2009
Welcome back to the Blog-abration Celebration (you didn’t forget about this did you?) of our year in Korea and of everything Korean. Cass and I returned to Montana, safe and sound, an are getting some semblance of normalcy back to our lives- more on that will come. I have a plan for two more final Blog-abration posts after this, and I’m sure the anticipation is killing you all (yeah, right).
You probably already figured this theme was on its way. We’ve been fortunate to have met some amazing people in Yeoju (and the greater Korea) that we are sure will be lifelong friends.
It’s a funny phenomenon, this ESL teaching thing, and if you read my article
7 Truths You Won't Hear About Teaching ESL Abroad , you’ll understand what I mean. This experience really helps pull the teachers together, for support, for camaraderie, for continuity, and for friendship. We were very fortunate to have a community of wonderful people also call Yeoju home, for the prospects of ‘easy money’ in Asia lures an interesting lot.
It was definitely the friends we made this past year that overpowered some of the frustrations of living and working in here. We had roughly thirty ESL teachers in and around
town, that we ended up having tight nit group of around ten to fifteen. Besides that, Yeoju was small enough that we would run into our Korean friends from our schools fairly regularly as well, making things even more fun. We would easily throw out a Facebook message about a dinner and magically twenty five people would show up for dalk galbi. You could always count on a group of weigookins (foreigners) to be huddled around the plastic tables of the One Time convenience store downtown.
Teaching wasn’t brilliance in motion (I’m not trying to tell you it was, or anything), but once the grind of the workweeks started to creep up on us, it was our friends and weekend plans with them that was a light at the end of the dark tunnel. The most memorable trips we took had to be the weekend to Penis Park and Mokpo Beach, our date in Seoul, really any time in Seoul, Jeju, Busan, Jeonju… the list just goes on.
Another interesting facet of our group of friends that the diversity it includes. Tom from England, Reagan & Leandra from South Africa, Shawna & Jon G. Louis and Jason &
Rachel from Canada, and people from all over the states- it was an eclectic, diverse group including all kinds of opinions and philosophies that made the experience all the more rich. Traveling gives you an opportunity to see the world from a different perspective, but to become friends with so many different views it creates a tangible sense of tolerance and understanding that is talked about but rarely achieved.
Plus… it’s just fun as heck. Everyone made the same amount of money, we all had the same days off for vacation, we all shared the same philosophy to take advantage of the opportunity given to us… and no rae bong, how much fun is that??
I would also like to include you in this celebration; everyone that has supported us in our decision to move across the world, helped out with the house and Denali, sent packages of peanutbutter m&m’s and girl scout cookies, read and followed the blog, checked up on us through an email, or simply found the blog on the internet and sent us a message. It has been so amazing seeing everyone in our lives.
Teaching kids, I’ve had many conversations with them
about the reasons to choose good friends and people to have in your life. Well, it’s not that often you have a chance to look back, like we have here, and see all of the amazing people around us, not just here in Yeoju but Montana, Wisconsin, all over the U.S. and now the world. We are truly blessed, and hope now or someday, that we can provide to you, what you have to us.
We will certainly miss the amount of friends, the amount of close friendships we made, the proximity of everyone, and the richness everyone gave to our little Montana lives. We love you all and will most definitely keep in touch. So, perhaps a bit overdue, I will formerly introduce everyone through our pictures. Without further adieu, please enjoy…
Blog-abration #5- The Friends of Our South Korean Experience
...looking through all these pictures of everyone now that we are home, it's hard not to miss everyone, and everything so much. I can't help but think of a conversation I had with Jon and Shawna our last night in Yeoju. "I just have never been with people that I've felt so
close with, so fast. We've gone on trips almost every weekend and hung out multiple times during the week, and with everything we've done, there has never been any bickering, or fighting, or anything. It's all been so fun. I think that says alot about... well, about everything."
It's true, there is alot to say about everything. I think it best to just leave it at that...
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