This is my last day in Korea, and I may never be back. I know I thought that the last time I left, and returned just 2 months later. However, I have a feeling this departure is more permanent.
I just reread my blog post from the last time I left Korea, and I don't want to repeat any of that in this blog. I still feel that everything I said then was valid and relevant, and I don't have a lot of new perspectives to add about Korea.
I will start this post by describing Korea using the five senses so you can get a better idea of what life is like here.
Korea has some funky smells, and often they hit you without warning. Common is the odor of sewage that wafts through city streets and lets itself into shops and restaurants, slapping you across the face. Also common is the smell of fish, raw or cooked, and never pleasant. Though, one can usually predict that smell since you would need to be near a fish market or restaurant to smell that odor. Summertime is particularly unfortunate for anyone riding in a cab, as most cab drivers are combining their year-round bad breath odor with their summertime B.O. Windows down, please! For a short window of time, the cherry blossoms bloom in early spring, releasing their most pleasant fragrance into the breeze.
Sounds vary from place to place of course. If you walk into a mini mart, the door will play a happy little tune like "It's a Small World". The school bells aren't annoying screeching sounds. Instead, they are also catchy tunes like "Home, Home on the Range" (because all kids feel at home when they're at school!). There is always the pounding of construction to be heard in most neighborhoods of Pohang as they continue to develop the land. At night, I was often serenaded by cats fighting or cats in heat. On occasion, a young man will be walking and singing some hip tune, or an older woman will be hiking and singing a Korean folk song. Cell phone stores love to blast K-Pop music, while cars don't blast any music. Older men and women pushing cheap food carts yell through megaphones something in Korean, usually saying, "I have oranges! I have oranges!" And it wouldn't be Korea if you didn't hear "Gangnam Style" on a frequent basis.
I have tasted a lot of garlic, sweet potato, rice, cabbage, beef, chicken, pork, eggs, spicy sauces, soups, dumplings, ramen, seaweed, bulgogi, cheap donuts, terrible cake, anything and everything made out of rice, weird parts of animals that you just have to close your eyes and swallow, and of course kimchi.
I have felt a thousand children's hands, a lot of sand between my tows, a lot of people pushing past me, my legs cramping up while sitting on restaurant floors, chopsticks in my hands, and mosquitos in my ears.
I have seen millions of people consumed by their smart phones, countless couples wearing matching outfits, people dressed in animal costumes (myself included), elderly ladies who are permanently bent forward, men holding hands, people making the peace sign for photos, people forming hearts with their hands for photos, taxis everywhere, coffee shops on every block, Hyundai and Kia, cell phone shops on every block, young ladies dancing outside of cell phone shops, men stumbling drunkenly down the road, dragonflies, praying mantises, magpies, crowded fish tanks with the ugliest fish I've ever seen, octopus tanks, and small dogs with dyed fur.
People keep asking me how I am feeling as my time here is winding down. And quite frankly, I feel fine. I am not too sad to leave Korea, though I will miss my friends. I am excited to come home, see my family, friends, and dog, and to eat some wonderful food that Korea is missing out on. I can't say if there are things I've learned from Korea, or if I have changed much because of Korea. I think if I have, I will notice once I've left and immersed myself back in my own culture. I guess I can say for certain that I have become more adventurous from this experience, more comfortable in foreign situations, and hopefully a better teacher.
It's also hard for me to predict what I will miss, but I do know what I will cherish. Obviously the memories of all the fun I had, and the memories of my students, my friends, and the memories of building an amazing relationship with my girlfriend, Mary. But I will also cherish the small relationships I built with Koreans in my community, people like the owner of the local bakery who one day handed me his guitar, opened up a sheet music book to "Let it Be", and asked me to play; or Choi Ju Won, the somewhat mentally challenged gas station attendant who pumped my gas every week and was always excited to see me and tell me all the foreigners he knew; or Tailor Joe, who, creepy as he may be, does great tailor work, provided me with four beautiful silk robes for my family, and is a really decent guy; or Bede, my favorite barista at my favorite coffee shop who always remembered my drink and often gave me free oreos; or the art teachers I gave English conversation classes to, and particularly our class discussion on broken hearts when most of the class told their saddest personal stories; or Tom, one of those art teachers, who I had coffee with one night while conversing about religion, philosophy, and music; or the lady at the little diner near my work who always smiled at me the way a mother smiles at her boy; or the man who owned the little market, and although we could not share a word with each other, we both always seemed to share a general happiness to see each other; or the men at the climbing gym who would occasionally help me improve my form, even though they spoke no English.
I've had a hell of an experience here these last 18 months. But as incredible as it's been, I do feel very ready to move on to the next chapter. In 24 hours I will fly back to the States where I will spend a month and a half seeing friends and family. Then, I will fly to Peru where I will meet up with my girlfriend and we will embark on our next big adventure. We don't have much planned while we're there, just to travel, volunteer, and find some work. It will be very improvisational, which would have scared me 2 years ago, but now I feel pretty comfortable with.
So that's it. Goodbye Korea. Hello America, then South America! I guess I will have to rename my blog to "Teaching, Learning, and Other Adventures in the World".
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