Cliche

Never knew just what I had

till what I had was gone...

I knew these words

to be cliché,

but never thought I live the day

when their overuse rang true.

But here I am, in a foreign land

thinkin’ all bout home.

And I know they say that the grass is greener

and to try and live in the now,

but home is where the heart is, (and here in South Korea,)

my heart is none to be foun’.

Clarity

So, here I am. Six months have passed. This is the longest time I have ever been out of the US. In fact, the longest time prior to now was in college when I studied abroad for 3.5 months. With that said, being away this has already and in continuing to affect me in a number of ways.

When I set out for Korea, I not only intended to explore a foreign culture, scratch my travel itch, and to experience a new rhythm of life, but I also wanted to put myself in a completely new context and in doing so be able to use that stark contrast to gain clarity on many different aspects of my life.

Suffice to say, SoKo has been helping me gain clarity in countless personal and professional ways. If you want to hear some specifics on either of those topics, I'd enjoy sharing them with you individually.

Anyway, over the past two months, I haven't blogged too much. I think as I mentioned before, mostly it's due to the fact that much of SoKo's novelty has worn off, thus I don't feel the need to write about the day-to-day mundane aspects in a public forum, but I also think it's because I've just been very much in my head about a lot of different topics. Again, let's chat individually if you are interested.

I don't know what I'm trying to say here.

Maybe it's that here at six months in I feel as though I've gotten most of the clarity for which I was searching. So, while it feels good to be at this point, it also feels like I've now achieved the goal of being here. I guess that means I need a new one. Or at the very least, I need to become comfortable in existing (if only for the next few months) without a "big life goal" looming overhead. I like having purpose in everything I do, so this'll be hard, but maybe another important lesson to learn.

Empathy

So, it's been nearly two months since the last time I posted, but I guess that's simply because I've been caught up in life.

In any case, here's the brief rundown on something that happened tonight.

My school had an end of the year dinner celebration. Everyone was drinking. Nothing new thus far. However, by this point in the year (6 months in) people don't pamper and coddle me in the same way they used to. Therefore, tonight I was sitting at a table where virtually no one spoke English. Suffice to say, I did not understand anything going on around me. In other words, I was sitting at a table where people were talking and interacting but I did not understand anything so I was not able to engage.

Itching to leave, I suddenly realized that this must be the same way my Mom feels in many loud and crowded social situations. It was super frustrating and make me completely uninterested in being there. In any case, when I return home I'll have a new understanding for how Mom feels.

Also, once my co-teacher was liquored up enough to tell me his feelings about my beard, he basically said that I must shave it because it makes me look like a "sexual criminal." That man...

In any case, I just wanted to jot these thoughts down, so now I'm done.