A quarter of the way into my year abroad, things have started to really slow down. I’m no longer surprised by the dozens of cars running red lights, the mosh pit style grocery shopping or even motorbikes mounting the sidewalks at every opportunity. If you couple all of that with North Korea’s shelling of Yeonpyeong Island last week and it’s enough to make any American homesick around the holidays.
One of the most uplifting parts of my journey initially was the time at school I spent with my students. Seeing their smiles and hearing all the funny and interesting things they had to say was refreshing. Well that too has faded into the sunset. Last week alone I found no fewer then three spots on the walls of my classroom where students had used Korean profanity in direct association with my name. In one class I asked the kids to list things they like and dislike. I made it onto two students’ “dislike” list. Another group of kids had to draw all the people in class including their teacher; my instructions were followed closely by one boy holding up his paper to point at the picture he had drawn of me. This action was accompanied by him yelling “teacher very very ugly!”
Coming into this experience I was told by my recruiter that Korean children are “traditionally better behaved than their western counterparts.” I must have gotten a bad batch. I may sound filled with discontent but honestly I’m taking it all in stride. I knew coming into this I would have rough patches, and for all I know this might not even be one of them. But if there’s one thing my parents taught me it’s that “if you start something, you have to finish it.” That lesson has served me well up to this point and I imagine it will again.
Anytime life gets stale the best medicine is often a change of scenery. Luckily my school is taking a nice weeklong break at the end of December and I’m hopping a plane to Beijing. A 2:00 a.m. bus to Incheaon, and an hour flight to China will certainly make it the most nontraditional Christmas of my life. I’m there for half the week then I’m heading to beautiful Boracay Island in the Philippines for New Years. Do me a favor and google image search “Boracay Island.” Not a bad place to sing auld lang syne.
