The realization of this job has finally hit. When I was preparing to leave for Korea, I was so sad to leave all my friends and family back home. I didn't realize that I would come to Korea and make a new set of friends and have a "family away from home." It is unbelievalbe how close you can become with people in just a few months. It's amazing how you can develop a community of people you can rely on. This job has a constant turn-over and people are always leaving and new people are always arriving. I was very fortunate to have gone the first six months of my contract without losing any of my friends, but now the cycle has started. This weekend, we said goodbye to a very beloved teacher at ECC. He was an awesome person who always made the best out of any situation and he will truly be missed! I told myself I wasn't going to cry, but I had a wimper the day he left. We all did! But like I said, the cycle has started and at the end of June another teacher leaves and then another in the end of July. A month after that, I leave and I can't believe my year will be over!
Apart from having to say goodbye to my friends and fellow co-workers, I will be devestated when I have to say goodbye to my students. I absolutely adore these kids, especially my kindergarteners. They make my days better and put a big smile on my face! I wish I could see them grow more, but this job and lifestyle is a cycle that must keep moving. I think that four months from now, when I am packing my bags for home, I will feel as though my time is up and I need to move on from Uijeongbu and ECC. I was talking about this with a fellow foreigner and said that ECC has been a great place to have a first time contract. I have learned so much about Korea, private schools, and myself. This has been a challenging year, but a great one at that.
As I said before, we said goodbye to a teacher this weekend and it was his goal to leave Korea with a BANG! We celebrated his departure with the norebang and a trip into Seoul. By the end of the weekend, I was happy to see him go for the fact that I would never have to party like that again for awhile! The weather is finally getting warm enough to go without a jacket, but since this is Korea I will probably be sweating buckets in the humidity by next week. Korea is the land of extreme temperatures. It's either too cold or too hot and no in-between. Oh well, I'd rather be sweating my ass off than having it freeze off! Also, the rain has started and it just makes me feel so lazy. It's 11 o'clock on a Friday night and due to the rain, I am in my pajamas, in my bed about to fall asleep. I hope everything is going great back home! Miss you all and love you!
Hi Mal, That was a pretty eloquent post. Makes me wonder if your the same person that as a toddler - when I babysat you, you would open the basement door with a grin on your face even when I told you no. The experience your having, and the growing up thats going on is priceless. So proud of you.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the lovely compliment Aunt Rhoda! I like to think that I spent the first 5 years of my life in an evil form of the person I grew up to be. I got all the bad out at a young age, that I have none left in me now :)
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