Life Then and Now (Reflections on my second year in Korea)

I am almost 3 months into my second year of teaching and boy has it been going by fast. I have been having a blast experiencing this second year with my best friend Mandy and am excited to see where else this year takes us. So, some of you may wonder what is it like living with your best friend in another Country? I will tell you this, it does not feel real. Many times I forget where I am cause I feel like my experience from these past few months have been so different than my first year here in Korea. It feels like I am home. Not home like in America but just the general sense of being “home”. So let me tell you about how it has been different for me this year.

August 2012:

I said goodbye to my family and friends in America and was off on an adventure by myself to live in another Country and to teach. I was filled with excitement and ready to start my new adventure here.

First Time Shopping in Downtown Gwangju

Baseball Game in Korea

August 2013:

I was exhausted. I was ready to go home, ready to be done and was kind of the “Debbie the downer” of the group. I have “done this and that” and already knew what it was like to live in Korea... I already knew everything and it just wasn't America and I was not having it. I was not happy about living here and just wanted to get this next year done with so that I could go back home.

Now, this was the same time that Mandy got into Korea. Her attitude towards Korea was the same as mine from before. Full of hope and joy, excited to be here with her Bestie (me) and everything here was new and exciting.

Of course, I was so excited to have my best friend here with me and was so thankful for her to come here but I just couldn't shake the sense of “downness”. It was fun though, being able to help her out figuring out how to get around in Korea and to help her settle in. It was exciting to show her everything that we have been talking about over Skype for the past year.

The day we were finally reunited!

September 2012:

I was settled into my apartment and still getting the hang of trying to figure out how to teach students who speak another language. At this point, I was still pretty stressed about teaching and would bring my work home to lesson plan. During the nights I would lesson plan, watch American tv, and lounge around. I didn't really know how to buy food in a grocery store, because it is completely different from the states. The only thing you can buy is Korean food... So for a girl who does not know how to cook Korean food or even want it, I always resorted to the one place where I knew that I would like. The bakery. I would eat bread probably every night. My meals were not very exciting, I don't even remembered what I cooked haha.

Enjoying a nice cup of hot cocoa during the rainy season of September

On weeknights, I would meet up with a few of the other English teachers and would walk around the rice fields behind my apartment. This was a time for all of us girls to debrief from our day and talk about anything and everything. It is probably one of my favorite memories about last year. These group of girls made my first year in Korea special, it was nice to have people I could go to and whom could relate to what I was experiencing also. On the weekends, I would go visit my friends from orientation. We would normally travel together, going to festivals and hanging out. These ladies are also very special to me and now that half of them are back at home, I miss them all the time and think about our times exploring Korea and figuring out how to live in Korea together. I couldn't survive last year without my friends. They helped me through tough times of loneliness and stress and laughed with me through the many crazy things that only people living in Korea would understand.

Even though I had all these amazing girls, I was still feeling like I was missing something. I didn't have anyone to go home to and I didn't have a best friend to visit when I wanted to watch a movie with or go to dinner. I came home to no one and made dinner for just me. Not as fun, when you are an extrovert like me.

September 2013:

I think all I needed to get me out of my funk was a little trip out of Boseong. Korea's Thanksgiving is in the beginning of September and for them it is a time where everyone gets together with their family but for me it was a 5 day vacation! Mandy, a few other friends, and I spent our vacation in Seoul. It was just what I needed. A change of scenery, a little piece of familiarity (Forever 21, burgers, bubble tea...) and lots of laughter with great people. I was turning into myself again and I was loving it. I was starting to enjoy Korea and getting in the groove of life in Korea once again.

Bubble Tea!

Exploring Seoul with great friends

Teaching has become familiar to me and is now a breeze to lesson plan. I know what to expect out of my kids and classes, so that gives me a lot more time to work on other things (ie. crafts my new passion). I now know how to live in Boseong and can now do simple daily tasks with ease (grocery shopping, banking, cooking...). I have gotten pretty good at cooking this past year and now that I have someone to share it with, I cook lot's of yummy foods. I have been learning how to cook with the foods that I got and eating foods that our in season from the farmers markets. I have really enjoyed cooking natural and seasonal foods and I want to continue doing that when I go back home to America.

Now on weeknights, when I get home from school I have someone to “go home to”. Mandy and I try to see each other at least every night. It's nice just to be able to debrief from our day and laugh about the crazy things our students did. We also have a few shows that we both like that we watch together. Because I have dance class, we only have a little time on weeknights to hang out but I cherish even just those few minutes together. On Tuesday nights, we have a bible study with another English teacher in our town, that has been a great blessing to me. A time of fellowship, prayer and encouragement has brightened up my work week and just what I needed. It's fun to have my Bestie here because she loves to be a kid with me. Crafting, cooking, watching kids movies... all the stuff that I love to do.

On weekends, we have either been traveling to Gwangju for church and shopping or staying home for a nice restful weekend at home. I love traveling with her and taking lots of photos. She brings out the “Just Justine” side of me that no one has ever seen (from here) but is my true self and I love it. I love that I can be goofy with her wherever I go and that she won't judge me. She may roll her eyes and tell me I am crazy but I know that is just her way of saying that she loves me the way I am. So, to the people who see me with Mandy, yes this is the real me... so don't be alarmed, I am a bit crazy but that is what makes me special, right? Haha

Traveling, traveling, traveling...

October 2012:

As most of you know, I love holidays! I love everything about holidays and Halloween is my second favorite holiday. I did not celebrate at home last year. I had no party that I was going to and no reason to dress up so I decided to put all of my Halloween creativitiness into my classroom. I decorated the classroom and made ghost pops (lolipops that look like ghosts) and had fun teaching them about Halloween. Koreans don't celebrate Halloween like we do and it made me sad. I was not getting my Halloween fix. I didn't do anything for Halloween. A friend came over and watched a tv show but that was it. October was also the very beginning of my homesickness and being away from home during the holidays.

Crazy Justine Teacher

Ghost Pops

Classroom Decor

October 2013:

It is Halloween/ Fall Extravaganza pretty much everyday of this month. Actually, I started prepping for Halloween since last month. I made a few more decorations for my classroom and made spider pops for the kids. I always love seeing the students reactions when they first walk into my transformed classroom. There reactions our priceless. I am going to teach the students about Halloween next week and will have a Halloween party with my 5^th and 6^th grade students on Halloween day.

Mandy may not be as spirited and crazy for Halloween as me but she goes along with it. She has been watching Halloween movies, carving pumpkins, and making Halloween crafts with me. We also spent a day of baking pumpkin flavored everything and went “Trick or Treating” to our friends apartments to invite them to my Halloween Party. This year, I decided to host a Halloween (costume) party at my place. I have been very busy making decorations for it and transforming it into “Justine's Haunted House”. It has been really fun planning for it and I am really excited. There will be a photo booth and Halloween treats, it's going to be Spooktacular!

Bestie Fall "Party" Day

Crazy Justine Teacher at it again...

This years classrooms decorations

So as I conclude this post, I hope it showed you a little bit more about my life in Korea and how this year with my Best has been turning out. I love that we have this time together now, for who knows where we will be in a few years. If my two months with her have been this great how much more awesome are they going to get in the coming months?