Better Late than Never?

It feels like 2 months is a long time to go without starting this blog that I had thought about before I left... I guess it was one of those things that gets more and more intimidating to do the longer you leave it alone. HOWEVER! After a double-team skype conversation today with my dear friends Emily and Sveta... I'm just gonna take the plunge. 

Where to start? I've been in Gwangju for 2 months now... and I don't really feel like I've dug in around here yet. I've 'adjusted' to living all alone (after going from years of group houses and my family and wonderful people all the time, this is a big deal), learned a few Korean phrases, made a bunch of children cry, been amazed at the generosity of the people here, been frustrated and angered by ways of operating that seem inconsiderate and backward, traveled to the 2 major cities of Korea (Seoul, Busan), spent quality time with old friends on the other side of the world, successfully navigated one of the world's largest subway systems (DC... you're like the country mouse of world subway systems), become extremely creative with cooking in the tiniest kitchen I (hopefully) will ever have, and clearly mastered the art of run-on sentences. :)

Let's just say for now that in a lot of ways Korea has been a battle of deciding who I want to be, and then acting on it. Do I want to just ride this year out, and try and avoid the discomfort that comes from getting out of this tiny square room I live in, or do I want to get messy and awkward and completely dominate the game of "guess what I'm trying to say to you without using any of the same languages"? That was a trick question. OBVIOUSLY I love playing the guessing game, and OBVIOUSLY I am really bad at being content sitting at home. Do I want to brush over tricky grammatical nuances and give these kids the gist of English or really delve into it with them in a school system that doesn't leave a lot of room for individuality in teaching style? (hint: that one's a lot trickier-- ENGLISH IS HARD and these Koreans are strict with their teaching schedules!) Do I want to suck it up and keep trying to enjoy kimchi or do I want to just stick to feeling slightly hungry after lunches at school? Ya... I'm thinking as of now that I'm not really ever gonna like kimchi. :)

A lot of these questions that I run into daily are really rather indicative of a lifestyle... and it's been challenging and interesting to realize that sometimes believing something is right doesn't make it that much easier to do. A basic life lesson, but one that still confronts everyone I think. Anyway, one of my goals this year is to really try harder to be deliberate in the way I treat people, do my job, and spend my time.

So, we'll see if this blog thing works out for me. :) As a parting gift, please be entertained by the travesties of name-spelling I encountered this week when I met some new students.....
Reachel
Cevan
Sarh (REALLY?!)
Ashly