Well, my laziness got the best of me my last few months in Korea. I stayed so busy trying to see people and places and saying goodbyes and shopping for souvenirs that I put the blog on the back burner. It was a farewell that left my stomach in knots and although I continued to tell myself that it was my last go in Dae-Han-Min-Guk, I don’t think it was a final goodbye.
Originally my plans were to go home for the holidays and start a graduate program in Thailand in May. I even booked a ticket to Vietnam to spend a few months there, killing time and saving money while waiting for school to start. Yet, as the end of my contract at ECC approached, I began to think that the more realistic thing to do would be to save for an additional year. I’ve even been considering making ESL a career path of mine, so an extra year to figure all that out might be good for me. I tossed around ideas of going to Dubai or Japan even but Korea is my comfort zone and it’s hard to imagine having to start the cultural transitioning all over again.
So, it looks like that’s the plan.
I’m still headed to Vietnam as I now will have to wait for my documents to be processed. It seems that Korea has been upping its requirements for the E2 (teaching) visa on a year-to-year basis. An FBI-issued criminal background check is now mandatory and it can take up to three months to be completed. Nevertheless, all time is valuable so I’ll be enjoying mine in Ho Chi Minh City come January 5.
I considered renaming my blog as it will no longer be primarily about Seoul, or even Korea, but I guess it’s never been entirely consistent anyway. Also, this little venture of forks-in-the-roads and unclear destinations is, in fact, soul searching. So, I’m keeping the name. I’ll also be posting more photo entries as I recently purchased an Olympus PEN E-PL2 as a Christmas present to myself. I’d like to pick up photography again as a hobby so keep an eye out for that.
In the meantime, I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday and will have a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2012!