Merry Christmas!

As the year winds to end it’s tough to not feel at least a little blue.  The week from Christmas to New Year’s is always a special one back home for me, as I’m sure it is for many other English teachers abroad.  I honestly prefer going to work during this week over here because it keeps my mind focused on something else besides missing family.

Nevertheless, as much as I do miss my family back home, I realized today how much I’m going to miss my school over here.  In addition to being wished Merry Christmas at least one hundred times today, a couple of students wrote me a nice card, my co-teacher gave me a Christmas present, and a couple of other students even made personalized macarons for me!  Needless to say, I was feeling the love when I left work today.

Days like today (which arguably should have been at least a little melancholy) remind me of how lucky I am to be an English teacher in South Korea.  My coworkers and students regularly make me laugh and treat me as a part of their community so that even thousands of miles away from family on Christmas, this man-bunned mustached hipster still feels at home.  Indeed, Korea has given me much more than I can repay through simply teaching English.

Living abroad is full of rewards and challenges, and today was definitely a little bit of both!

메리 크리스마스!

An Ode to Ultimate

Last weekend was likely my last ultimate frisbee tournament in Korea.  I won’t be leaving here for a few more months, but I’ll be gone by the time spring season starts up again, and I already know that ultimate will be one of the things (if not THE thing) I’ll miss most from my time here.

My very first day in Korea was also my very first ultimate frisbee weekend, and it really set the tone for my time here.  Ultimate gave me most of my friends here, provided me with great excuses to travel to various regions within Korea, and gave me something to work and improve on during my time here.

But most importantly, ultimate Frisbee in Korea taught me the value of community.

Simply put, the ultimate frisbee community here is stellar.  It’s inclusive and encouraging, and pushes everyone to be their best self.  It’s the reason I’d wake up at 7:00AM on a Saturday and not home until 7:00PM on a Sunday for consecutive weekends.

Along with all the flat-ball catching, flunkyballing, sauna-ing, all you can eat BBQ-ing, it’s the meeting and sharing stories with ultimate people that I love most.  Everyone has a story, and when you spend the better part of two days with ultimate people, you learn lots about each other – which only brings you that much closer.

Korean ultimate Frisbee is truly something unique, and I’m extremely grateful for all the people who make it what it is.  I can only hope that the community where I play it next is half as good as it is here!

…and if you ever find yourself in Korea, give ultimate a try!

(Not) Counting Down the Days

As I continue to work through my last semester of teaching English in Korea, I begin to face an all too familiar problem; counting down the days.  It’s something I caught myself doing while in India, and by the time my departure came around my mind had already been in Michigan for weeks.

I’m determined to not let myself do that again.

Once you start counting down the days, you start actively divesting from living in the present moment.  Your body might be in one place, but your mind is on another continent already…and it shows.

I suppose it’s only natural to some extent, however.  There are still some things that surprise me in Korea, but by and large my job and my routine are certainly not the exhilarating experiences they once were.  At the same time, I’m not that naïve to think that I deserve to be wowed and amazed every day over here, either.

And so, I find myself increasingly spending my time planning and re-planning my next move after Korea during my free time.  It’s certainly a slippery slope, though.  If I spend too much time thinking about what’s next I end up despising where I’m at.

I guess (like all things) it’s about striking a balance.  Don’t let yourself get complacent where you’re at, but don’t seek improvement/progress at the expense of mindfulness.  As a good friend in Germany once told me Alles in Maßen.

So, here’s to not counting down my days here!  Korea’s an amazing place and I’ve still got a lot to learn from it! (and you, should you find yourself in a similar situation!)

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