It's safe to say South Korea claimed a huge chunk of my heart. My family and close friends know that fact very well. I regret not documenting it more here. I made an effort if you look at my 2015 archives but dropped the ball from 2016-2017. Sitting down to write about it is always daunting since its hard to narrow down all the lessons I learned over there. I'm not going to do that right now, either.
I spent just over two years teaching there, immersing myself as much as I could in learning about their culture and attempting their language. I didn't know much at all before going there so I didn't have any expectation as to how it would influence my interests.
Again, I didn't record much of it on this blog unfortunately, but it was the biggest learning curve of my life. I had some of the best experiences with like-minded people, so to still feel connected to it nearly a year since I moved back home to Newfoundland is an incredible feeling.
Most people's thoughts when they consider South Korea revolve around the heated political drama between the States and their northern neighbour and news of scary missile testing. These are definitely big issues and cause for concern. However, there's so much more to that side of the world than these news stories are showing. I'm happy to see that in the past year there have been more positive highlights from that side of the world bringing attention to what a fascinatingly complex country it is.
It may seem frivolous to some, but from K-beauty becoming popular, to seeing the K-pop group, BTS (an easy topic of discussion with my young female students) making a mark on our music scene and hitting the radio over here last year, I feel like I don't have to explain myself as much about why I loved Korea, because others get it too. It goes so much deeper than this, but every little bit helps.
Now, having the attention of the whole world focussed there thanks to the PyeongChang Olympics, my heart is so happy. Knowing that I lived so close to where an Olympic event is being hosted (far closer there than when it was in Vancouver) and having friends involved behind the scenes as I
South Korea truly became my second home so I'm thankful it keeps popping up in my life to fill in that little void in my traveller's soul.
