Six Month Crunch

"It's never the changes we want that change everything."

-Oscar Wao

It is almost the halfway mark of my tenure here in Korea.
I think for the most part I have avoided culture shock and the feelings of alienation, confusion, and uncertainty that accompany  living in a foreign country.

Six months has really flown by.  I remember the day I got here, hour by hour, quite vividly.  I can probably still list out every meal I had for the first week, every impression of all the new sites and sounds that I came across, the feeling I had on my first day of work when the kids popped their heads through the window to wave at me and scream ecstatically.  Where has six months gone? 

As the half-way mark quickly approaches, I am forced to think back to the list of things I wanted to achieve before I got here. Did I achieve any of them? How far along am I?
The number one thing on my list of things to do in Korea was to save money.  Not just save, but pay off a large chunk of my student loans, but sadly I am far from reaching this goal.

I try to send half of my paycheque home every month, I don't go on shopping sprees, I think I live rather minimally, but the money runs out at the end of every month.  I do take expeditions in and around Seoul, day trips, hiking trips, paragldiing trips, siteseeing trips, and the like.  If I don't do that then I will go crazy.  I think the reason I have avoided culture shock is because of this need to move around and travel.

Me and Money
To me, money is the most transitory thing in this world.  It is constantly moving, changing hands, and trying to capture it and keep it to yourself permanently is utterly impossible.  Money and me are like oil and water, we are conservative and liberal, the Leafs and the Sens, we will never get along. 

Money is not only transitory, but illusory.  You never really see it.  On the 17th of every month, my one month salary gets wired into my account and from there it appears as a number on my computer screen.  Half of it gets sent to my Canadian overseas banking account, a lightning speed transaction of numbers, and then from there, it gets broken up and paid to different companies.  I never hold it.  Each month I only see a miniscule percentage of it in its real form, in crisp bill notes weighing ever so lightly in my hands. 

But I am okay with it.  Saving money was only one reason why I chose to come to Korea.  Living the unexpectedness that is life, I have to adapt and change with the environment I am in and adjust my goals accordingly.  Money is no longer the number one reason why I am here, it suddenly seems very trivial. 

Everyone has a different reason on why they come to this country: to save, to travel, to explore, to be employed.  Mine was to live.  To test every limit of myself, emotionally, phsyically, academically, socially, psychologically.  I think ten years from now, when I think back on my twenties, this moment will be pivotal in determining who I am.

****

"Rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness...

Give me truth."

So, as my six month anniversary rapidly approaches, I need to re-evaluate my life, the goals I have achieved and want to achieve, and what is the best way to do this? Well, a list of course. 

What I have done in Korea that I am proud of:
-Paraglide and subsequently conquered my fear of heights
-Hike until my bones bled
-Traveled to TongYeong
-Live in the rural countryside
-Backpacked through Vietnam, where I fell in love with my people, my family, my history
-Traveled alone to Cambodia, where I discovered I am not afraid of anything
-Adopted a stray kitten who needed a home
-Discovered a passion for teaching I didn't know I had
-Felt maternal pride and love for my students
-Learned that I'm most happy single, most creative, most outspoken, most sure of myself
-Began learning a new language, by studying conversational Korean with a tutor on Saturdays
-Became a foster mommy to one of the many sheltered dogs in this country
-Practiced my writing through keeping a blog
-Learned life skills: patience, adaptability, self-reliance, open-mindedness, how to be social, how to function outside your comfort zone.
 -Discovered I can be happy anywhere I am.

What I want to do before I leave Korea:
-Pay some of my debt
-Hanglide (May 01)
-Skydive (July 13)
-Hike the tallest mountain in Korea, Jeju Hallasan, 1950 meters
-Learn conversational Korean
-See the rest of Asia:
                 -Laos
                 -Thailand
                 -Singapore
                 -Phillipines
                 -Malaysia
                 -Indonesia
                 -India
-Go to the mudfest
-Spend a weekend in Jeju
-Eat dog meat
-Publish some writing
-Learn how to swim
-Learn how to drive a motorbike
-go scuba diving
-Ride an elephant

I hope that by the time my one year mark approaches, I would have crossed off every single one of these items.