Halfway There

February is an important month for a couple reasons. First of all, my vacation starts this weekend! My real, official vacation, I mean (as opposed to my last two weeks of secret, off-the-books vacation). Jeannine and I will leave Daegu bright and early Saturday morning (make that dark and early...we're leaving at 4:30am, so we probably won't even see daylight until we reach Seoul). We'll meet her sister at Incheon Airport and fly to Beijing. After nine days in China, where we'll visit Beijing, Shanghai, and Xian, I'll meet my friend Diana and her sister in Taiwan. After four days there, mostly in Taipei, I'll move on to Hong Kong. I'll be by myself in Hong Kong, but it's supposed to be an easy city to get around and my hostel is in a great location, so I should be fine!

The food in Taiwan and Hong Kong is supposed to be amazing, and I plan to spend at least as much time eating as I do sight-seeing. Also, I'll be in Beijing for the Chinese New Year celebrations! It might make the touristy things a bit more difficult, but I'll be in the best possible place to celebrate one of the biggest holiday festivals in the world!

February is also important because the 25th will be the half-way point of my year in Korea. The time has gone very quickly so far, but I feel like I still have a really long way to go! I told myself that I would wait until at least six months had passed before I started thinking about what to do when this year is over. I expected that by this time I would have a definite opinion about teaching and living in Korea, or that I would at least be leaning one way or another (toward either leaving Korea or renewing my EPIK contract for another year). However, the fact is that I don't have a clue yet what I'll be doing after another six months have gone by.

I know how I feel about Korea and teaching - they're both okay, but I'm not in love with either one. That sounds like a good reason to move on, but: Korea is a very easy place to live and I'm saving a ton of money by working here; I'm able to travel all over Asia and go out every weekend for next to nothing; I don't work any nights or weekends; I have a lot of great friends here; and I've had over four weeks of vacation in the last six months alone. It would be hard to match this lifestyle anywhere else, and hard to live without it now!

I definitely miss home, but I just as definitely want to do some more traveling. That could mean teaching in another country, or going back to school in another country, or just saving up and backpacking around for a few months before settling down back at home.

It's a blessing to have so many options before me, but right now I would welcome a little more focus. I'm honestly tempted to renew my EPIK contract and stay in Korea for another year, just because that would mean that I have a plan, a paycheck, and health insurance for twelve more months. I'm open to advice and ideas from anyone at this point!

Anyway, I probably won't blog while I'm on vacation, but check back for updates and photos ( http://picasaweb.google.com/kristin.laufenberg ) after the first week of March! Depending on where in the world you are, happy Valentine's Day and/or happy New Year!