Decision Made

About two weeks ago I had to report my decision to my school: would I renew my contract and stay with them another year, or not? I've obviously known since I arrived that this was coming, but as the months went by I kept thinking that at some point I would KNOW, with certainty, whether or not I wanted to stay or go. I really expected to have strong feelings about it - definite homesickness and being tired of teaching, or really loving Korea and having no doubt about staying one more year. But as the months went by I still could not make up my mind - there were just too many issues and people pulling me in each direction.

I thought maybe I would have more time to make a final commitment, but after I got back from Jeju-do my school asked me to tell them my decision. It was so, so difficult but I told my school no, I wasn't coming back next year. I'm still second-guessing myself - wondering what I'm going to do with myself at home next year and knowing that I'll miss Korea and everyone here like crazy. To make things worse, a lot of my friends have decided to renew their contracts, so many of them will be staying here after I leave. But at the same time there are a lot of things about Korea that just get on my nerves; I'm definitely homesick after 8 months away; and a two-week vacation between contracts just wouldn't be enough. I won't rule out ever coming back here - it's a very comfortable place and the money is great, but right now I can't imagine staying another full year in Korea, at least not without a longer break.

That leaves me with less than four months to soak up all the experience and culture that I can here in Korea. If you've been reading this blog you know that I'm off on some adventure at least a few times each month, and now that the weather is cooperating tours, festivals, and plain old sight-seeing are back in full swing! I think between last March and the middle of June I have had or will have only about three free weekends! There was my weekend in Seoul with Hyun Ju; the spring flower festivals; Jeju Island; a free weekend trip sponsored by the city of Yeongcheon (Yeongcheon hosted the Starlight Festival and invited some Daegu foreigners to visit the festival and stay overnight in a beautiful lodge for free!!); the Daegu Herb Medicine Festival; and last weekend a big group of us took the train to the town of Cheongdo to visit a wine tunnel. This was really cool - it's an old railroad track through a mountain, and now they age Cheongdo's famous persimmon wine there. The wine was good, very sweet and dry, and the cave was a nice cool place to hang out and drink on a hot day.

University students of herbal medicine participating in an herb-chopping contest, at the Daegu Herb Medicine Festival.

Entrance to the persimmon wine tunnel in Cheongdo

Anyway, the list goes on - this weekend I'm going to Seoul, the weekend after that I might be going camping, then there's a free city tour of Daegu and the surrounding area, then back to Seoul to visit the DMZ, then an overnight temple stay, then my sister will visit...Sometime near the end of June I hope to take a breath and catch up on my sleep.

And the biggest excitement of all will come after I leave Korea - I'm planning a big backpacking trip with my friend Diana, another EPIK-er not renewing her contract. Plans are still in the works, so I'll just say that so far I've bought one plane ticket for August 16th from Korea to Hanoi, Vietnam, and another one for six weeks later from Singapore to Chicago! It will probably take the rest of the summer to figure out what will happen in between!

Please check back later for more pictures from Yeongcheon, Cheongdo, and everything else! I'm constantly trying to update, organize, and caption them but I can't keep up!