Two weekends ago I went to the countryside with Lauren, Liz, and Yaeyoung, three friends of mine in Korea. We went to the largest public garden in Korea, Morning Calm, and that night we stayed in a cabin that Yaeyoung rented for us. Following a night of soju and chilling out in the cabin, we went to another town, walked along a river, did a very mini-hike and got a ton of Korean traditional food, before heading back to the city.
I’m not giving too many details here, but it was an awesome weekend. It was awesome to get out of the city and into the countryside; there are so many things that Liz, Lauren, and I, three people from the New England suburbs, didn’t realize that we missed: seeing stars, seeing rivers, very limited noise or light pollution, not being in an overcrowded city, seeing rock formations, hearing birds, etc. Of course, come this Fall, I’ll get back to Connecticut and miss everything about Korea and living in a city. Instead of missing starry nights, I’ll miss being able to go out at night – only the FoodBag is opened past 10PM in East Hampton, and probably also that bar near the Chinese Restaurant. Instead of missing personal space, I’ll miss seeing people and constantly meeting new people. There’s also so much to do in Korea, for often way cheaper than in Connecticut.
I’m happy that I have another 4 and a half months in Korea. I’m also happy that for the last half of my trip here, it’s Spring and Summer, so I can actually go out and do stuff. Hopefully my pro-go out and do stuff attitude will come with me to Connecticut, it probably will.
I have another 4 and a half months left, and about 4 months into my stay here, I realized that reverse culture shock is going to hit me when I get back. I will have changed, CT will have changed (a little), my friends will have changed and their lives will have changed. And that’s okay and as long as I go into things knowing all that, I’ll be okay. I’m a lot more awesome than I gave myself credit for, as evidenced by the fact that two weeks ago I was in Taiwan and now tonight, I’m flying out to Japan with the amazing Lauren. When I came here I told myself I want to do 1 weekend trip a month and while at first I definitely didn’t reach that goal, I’m more than making up for it this month.
I’m out to meet up with Lauren to jet off to Japan.
