I can't believe this whole adventure is coming to a close soon! I remember coming into the airport, wandering aimlessly and wondering how the heck I got myself into this whole situation. Officially have about one week left!
My students had their exams this week so I had Wednesday - Friday off. On Wednesday, I was in Suncheon the whole time. I was lucky enough to meet up with my former co-teacher, Ms. Choi, her daughter, and the previous Fulbright ETA teacher at my school, Ryan. It was great to see them all again before I headed back to the USA.
And, of course, I had to go back to Busan before I left! It really became my second home during the grant year. If you ever have the chance to go to this city, please do! In my humble opinion, it is much better than Seoul as it is significantly smaller (though still an extremely large city with ~3 million people), the sidewalks cleaner, the people are friendlier (though there are always exceptions), the weather warmer, the shopping cheaper, and just a wonderful place. If I would have stayed in Korea, I certainly would have gone to teach in Busan.
Anyways, I got to Busan and checked into a motel in Seomyeon. It was actually the first time I have stayed overnight in a city alone and it felt great! Anyways, I had one last shopping spree at H&M and got several fantastic deals as usual. I will definitely miss Korean clothes so I had to load up before I left, right? Afterwards, I met a Fulbright friend and a PNU student for dinner which was great! There was a slight problem, but luckily, my fantastic Korean friend, Jung Hwan resolved it brilliantly (Note: If you are a new ETA, teacher, or just random person checking out Korea, make some Korean friends. They can basically do anything and make some serious magic happen).
But yeah, we got dinner and ran into some Fulbrights which was totally random, but awesome! So we all hung out with each other and it was great!! Went and got some coffee and chatted for a couple of hours. It was a wonderful last night in Busan.
In the morning, I slept in and met two of my other PNU students for lunch. Again, it was awesome to see them!!! And they are incredibly easy to talk to as their English is ridic good and we are all of a similar age. We had some Shabu Shabu and then went to a cafe afterwards. Again, Korean friends are awesome because you can really open up and have a great cultural exchange. I feel like I have gotten a glimpse inside the culture that can be somewhat difficult to see, especially if you are like me and have poor language skills. Those goodbyes were probably the hardest of all of them so far, but we are connected through facebook, kakao, etc. so I guess it isn't really a goodbye.
Now I am just sitting around my homestay typing this up. Although the homestay has definitely been the hardest part of my grant year, I really do like them all and I will miss them (as Young Chan is screaming in the background haha). I feel very lucky that they were willing to open up their home to me (which is like realllly unusual in Korean culture).
Alrighty. I guess that's it for now. I do have some new developments career-wise, but I'd prefer not share until I have made final decisions and I know for sure what I will be doing and where I will be going. I will say that I will probably be able to discuss it next week or the week after. Sorry to keep you in suspense haha.
Okay, until next time! Only a couple more posts probably. Crazyyy haha.
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