The Good Life

I had the best weekend I've had in a while in Korea. I am loving life, and it is good!
The whole contract thing with my school didn't work out quite the way I wanted it to, but it was okay. At least okay enough for me to stay. The husband and I went out with his coworkers on Thursday night, we went to the local bar on Friday night, and we went out to Seoul on Saturday night. I haven't had a weekend like that in what seems like forever, and it was definitely something I needed, without the worries I would have had in regards to money. This is all because the wedding is over, and it was the first time in over a year we just picked up and went without rationalizing the cost and what not. So it was definitely a GREAT time. On Sunday, we went to get new cell phones, and I found myself smiling for no reason, just because I was so happy. I totally felt cheesy and kind of ridiculous for it, but I just went with the flow. I felt like smiling, so I smiled! Of course, it came tumbling down once 6 p.m. hit, because the weekend was coming to an end. But now I am definitely looking forward to the rest of this year, and I am more at peace with the whole 'staying longer' thing.
The only thing I'm not at peace with is this weather. It is COLD! We are planning on getting a little tabletop oven soon, so I'll be making some warm cookies to make the chill go away. Overall, it has been a good few days, and I can't wait for Christmas.

See-Saw

There is some back-and-forth going on in my contract negotiation for this coming year. It may mean I am not staying any later than March, and if that's the case, I don't really have a back-up plan. Because the Korean law changed (once again!) in regards to work visas--specifically English teaching visas, I would need a good four months to get the stuff I need in order to get another job elsewhere in Korea. So that means I either suck it up and stay until next December, or leave in March. I was planning on staying for sure another year, and I was so happy about that, but then leaving in March kind of makes me feel weird. On the one hand, it would be a great chance to figure things out immediately, but on the other hand, I was hoping this year would be the "planning" year. So things are kind of up in the air, and we are waiting another day or so to hear the final decision on their behalf. Then the ball's in our court, and we may have a decision by tomorrow night or Thursday.

Reorganizing

I am struggling with being in this country each day. Because I've grown so jaded on this place, I've decided to change that around.
I'm about to sign a new contract for another year, and it leaves me feeling a bit unsettled, confused, and a tiny bit sad. This is SO not good. I want to make myself take full advantage of what drew me to the culture and being here in the first place, because I really don't want to leave for good with a bad taste in my mouth. This is kind of like a new year's resolution I am going to follow through. I am going to take each week and embrace the changes that come with time, along with the little quirks and uncomfortable moments that make living here so unique. Otherwise, I'll end up even more bitter than I already am, and I don't want that to happen. I want to leave here and miss it. I want to tell people about the great things they can do here, and not scare them away like I did when I went home a few weeks ago. As long as I take it one day at a time, and make a conscious effort to be happier in my everyday life here, I think everything will work out.

Homecoming

Woo!
It has been For.E.Ver. I'm back in the S to the K, with a little extra bling on my finger...

It was so great being home after so long, and I really did NOT want to come back to Korea. It seemed like the plane ride over here wasn't real, and it didn't hit me until we were walking from our plane to customs, when I got really sad. I do not like it here at all anymore. It was fine for the first two years, and maybe I just got burnt out on the place, but the past two years made me so sick of being here. It's a combination of me not liking the culture, not speaking the language well, missing home too much, and feeling out of place all the time. It's also about convenience. You can make a somewhat comfortable life when you are away from your home country, but you have to make do without some other things. Or, you may have to substitute in order to make it more "home-like." For the most part, it's little things, like getting used to the taste of cake or pizza here. If you have a sensitive sense of taste like I do, you can tell the difference between the cakes and pizzas here and the ones in the States. It leaves a lot of room for cravings you can't satisfy.

But I've adjusted since getting back from the wedding. Knowing that we are now saving for our future makes the time we are going to spend here seem like it's going to fly by. We may end up in a different country, and at that point, I may realize that all I needed was a change of scenery. We'll see.

I did miss my kindergarteners, though. It is really great to see them every morning, happy and smiling because I'm there. I'm happy because they're happy, so it works! I'm also getting excited about Christmas coming up. My husband (!) and I were talking about how we wanted to celebrate it this year, and we want to keep it a private thing this time around. Last year, we have people over to his apartment and had a gift exchange. It was nice, but it didn't really feel like Christmas. Hopefully, this year will be slightly different, because we are making it about spending time with each other and enjoying our new married life, with no distractions.

Now if I can only figure out what to get for him this year. . .