93) The One Year Mark

It is crazy to think that it has been a year, almost exactly. I am pretty sure I came to Korea on July 3rd of ’06. I can’t even say what this year has felt like, but I suppose it feels like a first year abroad.

It is funny to look back and think about all the changes I imagined I would go through, and what I thought I would be like after a year here. I thought of all the possibilities of learning a new language, taking martial arts, etc. But the reality of the situation was I either didn’t have the time, or was just lazy. This is not to say I haven’t changed in countless other ways, and experienced many other things- it’s just to say it was not like I thought, and I guess it never is. Reality is always different than the imagined.

There are just so many things to think about- but it is hard to do that at this point, because I am still in the middle of this trip. I am still just living here, and not looking back on everything as one would do when a trip or stage of their life is coming to a close. But perhaps an appropriate illustration to what it has been like here are the living condition changes I have been through. I can clearly remember walking into the little cockroach filled rat box in Suji (and trying to convince myself it wasn’t so bad). I was living alone (minus the roaches) and didn’t really have any friends. Now I am living in an area I love, on a rooftop apartment with a sunroom and a balcony and I have two houseguests who are both good friends of mine. From countless corner brothels to countless trees. From the luxury of a two story house in rural Wisconsin to $2 a night hotel in rural Cambodia. Saunas and capsule hotels in Seoul and Osaka, and sharing a house with a family in Saigon. Surrounded by thousands if not millions of people in some of the worlds biggest cities, and being nearly alone in the jungle in Cambodia. It has been a wild and beautiful ride thus far.