Two weeks: a brief reflection

Two weeks in and I'm loving life here. I've met some really awesome people, I love my coworkers, my apartment kicks ass, and I'm on other other side of the freakin' world! When I left for Korea, I tried to limit my expectations, taking more of a "hope for the best, expect the worse" stance (if you do some research on teaching ESL in Korea, you'll know why I held that stance!) But, by leaps and bounds, my experience thus far has far exceeded any expectations.

The transition to life here has been relatively seamless. Sure, I wish I knew how to say more than "annyeong haseyo" (hello) and "kamsa hamnida" (thank you), but once I'm able to establish more of a routine, I know I'll buckle down and learn hangeul (Korean alphabet)... and following that, I'll take classes, for sure. I can't stand not being functionally literate. All the same, though, I haven't been distraught over my lack of language ability. I feel like I need to give myself some slack and I realize that it will come with time. Yes, the town in which I'm residing is small, but I think I might actually prefer that to big-city life (time will tell, eh?) Admittingly, I would prefer that the E-mart (equivalent to a super WalMart on steorids) was not a 20 minute bus ride away, but hey- you deal with what you've got. Meanwhile, with big-city Seoul only about 45 minutes away, it's an easy commute to escape this "country" life.

It's a bit strange... living this life is so natural for me (not the aforementioned "country" life... just life in Korea in general!). I feel like I'm "home" and that the year will only get better.*

*Disclaimer: This does not, by any stretch of the imagination, mean that I will not experience intense periods of frustration -- either with work or life (so don't be surprised to see those blog posts!). However, as a whole, I'm so content and have absolutely no doubts that this is exactly where the universe intends for me to be.

It's a great feeling.