Now that I am coming to the end of my gap year that has been extended (to include another year plus 6 months)….
I am deeply reflecting on the time I have been here. I was so excited and fresh faced when I stepped off the plane on April 17, 2016. After a week of Jet Lag, training, sharing an apartment with 6 other people literally crammed into our 3 BR apt with beds jammed up next to each other….it was quite a culture shock. After a while I began to see that this would become the new normal. People everywhere, sharing spaces, small spaces with even smaller dimensions. There seemed to be no apparant rules to movement on the side walk, no following the rules of walking on the left passing on the right. I can’t tell you how many times someone stopped literally right in front of me to talk on their phone. Hey how about pulling over to the right or left? No. No such courtesy rule exists here. People who are used to it just flow around the obstacle like water.
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The architecture and beauty became my saving grace. I began to love ‘the Land of the Morning Calm”. I am sure it was like that at one time. In the city the last word I would use to describe Seoul is ‘calm’. If I could step back in time before the hustle bustle, the industrial growth and all that is South Korea now, I maybe could experience the calm. In the country exists a quiet and calm. One time I was in Yangpyeong it was truly restful and calm. The journey has been an interesting one. This is my first trip across the ocean outside of my native North America.
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