The Woes & Grows of Living in South Korea

9 months, 3 weeks and 3 days. At some point in the last two and half months I’ve been living here, I created a countdown that tells me how long I have left in South Korea before my EPIK contract is over. Yeah, these two and a half months have been an uphill battle for me–more than I’ve publicly lead on. This blog has been postponed day after day in hopes that when I wrote it, I’d have somehow won all the battles and could easily share it with you after the fact. Well of course it’s not that easy, is it? Nevertheless, I’ll finally share with you what I now call the “woes and grows” of living in South Korea.

THE WOES

In my first month here, I experienced homesickness and culture sock on a whole different level. I was confused (and sometimes still am) why Korea had been my big dream for seven years, and now that I’m living here, it’s just so hard. Then I watched a TED Talk on “Relocation–The Woes, the Grows and the Glows.“ It helped put my feelings in perspective (especially that I’m not the only one who’s experienced them), and that following this dream involves some woes and growing pain. It’s not like I didn’t expect these challenges…but the intensity for which I’ve experienced them is unexpected.

I’ll note that every EPIK teacher has a completely different experience than the next because everything is determined by each unique school that hires them (including where you live). I told myself throughout my 6-month EPIK application process that I would be open-minded and adjust to whatever situation I was given. I did my best–but it was so hard. I started learning about how some of my other EPIK friends were living and what their school experiences were like, and that’s when I realized something. Oh, I just have a harder placement. It seemed like not many of the other teachers had to deal with things that I did, and so it was my first month: the woes of living in South Korea.

I learned where some EPIK teachers share their workloads with native Korean teachers in the classroom, I teach by myself. Some EPIK teachers teach one grade per day–preparing only one lesson plan for that day. I teach every grade several times a week and prepare 15 lesson plans in total. When I’m not teaching, I’m lesson planning. Some teachers have one school, others have two–like me. So for that first month, I was constantly scrambling to prepare lessons that were fun and interesting even when some of my students told me they hated English class. (I have to remind myself, “Don’t take it personally. I hated Math class, too, but not the Math teacher. There’s a difference, Allison.”)

Another issue I was really struggling with: my main school’s 6th grade class. They’ve given me a run for my money–almost literally. The stress they gave me, including my workload, homesickness, culture shock, and the isolation I felt from the language barrier all drove me on several occasions to check how much plane tickets cost to fly home. Really? Really.

That last thought was why I haven’t wanted to write a blog post for a while; I didn’t want to admit just how difficult it actually has been. Seven years of pursuing my dream to live in South Korea…just to go home after only two months?

Over that time, though, my homesickness went away (the really bad heartache bit), I don’t have culture shock anymore, I’m getting better and faster at lesson planning and growing my confidence in teaching, and (I wish I did this sooner) I finally let the 6th grade homeroom teacher know how his class was behaving when he left the room. Now he stays, and those kids are the quietest I’ve ever seen them. It almost freaks me out. So the woes were not fun. And I’ll probably have more of them, but hopefully less often.

THE GROWS

Now I think I’m in the “grows” part of living in South Korea where I’m not constantly checking my countdown every single day. I’m working on making my life better, learning how to enjoy time by myself and developing my relationships with my new friends. I’m making my ugly apartment a little less ugly (I think…I’m not so sure…) and exploring Korea almost every weekend. I’m also reflecting on the reasons why I’ve wanted to go home and the things I regret not doing before I left. It can be painful but I think it’s helping me grow and prepare for…well, whatever it is God has in store for me. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there!

“Relocation is disruptive also in the very best sense of the word. A sad, lonely and distressed phase usually paves the way for better things to come. In short, relocation can feel like one of the worst times of our lives but it may also launch us into the very best.”

Lisl Floss; Relocation–the Woes, the Grows and the Glows

So…I have 9 months, 3 weeks and 3 days left before my contract ends. Depending on one’s perspective, that’s not really a lot of time now is it? I’m hoping I can experience the “glows” of living in South Korea–so I can see what I’m really made of and look back on this whole adventure and say, “Woah. I did it. Despite all those challenges, I did it!” But I’ll continue being transparent with you all, even if it takes some time. Evidently, adventures are not quite adventurous without some perils in-between.

Thank you for following closely, never waiting for me to trip up, but always supporting me even if I do. So let’s continue on this adventure together and see what shall fall to us!

Signed,

Allison the Adventurer