The Encore Semester

I'm back at SCH preparing for my third and final semester in Korea. Moving in yesterday was very smooth. It is nice to return to a familiar place, my home for the next four months. Sometimes I feel like such a gypsy: having to pick and move every few months out of dorms, up to Seoul, and back again. It is weird to think that I have been enrolled at SCH longer than at my home university SEMO, returning back to the States will be more of a transition to a "foreign" school than moving in here at SCH for a third semester.

Returning to a familiar place, sometimes I feel like I have never left and remain the same as the last time I was here, but at the same time, I am not the same as when I finished last semester in June. I have worked in a Korean company for a few weeks, I lived with a new Korean family, I taught in Taiwan, and I visited Hong Kong. These experiences have changed me from who I was a few months ago to this point.

One of the most important lessons I have learned while here in Asia, far from home, is that everything at home will not remain the same as I left it. It is one of the weird aspects of being gone for so long, knowing that everything at home has changed as much as I have in this past year.

Coming back to school a little early have given me the opportunity to look back to where I was six months and a year ago in this same situation. In a way I feel like I haven't changed too much, but I suppose it's all about perspective. The things I have learned about the world has molded me into a person with a new perception of the beauty of this place we call earth. Korea has taught me the meaning of unconditional love in the way that I have been welcomed so warmly to their country and also the way in which they continue to support their northern neighbor despite the hate that is given in return. I have also learned to view every culture with a critical mind. Sure Korea is a wonderful culture, but it has flaws just like the USA. While Korea is loving towards the North, it still displays the anger towards the Japanese that was prevalent after the occupation. Distinguishing the two with an open mind has been one of the greatest lessons for me in Korea.

I hope this coming semester is filled with more "Aha" moments as I learn and grow...