Seoul calling

About two months ago, a call brought an unexpected change in my life. There I was, living my mundane, boring life juggling two jobs, as a public servant and a full-time copy editor, when one of the people I knew through my work encouraged me to apply to a six-month cultural exchange program. Admittedly, I was intrigued. I had been suffering from ennui from my work for a while now and I thought this would be a good change of pace. So I jumped at the opportunity without really pondering on the consequences. Meanwhile in my life, I had other things in the burner, I was planning on following through with my plans for graduate school, save up to complete law school and finally sit for the Bar exams, and the peak season for my copy editing job loomed in the distance. With my application sent, the waiting began. As I waited, I began to consider what arrangements living abroad for six months entailed. And then the doubts began to creep in, and as the weeks passed, my doubts began to grow, to the point that I had in fact written a draft of a letter to the organizers to pull out my application.

And now, after having lived in Seoul for almost four weeks, I am glad that I did not withdraw my application, despite my doubts, despite the issues I have left behind in my government job and despite all my misgivings.  Life in a new country has been a challenge to say the least. Adjusting to the culture, the food, and the language has been difficult. Korean language classes for four hours a day twice a week has been a huge help and I am charmed by the quirks of my temporary home. I am in this program with a bunch of amazing and mind-blowingly talented individuals, and I look forward to the next five months of adventures and friendships. This has definitely been the right thing to do, and I will return home a changed person because of all of this.

I created this blog to try and capture my thoughts and feelings about this chapter in my life, and thus will contain stories about my explorations of Seoul and getting to know myself better.