Farewell Jeju

It's been an amazing year, full of ups and downs and everything in between. On February 15th Lance and I celebrated our one year anniversary of arriving to Korea. In two days we will finish our contract with SDALI, and on Thursday we will be on a plane to Seoul. We've taken a position with a new kindergarten and, fingers crossed, it will be a better working experience than what we've had this year.

This post isn't a update about what's next for Lance and I (look for a post this weekend about that), this is a reflection of the past year. This is a goodbye ballad to Jeju Island and all the wonderful people we've met this year.

Living on an Island in a foreign country is an experience wholly different from anything I've ever done. I honestly don't think I would have been brave enough to take the leap if I didn't have Lance right beside me holding me hand the whole way. If ever there was an adventurer it would be my husband. His bravery and courage this year has gotten me through all the hard spots we encountered on our journey and taught me to see the bravery inside myself. I fall in love with him more everyday.

When we first arrived on Jeju Island Lance and I were both excited and worried. We had been promised a big city on the mainland, after all. English was more limited on the island and we spoke no Korean. We were separated from the other teachers we had met on the mainland and, as we soon found out, our schedule made it nearly impossible to socialize and some of the people working at our school openly disliked us because we didn't fit into the SDA mold.

I have to admit the honey moon stage with Korea only lasted about 2 months before I was begging Lance to come home. We had no friends, our job was pretty terrible and I felt completely isolated from everything -- my language, my culture and my home. It was hard to admit that failure to myself and it's even harder to admit that here, which is probably why these post became few and far between.

Luckily, by midsummer things started looking up. We made some amazing friends doing, of all things, board games. There are more games out there than I could have ever possibly imagined. We've met people from all over the world. We've shared Thanksgiving, we've gone on beach trips, we've played in Darts tournaments and together we've volunteered to help out this island that we've called home. We've worked with Orphans and we've cleaned up the beach. Lance and I have traveled all over the island and most of it is still a mystery to us.

This year has allowed us the chance to really see corners of the world we might not have seen otherwise. We spent a week is the summer in Busan, eating ice cream on Haeundae beach. We spent almost two weeks exploring Japan with some of our best friends back home. We've journeyed all over Jeju Island. We have fallen in love.

Now we stand on the brink of a new chapter. I know that I will miss the island and the wonderful people we've met here. I also know that you can only live life once and that I'm not ready to stop seeing the world yet. A new adventure awaits us in Seoul, and I'll be there to meet it with open arms.