By Wednesday, I’d finally recovered from soju and dancing at the annual Boryeong Mudfest.  My nausea gone and my sight cleared, I noticed I’d picked up a few pounds on my hips along with the bars of mud soap I’d purchased for presents.  That’s the thing with parties: there’s always a parting gift, you just might not like it.

I hit the rice paddies for an early morning run.  The air was already damp, but not yet heavy so my slow steady gait cut noiselessly through it.  Like a knife through butter.  But, better to hold the butter even in my language – it’s no good for my butt.  I stopped to watch as four cranes and a duck tucked their heads in muddy water, snapping up a breakfast of bugs, fish, frogs… They seemed to not notice my awe-struck stare.   Shifting my gaze so that I might transition from my stunned state, I glanced beyond them to the right.  Not so far in the distance stood my neighborhood.  Less than a mile away, it teemed with coffee shops, bars, hagwons and boutiques.  What a dichotomy I thought.  How lucky am I to experience it. This, I recognized, will be one of the things I miss when I leave South Korea.

I’m thirteen weeks away from returning to the States and to put it plainly:  I’m ready to go.  My experience here has been life-changing and yet this is not my home for life.  I’ve met expats who have married, started businesses and built complete, full lives here.  Some travel to their old ‘home’ maybe once a year to visit relatives.  Others stay in SK for two or three years before leaving to teach in a new country – accepting a new adventure with each new contract.  I am content with these twelve months of mine.  Thankful to have had the current nine and determined to be present for the remaining three.

The Rainy Season is a joy.  All warm, wet and moody.  The way I imagine men like their women – or at least, that’s what I hope.  Anyhow, it’s a pleasure to experience this weather since soon the Summer will come in full-force and wring the land dry.  Gangneung unabashedly expresses all four seasons.  A colorful Fall is sure to follow.  Luckily, I will be able to enjoy a second showing of orange and red burnished leaves before returning to ever sunny California which vacillates between two colors:  green and burnt.

But again, I will keep my thoughts here for now.  As the pages marking the days in my desk calendar fold back, one on top of the other, I try to remind myself that even the most mundane is rife with discovery if only you look closely enough.  And you almost always get what you ask for and will for certain only see what you’re looking for.



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