Saturday, August 28, 2010

Concerning one year.

Well, dear readers, we've come to the end of the road. I am at such a colossal loss as to characterize Korea and to characterize me in Korea. Whenever my thoughts can't quite obey my orders for coherence I resort to lists. So here goes, see how many references to previous posts you can spot. In my life, this year spanned....

  • 1 two bedroom apartment
  • 8 foreign coworkers
  • 2 Twilight movies
  • 5 jimjilbang afternoons
  • 1,920 classes
  • 3 different ages (22,23,24)
  • 5 beaches
  • 3 pieces of Korean pottery (all vases)
  • 27 kindergarten students
  • 1 cooler of spiced frozen beef
  • 21 books (Fiery Cross, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, Drums of Autumn, Dracula, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Chasing Harry Winston, Shoe Addicts Anonymous, The Mermaid Chair, The Glass Castle, Babyville, The Temptation of the Night Jasmine, Twenties Girl, Glittering Images, The Thorn Birds, Have a Little Faith, Weekend in Paris, First Impressions, Shirley, Midnight's Children, Peony in Love, and Remember Me?)
  • 53 blog posts
  • 6 trips to Costco
  • 4 birthday cakes
  • 15 pounds (lost, not gained, woohoo!)
  • 43 phone numbers
  • 12 end of session scrambles
  • 1 stomach bug
  • 4 temples
  • 3 palaces
  • 12 cities
  • 1 Christmas movie marathon
  • 24 Korean characters (that I can reproduce and remember...)
  • $33 spent on skype
  • 2 parking attendant friends
  • 16 hours of difference from home
  • 1 bit of romance
  • 12 focused flirtations
  • 1 wedding
  • 5 hikes
  • 3 Whittie connections
  • 20 sheets of stickers
  • 5 ink jet markers
  • 1 winter olympics
  • 1 world cup
  • 57 weeks
  • 13 hours on a plane
  • 1 expat Thanksgiving
  • 2 seasons of the Bachelor/Bachelorette
  • 8 copy boys
  • 3 Korean Dramas
  • 1 burned wish
  • 2 nail polish colors
  • 108 prostrations
  • 1 surprise birthday party
  • 48 pills versus 1 sinus infection
  • 6 Paris Baguette chocolate fondu brownies
  • 23 gifted tubes of Korean toothpaste
  • 18 English club meetings
  • 2 pieces of luggage
  • 1,000 cherry blossoms
  • incomprehensible amounts of ramen
  • incalculable heart pangs
  • indeterminate growth
Thanks very much for following me, the support of people looking over my shoulder was the difference between lasting a year and lasting a month. What did my time here achieve or mean or do or change? Umm. Well. I don't know. Was it foreign? Oh god yes. Was it fabulous? Actually it really had its moments. Overarchingly, I have this sublime impression of something big where I won't appreciate its view until I move out of its shadows. But something is something no matter what, and at the end of this road, I know my Korea is a something I'm proud to have.

Love and goodbye to you too.

Becky


1 comment:

  1. Welcom home!
    I have loved reading your blog and keeping up on your adventures. Let me know when I can buy you a drink and we can catch up (you can invite that sister Kelsey of yours too if you want!).
    ~Jessica

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