My time here in Korea is slowly counting down. I leave in 5 days! I realize I have not blogged much, but sometimes it just takes me a while to wrap my mind around my experiences and then concentrate long enough to type them out. However, I think I'm going to keep this blog open for all of my language and travel plans and experiences still yet to come. I'll be in Mexico in 8 or 9 days, and then maybe for New Years I'll be in San Diego. And there are so many more places to go.
I need to come back to Korea. I'm making a break through with Korean! I got some inspiration from a night spend with friends in Hongdae. My lovely friends Totoi and Dazha took me and my friend from Germany, Sabrina, as well as a Korean named TJ and a Chinese guy named Bill to meet their friend Taeyang. They had met here over winter break in Hongdae because she had heard them speaking Spanish and wanted to test out her own skills. I actually met her that night too, but it was after many tequila shots and a lot of soju/beer.... Anyway, this time she brought her boyfriend, Oscar, with her to meet all of us. Oscar is from Spain, and the two of them looked absolutely gorgeous together! We smoked hookah, drank a lot of tequila, and danced all night until it was time for us to get breakfast (at Taco Bell) and catch a train back to Shinchang.
What was amazing about this experience was that I was the only native English speaker there, and yet everyone was speaking English. This was because there were so many languages represented in our group but still! Much like last Christmas when I realized all of my friends were bilingual except me, I felt a push. I want to be bilingual. I want to have conversations in Korean.
I actually can right now. After that experience and seeing Eunhyuk from Super Junior at the Dream Concert, I have pretty much only watched things in Korean. In just two weeks my confidence in my speaking abilities has skyrocketed. I speak to the ladies in restaurants so easily now, and last night I spoke a lot of Korean. I can carry on conversations, but not very deep ones. Not conversations about philosophy and dreams and life.
So I will keep practicing! And I will come back to Korea in 2 years to teach English and learn Korean. There are many places I want to go, but I've put so much time into Korean... I think I could see myself living there for a very long time. Only time will tell.
