Korea

There are times here when I feel lonely. At other times, probably more often, I feel such a deep love for this country, this city. In the last week - after classes, being called over to the swings by Son Hee, Jin Hee, Amy and Katie, and playing with them while arguing about whether the next day would be "Candy Day" or not (it was. And a great class. Me giving out sweets to them for formulating sentences like "Candy is delicious." or "I like melon. I don't like orange." or "I give to my sister.") And now, coming home drunk from Gumi Yok, and a nice evening with the local third generation TaLK people, and a couple of new fourth generation people. A dinner with some local Koreans Nicole and I befriended, then the waegukin bar Corona, and the strangely named Alcoholic Landmark...

People go home from this program, and they update their facebook statuses. The gist of them is, I'm fine. But it's not Korea. I miss Korea. The colour and excitement, the cafes and noraebang, I want to be back meeting at exit ten, I want to be back saying next weekend in Daegu or Busan?, I want to go for samgyeopsal...

I don't think I've ever regretted this, and I know when it's gone it will live forever in me when I see some Hangul script or hear a fragment of Korean, when I see the facebook posts of friends from around the world with whom I share a secret knowledge of a place, a time, a country.

(A little drunk, 2am, Saturday Morning, Suseong Heitch, Bonggok-dong, Gumi-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea.)