Mar 1, 2012
Living outside your comfort zone can teach you a lot about yourself. You become stronger through your experiences but also become more vulnerable to the things people most often take for granted. This year I experienced loneliness like none before. It's a completely different feeling than the loneliness you feel at home. This loneliness is on a whole different level than that. In a country where you don't speak the language, aren't familiar with the culture and have to build friendships with people who are intimidated with their English abilities, you unwillingly get dragged into this emotion of always being alone. You lose contact with friends and family from back home. You go day to day living the same routine. But while all this is happening, you become stronger and learn a lot about yourself and other people. You adapt and people surprise you. You find comfort in the smallest of things. You learn how to live in your new home. You realize your own self worth along with how worthwhile you are to people in both homes. Friendships become distant while others become stronger. Family means a great deal more to you than ever before. So many emotions and experiences while trying to figure out life. Christmas and birthdays aren't the same. FB and Skype are the only things keeping you sane sometimes. It's a whole new world out here! Most EPIK teachers like to use the term "epik" to describe things. To us, "EPIK" means both the company we work for (English Program In Korea) and (according to dictionary.com) heroic; majestic; impressively great; of unusually great size or extent. When theres something we cant explain with words, we just say: that was EPIK.
Being in Korea has truly been, for the lack of any word(s) not being able to describe this feeling: EPIK!
I've learned a great deal since coming to Korea. And I am ready for year 2!
Dynamic Korea: nothing ever goes the way it should and some things just happen when you least expect it. In the spirit of being 'dynamic', I am going to blog about the places I've visited while in Korea in no particular order. =]
