Honeymoon

I've been in South Korea for four months now and from what I'm heard from some other English teachers, right about now is when the honeymoon period should be coming to an end.

I, however, can't for the life of me see that happening and have noticed that the teachers who gave me this advice are ones who only partially involved themselves with Korean culture. None of them, after 12 months, could speak a sentence in Korean - a lack which embaresses me after four months,** though my co-teachers are really impressed with my vocabulary. Neither did they have friends outside of the short-term expat community.

True to my nom de plume as An Accidental Pilgrim, I have been blessed to have, through no merit or effort on my part, fallen in with a group of friends who are as enthusiastic about Korea as I am. There are teachers who are here for more than one year and thanks to Tae Kwon Do and church I am meeting and making friends with ....gasp!....actual Koreans! Who are delighted to help me learn Korean, provided I do likewise for their English. Fine by me, says I, one good turn and all that!

The other NET (native English teacher) in my school asked me the other day if I was going to stay longer than a year, as I seemed to enjoy Korea so much. I answered that I may even stay longer than two!
I thought for a few minutes about how to explain how much I like Korea, and came up with this response:
"You know when you fall in love with a guy: you think about him all the time, everything he does makes you smile. Even the weird quirks are endearing rather than annoying. You bore all your friends talking about how amazing he is. You are happy in a relationship, so now you want all your single friends to be this happy too and you try to match them up....."
My friend nodded quizzically, smiling while trying to figure out where the hell I was going with this!

"Well, that's how I feel about Korea right now. I walk down the street with a big, goofy grin on my face all the time cos I'm so happy here. I listen to K-Pop and watch Korean dramas, I'm even trying to convince my sister to come out here!"

My friend laughed and said, "Yes, you'll definitely be here for a while - now we have to introduce you to some men!"

Which is another reason for me to smile - as I think Korean men are positively gorgeous!

Somehow, I think this honeymoon period is going to last for a long time to come.


Edit: Thanks to avid listening to K-Pop, I can now say two sentences in Korean - "I'm getting tired," and "I'm going crazy."
Sentences with limited applications, ok - but I look forward to suprising the hell out of some Koreans when I do use them! heh heh heh!!