I'm looking down the barrel of the last week of what has been a real bitch of a month.
As an english teacher in Korea, February and August are the months you brace yourself for. These are the two months when contracts end and newly minted friends strike out for distant shores.
I got off lightly last February as the vast majority of my friends signed up for a second year. On the flip side however, this has left me a little more vulnerable this time around, as the same friends have had an extra year to burrow further into my heart and so the seperation will cut that much deeper.
Here's where being an ex pat gives farewells an extra bit of a kick. In a nutshell, for the most part our relationships here in Korea are a bit like ships passing in the night.
It just happens to be a reeeeeaally long night!
We both come from different places and will part to move on to new and still more different places.
Saying goodbye to my friends back home is difficult, yes,....but in a way that I can't express at all well, it is difficult only because I miss them.
What I mean is, my 'Home' friends are tried and tested. We have already survived seperations and reunions. Emotionally speaking, they will stay where I 'put them'.
With my 'Korea' friends I don't always have that security blanket. The intentions are there, God knows! But are our foundations deep enough? Will it survive the distance, the new, unshared experiences and, let's face it, my abysmal track record at correspondence?
Last weekend I said farewell to two of my friends, next weekend I shall be seeing off one more. Now add to this emotional cocktail the foreshadowing of six more departures in August, including my sister! Eeeep! and you get an idea of how bruised my myocardial muscle is feeling these days.
This feckin February I have had the highs of :
As an english teacher in Korea, February and August are the months you brace yourself for. These are the two months when contracts end and newly minted friends strike out for distant shores.
I got off lightly last February as the vast majority of my friends signed up for a second year. On the flip side however, this has left me a little more vulnerable this time around, as the same friends have had an extra year to burrow further into my heart and so the seperation will cut that much deeper.
Here's where being an ex pat gives farewells an extra bit of a kick. In a nutshell, for the most part our relationships here in Korea are a bit like ships passing in the night.
It just happens to be a reeeeeaally long night!
We both come from different places and will part to move on to new and still more different places.
Saying goodbye to my friends back home is difficult, yes,....but in a way that I can't express at all well, it is difficult only because I miss them.
What I mean is, my 'Home' friends are tried and tested. We have already survived seperations and reunions. Emotionally speaking, they will stay where I 'put them'.
With my 'Korea' friends I don't always have that security blanket. The intentions are there, God knows! But are our foundations deep enough? Will it survive the distance, the new, unshared experiences and, let's face it, my abysmal track record at correspondence?
Last weekend I said farewell to two of my friends, next weekend I shall be seeing off one more. Now add to this emotional cocktail the foreshadowing of six more departures in August, including my sister! Eeeep! and you get an idea of how bruised my myocardial muscle is feeling these days.
This feckin February I have had the highs of :
- staying with a friends family for Lunar New Year
- having the best First Date Ever!
- really sweet affirmations of my teaching, my baking, my general ranking as a decent human being and friend
- best First Date ever turning into a idiot at the end of the night
- saying goodbye to three friends in one month
- having my father on the other side of the planet become incredibly sick (though thankfully is now on the mend)
- and I have bid farewell to 75 of my Kindergarten students as they graduated into elementary. I have taught these snot nosed cherubs every day for two years - that's almost a third of their lives people! It hurt like a vicious kick to the shins.
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