5 years ago this morning, I arrived in Ilsan, South Korea, to start my English teaching job. I never would have imagined I’d be living in Ilsan 5 years later. But here I am.
I’ve been having a lot of ambivalent thoughts, lately, about my continuing stay here – mostly induced by circumstances and awarenesses raised by my recent quick visit back to the US. It is undeniable, though, that I’ve stumbled upon a lifestyle that mostly “works” for me – as strange as that might seem to others.
Here’s a photo I posted 5 years ago that I took of Ilsan’s Jungangno (Central Avenue, which I called Broadway for about year until I figured out its name), about a block from my old apartment (and about a kilometer from my current one).
Last night we went out to dinner after work – all the coworkers and I. It was goodbye for a couple of departing teachers. People come, people go. I was laughing with Curt yesterday over how many different employers I’ve had since coming to Korea (6), yet mostly working with the same group of people in the same neighborhood (except for the oddball one-year-long fling down in the rural south, at the public school at Hongnong).
