I took some time previously to talk about the whole ordeal that lead us to come home early, but now it's time to talk about being home in general. The above picture is the last picture I took in Korea with my phone. We had about 6 hours of sitting around at the Incheon International Airport, so I did some wandering and also took a picture of this very large display.
It's fair to say that our circumstances were a bit different than some, because of the time frame during which we left. We were anticipating leaving and coming home September 3rd, but being told on a Wednesday that she wanted us gone during the upcoming weekend made for a bit of a challenge. That gave us less time to mentally prepare and also to get all packed up, but we did it anyway. What a whirlwind, and a long day of travelling.
Now, traveling more than 6,000 miles is definitely easy by today's standards, but we still wracked up more than 25 hours of travel time. We took a taxi from the school/apartment to the bus terminal, boarded a bus for a 2 hour ride up to the airport, waited around the airport for about 6 hours, took a plane from Incheon to Toronto for 13 hours, got through customs and immigration in Toronto for the US and had a layover of about 2 and a half hours, then flew from Toronto to Philadelphia in about an hour and a half or so followed by an hour and a half drive home. Needless to say, it was a very, very long day. That much travel, across 11 time zones, can really do a number on a person and it's taken time to adjust.
It's definitely good to be home and see all of our favorite places again (see above, a wonderful part of the local area). But not only have we been adjusting to being 13 hours behind again (from South Korea back to Eastern Standard timezone) and fixing our sleep schedule, but we've been readjusting culturally too. This is my take on the whole thing and Zach will provide his own interpretation when he gets the opportunity as well. These are just some of the personal observations that I've made in what's been about a month since we've been home.
-- Getting used to seeing English everywhere again is a big change. Going from seeing some English, but mostly signs in Korean is very different. Suddenly I can walk into a store and read the signs, and look at all the advertisements and understand them.
-- Understanding everyone again. It's different, it really is. Something I'd say I kind of took for granted before. To go from understanding a word here and there to suddenly being able to recognize and comprehend speech from whoever is a very different concept. The lull of speech in Korea was something you could kind of zone out to (except when you picked out words here and there), rather than something you actively listen and respond to here.
-- Driving again after not doing so for so long. This one took a little time to remember, and get used to my cars own little tendencies. I have to say that this is a skill that may get rusty, but it did come back soon enough and now it's like I never even left.
-- Going to stores and being able to understand what you're getting. This is one of my favorite differences. I'm able to walk into a store and know what I'm getting, be able to read the ingredients and the nutrition label and that's just cool.
-- So many food options. I really enjoy Korean food, in fact we got bulgogi at a local Korean restaurant for lunch yesterday, but it's nice to be able to eat a variety of different foods. In Korea I feel like the flavors were kind of limited and after a while it seemed like many things tasted very similar. Back at home it's nice to have the option of going for Mexican or Italian, American or Indian, it's just pleasant to have so many things to try again.
-- Not being stared at and being able to communicate well. Back in Korea as a foreigner it wasn't unusual to get stares or kid randomly saying hi to show of their English to a foreigner. Here you just kind of blend in, which in its own way is really something of a revelation for me. This leads into discussion of privilege as a part of the majority and I think I'd rather tackle that at a different time when I'm not addressing a long list of adjustments being home from Korea. It's also nice to be able to tell people what you want or need, to make an order without gesturing to a menu board or pointing to a picture/item in a menu.
-- Not handing things to people with two hands. In Korea it's considered polite to hand things to people with two hands whether you're giving a gift or handing money to a cashier. Here, no such ceremonial tendencies, you just hand over whatever it may be with a single hand and you're good to go.
-- Bowing constantly. In Korea it's normal to bow to people, or at least nod in greeting. It seems like something I did everywhere, really. Now that I no longer do that it seems a little strange and I do a lot of smiling and sometimes nodding instead.
-- One normality to another. I think I like this one the most, because it's so true. We went from the foreign and unusual at first to South Korean normality, for us anyway. Coming home is also much the same. We went from Korea and came back home again to things being somewhat strange, but we're settling back into a different sort of normality. Not the same as before we left and certainly not the same normality in South Korea, but a new and familiar normality nonetheless.
No comments:
Post a Comment