11 months Later: My Visit Home

Well, it's my first day back and I'm super jet-lagged, but surprisingly cheery. This will fade fast.. leading me to crave sweats, my blanket, and sleep... in my apartment that I missed oh so much.

Let's rewind to 3 weeks ago shall we?

I arrived home exactly 3 weeks and a day ago. The second I arrived at immigration in JFK I was completely overwhelmed. Reverse culture shock had begun: I was able to eavesdrop on people's conversations and communicate my thoughts with ease. I was finally back in NY and I didn't realize just how much I had craved multiculturalism. There were different races all around me. I remember stopping myself at one point, realizing my head was in constant motion. I was whipping around just to get a glimpse of everyone and everything. I was not only back in the States, but back in NY, and I laughed out loud when one of the immigration employees was ordering people into the correct lines in her thick NY accent. I missed that. For the next 3 weeks I found myself above anything else, handing over money and receiving it with two hands. I didn't find myself needing to bow (which surprised me), as I have been bending at my waist at 45 degrees for the past 11 months. I was noticing little things here and there that I had never noticed before about the sometimes curt and fast culture of the West (I'm mainly talking about NY here.) When I was in the city and heard Korean, I whipped my head around almost instantly.  

My lovely friend Brittany picked me up at JFK and brought me home where I was welcomed by my mother and two brothers who were home from college. My mom kept the Christmas tree (Christmas had been over for 21 days by this point, and the tree had surprisingly not burned down) and decorations up just so we could have our own little Christmas that night. I handed out gifts from Japan and Taiwan and we ordered none other than a good old NY pie! (Yes, I mean pizza.) My mother is one of my best friends and we were both elated to be reunited. I'm thankful my brothers were home so we all had a good week and a half to spend time together.

Me and Colm.. first time I met my newest cousin!

Me and Pat

Mi madre and I in the city

Christmas!

Ashley, Zach, me , and Tim

Moving my brothers into the dorms

Megan, Melissa, me and Kati in Oswego

The girl cousins!

John, Steve, and I in Oswego

Lauren, Holly, me and Sara

Me and Kate in Delhi

Some highlights of my trip:

• Brittany, myself and some new friends took over Irish Times (local bar) like we owned the freakin place.
• My mom, my brothers and I enjoyed a day in the city, where we saw Jersey Boys (A little disappointing, not one of my favorites). We walked up to Rockefeller, then to dinner at The National (Iron Chef's Geoffrey Zakarian's restaurant), per my brother's request.
• Had not one, but two welcome home parties, where I saw a great deal of family and friends who had traveled up to 7 hours. 
• Satisfied food cravings included but not limited to: REAL pizza, Mexican (enchiladas and guac), enormous NY egg everything bagel, Greek (lamb souvlaki and tzatsiki), way too much hummus, turkey cold-cuts, salmon burger, TJ's everything...
• Drove into Flushing, Queens (a neighborhood 20 mins outside of Manahttan). Flushing is  basically Korea in NY. Everything from shops, to restaurants, to doctors' offices, to supermarkets, to noraebangs, to you name it... Korean! And I LOVED it. We had galbi at a great restaurant, and to my mom's enjoyment- makkoli.
• Drove my brothers up to school, saw their dorms, acted as their mother, and cried when I left them. SO proud of those two.
• Met up with college friends in Oswego, danced at the Raven till pretty much closing.
• Flew down to NC where I spent time with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. 
• Spent the next few days in SC where I saw my two other brothers, Jackie, and my beautiful niece. 
• Let my guard down, and took a chance on someone who has made me feel the butterflies of a 16-yr old girl again, and the reason for the permanent smile on my face

  

  First dinner back home. YUMM

Amazing

I was able to accomplish so many wonderful things while I was home. I was non-stop the entire time, but that's the only way I knew how to spend my time there. There are many people I needed to see, and if that meant running around like a mad-woman then so be it. I love my mother for sharing me with everyone, even though it proved difficult for her. Some people may think I'm crazy that I took a 14-hour round-trip drive to my college town. Or that I hopped on yet another plane to see my family down South. But if I didn't do these things the regret would be there, and I am so thankful I was able to see everyone I did.

Me and Emma in SC

Declan, me, and Matt

Me and Liz in NC

Me and Emma

Me and Connor

As the days dwindled down and I realized my return to Korea was creeping up, I was upset. I didn't want to leave. I knew it would be rough but not like this. I started to second-guess myself. I had to remember that my decision to renew my contract here was never 100%. I had my reasons for staying, and those haven't changed. I just wasn't expecting to feel so strong about not wanting to go back to Korea. I felt like after 3 weeks it would be like every college break I had. (When it was time to go back up to Oswego I was beyond ready.) This was different. This is another year out of my life that I will not see my niece grow up, another Christmas missed. But when I had a meltdown in the parking lot of CVS (yes, that's right) my mom reminded me that if I were home I would have no job, no plan, nothing for me. She's right. I HAVE a plan when I come home for good. And when I really think about it, I'm actually really excited for this upcoming year. I have a serious budget in place that I'll stick to in order to have the life I want when I leave this country. I have more friends who are visiting me this year which is beyond exciting! I have one more year of adorable students, Cherry Blossom festivals, awkward situations, communication barriers, and drunken Daegu nights. I'm looking forward to festivals I missed this past year, finally making it to Jeju, improving my Korean, more dakgalbi, and my friends here who I've come to love and have missed terribly.

As much as I loved being home, I have missed this place. It's the oddest feeling - this sense of comfort in a community in which they don't speak your language, and the customs and culture are so unlike your native ones. But this has in a way, become a certain adopted culture for me. In my own way, I've learned how to deal with certain situations here, how to get my point across if my limited Korean is not enough, how to breathe and accept the things that drive me insane here. 

These past three weeks reminded me that I have two homes. One on Long Island, NY where I was born and raised among four amazing brothers, by the most accepting mother a child could ask for. And one in Andong, South Korea, where I have made myself a life. I'm anxious and excited for what this next year will bring. I'm thrilled to try even more new things, travel to places I've yet to be, meet my new students, and instill in them a love for the English language, form new friendships and strengthen the ones I have now.

SoKo.. Bring it!!

Pat, me, Mom and Zach