Writing something like a blog or a diary is hard. Not necessarily the act of writing it or finding the words, more that it needs to be maintained; like a pet or a garden. If it goes unkempt or forgotten, even for a short while… its death is pretty imminent.
I recently re-discovered this old blog, to find that it was so out of date, I wouldn’t even know where to begin on the next entry; almost made me want to scrap it and start all over again but that just felt like a waste of words. So how do you begin a story that actually takes place over seven months without boring the life out of the reader or yourself?
I was nearing an entire year of nothing other than a couple of unsteady shifts, frustrations, arguments and boredom that was only held together by video games, a couple of faithful friends and the hope that things would soon improve. I had finally had enough, the fear that this cycle would continue on for another year was far too great to just sit back and watch it happen. So long story short, I signed a contract, packed my bags and left the country; trying my hardest not to look back. The flight took me back to a country I hadn’t visited since the day I left in 1995 (I think that’s when I left at least), Australia. Those few weeks were great and almost tempted me to never leave.
I have been thinking for days, trying to find the right way to word my time in Australia. The problem is Australia was nice, the people were nice, the weather was nice, my family and friends were nice, the food was nice; hardly going to make the most exciting read really. I had a great time out there, I wasn’t a tourist, I didn’t do tourist things, I was at home meeting family and seeing a different life that kind of motivated me to work towards a goal that I didn’t even know I wanted until then. So I guess I’ll leave it at that; Australia was nice for a lack of a better word or thesaurus.
Onto another plane and over to Taipei, which had very little to offer me other than a night of being delusional in a motel room and waking up sitting in a bath with a cup of green tea and a diary entry next to me at about 4am very confused. Nothing to tempt me to stay any longer, next plane, next stop South Korea.
I arrived only to be stopped by sniffer dogs; I laughed, thinking it was because I had been carrying brie in my bag, after a quick explanation the security guard laughed and let me go… in hindsight; I realise I was using my brothers old backpack which might have been the cause of attention. I was re-united with Andy, hopped on a bus to Jeonju and, well, everything between then and now is a bunch of short stories; anecdotes and a lot of boring work related moments.
So long story short, here I am, teaching English in the city of Jeonju of South Korea. I live in a small apartment with my boyfriend Andy; I go to work and teach children English (to the ones who listen at least) and live a slightly more exciting life than the one I was living when I had all the time in the world to maintain a blog.
Images: © Leora Bermeister
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