As some of you might know from my previous posts, I decided to take a vacation to Thailand after completing my teaching contract in Korea before heading back home to the states. As I was packing to move out of my apartment for the next teacher to move in, I was preparing for this trip at the same time and realized that the timing of this trip had made things much more difficult.

If you have never done it, I can tell you from experience, that moving out of your home while packing for a vacation makes a person very stressed and nothing ever feels organized or completely finished. In the end, it was decided that I would leave my larger suitcases at a friend’s apartment, and after returning to Korea from Thailand, unpack, repack, and travel once again, this time a short trip to Busan with all my luggage, and then on to the U.S.. Of course, all of this is being done without my own apartment. So as I write this, I am currently homeless.

It was a strange feeling, moving completely out of my apartment a week and a half ago, because I knew that even though I was leaving Korea, I would be back very soon. But it was nice to be able to say some goodbyes early and save some for later.

There were a few reasons behind me taking this final vacation before leaving Korea for good. First, it is much cheaper to travel East Asia while living in Korea, not to mention the flights are much shorter. But the main reason why I took this trip was to meet a friend of mine there. I met this friend the very first semester I taught in Korea. She was one of our co-teachers, and was one of the first friends I made here. But then she told me she was moving to New Zealand for a working holiday, 2 months after we met. So we kept in contact for the following 8 months, and made plans to meet again!

So my friend and I met in Thailand and it was if not even a month had gone by since we had last seen each other. Then we spent a wonderful 10 days traveling the country together, which you can read about here and here.

At the end of our trip, we were both planning on returning to Korea, but we had different flights. So we went to the airport together, parted ways to check in, and met again at our gates. And then the final moment came where we walked away from each other, continuously waving, with the promise to meet again someday, even though we would now live across the world from each other.

While I would highly suggest moving to a new country, or even just traveling to different countries to experience new cultures, one difficult thing is that when you make friends, once you leave, you never know when or if you will see each other again. But if we managed Thailand after 8 months, I believe that even more will be possible.

Now a stage of my life has ended and I am returning home to begin a new one. Who knows where this one will take me? Thank you for staying with me on this year long journey. Stay safe, and stay happy.