So much has changed since I started ignoring this blog at the beginning of our travels.
It certainly hasn't been because of the lack of things to say. More the opposite.
But the internet connections in Malaysia were not stellar, especially on the islands and now that we're in Australia, we've simply been spending time eating and drinking and enjoy the company of English-speakers that I haven't really had a good chunk of time to sit down and have some verbal diahorrea on this thing.
I think I'm also now in a better place to properly reflect on my time in Korea, one which I do not regret and have come to look back on as a wonderfully wacky and weird experience. Part of me feels like I've gone to the moon and back, that this entire year I've been so disconnected with so many things that everything is new to me.
Take for example, pop culture. I had NO IDEA Christine Aguleria had a new CD out OR that she was pregnant and just hiding it. Ditto that on Nicole Richie! Last I heard she was puking her guts out trying to convince the world that she was NOT anorexic.
There is also food. Do you know how much food you forget exists? Beets. One of my favourite side dishes. And I TOTALLY forgot about them. GREEN BEANS. What goes better with a steak than GREEN BEANS? Those too. Dropped out of the data box in my brain.
And who can forget the VARIETIES of wine? Or sitting down for dinner and knowing that everything on the menu, is ACTUALLY available?
And in remembering and experiencing all these things over the last 5 weeks has actually shown me how far I've come. How well I did (yes, I'll just pat my own back) living somewhere else on the planet that does so many things just do differently than what I'm used to.
And then all the problems that I THOUGHT were a big deal back in Western-land aren't really that big. Because I can turn on the TV and have hundreds of channels to unwind to instead of 2.
And I can walk into a grocery store and find granola bars and green beans and asparagus and 5 different kinds of apples.
I can find a bookstore about 10 minutes from where I am that has more books then I could possibly peruse in a 3 hour session.
I can even find clothes that fit me. MANY MANY shops with clothes that fit me. Thank god my backpack is too small for them or we'd be out of money by now.
And I'm also very aware, that one day I will be cursing the fact that I can't eat a meal for 5 bucks, can't relax in a sauna for hours on end for 4 bucks, can't hire my OWN PRIVATE KARAOKE ROOM for a mere $15 per hour, can't hike up a mountain behind my house and use the free gym facilities available.
Just not today.
It certainly hasn't been because of the lack of things to say. More the opposite.
But the internet connections in Malaysia were not stellar, especially on the islands and now that we're in Australia, we've simply been spending time eating and drinking and enjoy the company of English-speakers that I haven't really had a good chunk of time to sit down and have some verbal diahorrea on this thing.
I think I'm also now in a better place to properly reflect on my time in Korea, one which I do not regret and have come to look back on as a wonderfully wacky and weird experience. Part of me feels like I've gone to the moon and back, that this entire year I've been so disconnected with so many things that everything is new to me.
Take for example, pop culture. I had NO IDEA Christine Aguleria had a new CD out OR that she was pregnant and just hiding it. Ditto that on Nicole Richie! Last I heard she was puking her guts out trying to convince the world that she was NOT anorexic.
There is also food. Do you know how much food you forget exists? Beets. One of my favourite side dishes. And I TOTALLY forgot about them. GREEN BEANS. What goes better with a steak than GREEN BEANS? Those too. Dropped out of the data box in my brain.
And who can forget the VARIETIES of wine? Or sitting down for dinner and knowing that everything on the menu, is ACTUALLY available?
And in remembering and experiencing all these things over the last 5 weeks has actually shown me how far I've come. How well I did (yes, I'll just pat my own back) living somewhere else on the planet that does so many things just do differently than what I'm used to.
And then all the problems that I THOUGHT were a big deal back in Western-land aren't really that big. Because I can turn on the TV and have hundreds of channels to unwind to instead of 2.
And I can walk into a grocery store and find granola bars and green beans and asparagus and 5 different kinds of apples.
I can find a bookstore about 10 minutes from where I am that has more books then I could possibly peruse in a 3 hour session.
I can even find clothes that fit me. MANY MANY shops with clothes that fit me. Thank god my backpack is too small for them or we'd be out of money by now.
And I'm also very aware, that one day I will be cursing the fact that I can't eat a meal for 5 bucks, can't relax in a sauna for hours on end for 4 bucks, can't hire my OWN PRIVATE KARAOKE ROOM for a mere $15 per hour, can't hike up a mountain behind my house and use the free gym facilities available.
Just not today.
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