It’s now been about one year since I arrived in Fulda, Germany to pursue a master’s degree in intercultural communication. This also means it’s been about one year since I left Ulsan, South Korea, where I taught English for two years. Accordingly, it has been quite the year of transition.
After every experience abroad I find that I always need some time to take a step back and process all that I’ve been through. This sort of reflection is really quite critical after any sort of life transition, as it allows one to distill my experiences and draw lessons from them. What made that time great? What made it not so great? What could I have done better? What shouldn’t I have done?
Moving directly from South Korea to Germany threw a bit of a wrench in this process. Instead of this time for rumination, I found myself in that all-too-familiar arrival scramble; the one where you have to constantly put yourself out there to build a new social circle and develop a healthy routine at the same time. Because of this, I don’t think I was really able to start adequately reflecting on my experience in Korea until sometime late last summer.
Resultingly, I often find myself now caught between two thoughts: Have I been living in Germany for one year? Or has it been one year since I left Korea? Yes, and yes. If I focus too much on one, I end up neglecting the other. I don’t want to be captive to my life in Korea forever, like that dude at a party who wants everyone to know HOW AMAZING some experience was, even though it has little relevance to anyone else. At the same time, though, I don’t want to seal off those two years of my life and pack them away on some shelf in the back of my mind, never to be looked at again. There was a lot of growth and lessons learned in those years (and some truly great memories) that will always be of use to me, and probably other people, too. But I live in Germany right now, and previous time abroad has taught that to get the most out of this current experience, I have to invest my whole body and mind in my current location.
I don’t regret moving directly from one foreign country to another – that’s been a life lesson in itself – but, it has left me feeling pulled between these two places for the past 12 months. Maybe if I’d had some buffer time at home between them, I’d have arrived here last year 100 percent ready to focus on where I’m at. Instead, I feel that this past year has been characterized by trying to integrate into a new society whilst struggling to process what made those two years in Korea so great. Easier said than done.
Well, at least now I have the time to do both.
Hope y’all are stayin’ healthy.
Much love,
ryry
