One of the highlights for many foreign teachers in Korea is vacation time. Besides the public holidays that everyone gets off, most foreign teachers get an extended vacation in both the summer and winter period. EPIK is no different, with up to 8 days off in the summer and 10 days in the winter.
For most, this is an exciting time to explore other parts of Asia for a relatively cheap price tag. Locations like Thailand, Manila and Vietnam are some of the most popular vacations, and this year it seemed like nearly all the teachers in my program would be spending their vacation days overseas.
Originally, I was planning to make a vacation for myself on Jeju Island, located a few miles away from the Korean mainland. It sounded perfect at the time, in the summer Jeju was home to sandy beaches, the beautiful ocean and a tropical atmosphere that is unlike anything else in Korea. At the time, I thought that this would be a perfect vacation spot: close to Korea and yet still different enough to seem like I went somewhere different, it was the perfect spot to forget about life's little problems.
This plan soon fizzled out of existence when I looked at the price tag of the trip. When combined with the cost of tickets to fly over, lodging and transportation across the island, the final cost was well outside my price range, something that I was simply not able or wanting to spend. Maybe a few years earlier I wouldn't have cared, but with a job and bills to pay, it s amazing how much my mindset has changed.
Slightly distressed, I now had no plans for what would be my longest vacation until next year. It was obvious that I would be staying in Korea, a situation that didn't appeal to me. This was my chance to do something different, see somewhere new before I came to that point in my life where I no longer could see the things I wanted to, or go where I wanted to. I felt like I was setting myself up for time that would just be wasted in the end.
It gradually came to me that staying in Korea maybe wouldn't be as bad as I thought. I visited many places in Korea and saw many different things, but I have never seen Korea in a natural state. Whenever I had visited a city, or small village or festival, it was always under the pretense of a specific event or meeting someone. I had never seen Korea, nor its back alleys and off the path locations. I had never seen Korea just to observe, to soak in the culture, to travel with no destination in mind.
It occurred to me that I had been everywhere in Korea, and yet in the end I'd barely scratched the surface of what Korea was really like. I had seen the tourist Korea, the true Korea was still hidden.
My vacation was suddenly clear; I had to see Korea, as much as I could, as far off the path as possible. If I was going to be living here for a significant amount of time, I wanted to know the country better. I wanted to be participant in immersion, not just another tourist.
My vacation plan was simple and yet I was giddy with excitement to get started. My vacation consisted of one long journey, from one end of Korea to another, by train and bus, along oceans and highways. I planed on making my way through the country of Korea taking in as much as I could. There was no specific location, there was no specific plan. Get on a train and simply see where it took me.
Traveling like this, with no map or plans is one of the most satisfying ways to travel. Too much structure and rigid planning makes a trip seem too scripted and planned. You weren't really blessed with the freedom of exploration, you were simply following a list of locations with one more check mark to be made.
Maybe I'll come across an amazing temple, a bustling city. Maybe I'll find nothing but barren fields and mountains. Maybe I'll find a place to rest, maybe I'll be on the trail for days, lost without any idea where I am, or where I'm going.
Where I go and what happens, doesn't matter to me as long as the journey is mine, the decisions are mine, I can be satisfied. The joy of discovery, discovering someplace new is one of the most thrilling aspects to me, the need to explore and discover on my own pace is something that will probably never be scratched.
The journey is mine, along with the twists and turns.
"I am the master of my fate, the captain of my soul".
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