End of Month Two: Goodbye, Suwon

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Jul 30, 2017 · 5 min read

Yes, you read that correctly. I moved to Anyang.


My school announced to me at the end of June that they were going to transfer me to a different campus in about a month and my flexibility was appreciated. I nodded and said it was okay because I don’t like to cause hassle.

However, after telling Anton and him asking a few questions, I started to feel less sure about moving. After all, I had just settled in to life in Suwon. They seem like simple things, but knowing how to buy trash bags, pay the bills, get to work, and other daily mundane things actually makes it much nicer to live somewhere. I was dreading knowing nothing again.

Typical route I took to walk to work

At work, I was actually learning students’ names in my elementary classes. The students seemed to be adjusting to me. Some of my classes were particularly great and participated in the classroom much better than they did when I started teaching them. It seemed a shame to let that go to waste. The middle school students didn’t know me particularly well though because I only had one or two lessons with them before they went into a testing period at school and didn’t have lessons with native teachers. They spent the testing time prepping hard with the Korean teachers.

Speaking of the Korean teachers, I was only starting to get to know them. I didn’t even know half of their names. Leaving so soon meant that I never got to know them and I was only a fleeting face around the school. I would hate for them to think I didn’t care about them.

Alternate route to work through a nice park

I was really used to the other native teachers in the office though. They were nice familiar faces to see and talk to every day. Knowing I had to move made me stressed to leave these new friends. I emailed the HR director to ask if I definitively had to move because I realized it would be a lot nicer to stay, and the response was a yes. I had to start thinking positively about the move. Realistically, I had only known my Suwon life for a total of two months. If I could adjust to life there, I can adjust to life in Anyang.

Last ditch efforts to see Suwon things while they were still convenient

Even though I hadn’t managed to explore much of Suwon, I can always go back. Before I left, I made an effort to walk around the Hwaseong Fortress because it’s the main attraction in Suwon. It’s even a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The fortress itself was too much for me to completely walk around in one afternoon, so I decided to follow one route straight through the middle. The bits of it that I saw seemed much like a standard tourist attraction. It might be worth it to go back and buy tickets to see the inside of buildings.

Some cute things I saw at the bike village; a shot more in the fortress tourist area

My last day of work was oddly ordinary. I guess we expect endings to be special, but, in reality, it is just another day.

First and last lunch in the area by work

The moving hassles were not as large as I had imagined. I packed over the course of a few hours the evening of the 19th and the morning of the 20th. HR arranged for a small moving truck to cart my items over to my new apartment. I heaved everything downstairs on my own with a few trips up and down the elevator. I felt a bit sad looking at the Royal Palace doors for the last time. The driver didn’t speak much English, but he very kindly helped me carry all my items to my apartment before he left.

All packed; goodbye old apartment, hello new apartment

The new apartment is significantly bigger than the one I had in Suwon, but it’s not as clean or well maintained. It was a surprise to arrive to no desk or chair. It was evident that the school had just acquired the apartment into their collection of teacher apartments. In that respect it was kind of nice because I knew that the desk and chair were new for me. The internet wasn’t installed until later, so it was a rough couple of days.

Since I moved, I am thinking that I might need to update the address for the bank account I just opened a couple weeks ago. The HR department took my passport and ARC to update the address on the back of that.

I have been exploring the emart across the street. At first it was very confusing because it’s designed to go down into the shopping areas. I am very used to going up into more shopping floors. My first impression was that I missed Homeplus, but I will get over it. Change is always so hard to get used to.

New typical for walking to and from work

With some time, I will set up a new routine and things will feel normal. I have learned that jumping into things and making effort to notice the positives of a new place really help. Making a physical list of the positives was one of the first things I did. I am determined to look on the bright side because I know I struggle with positivity. The comparisons to Suwon and the negatives inevitably happened in my mind, but I did not write those down and am working to fix things that I can. For me, cleaning really helps.

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traveling, teaching, struggling; just my life happenings

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