This Blog

I’m heading up north tomorrow morning spending some time in the Seoul/Incheon area before catching a flight home to Sydney for two weeks over the Christmas/New Year’s period. Since I won’t be taking my laptop, I’ll probably be busy seeing friends and family and traveling, and seeing as Australia Internet connection speeds are at least five years behind Korean Internet connection speeds (and that’s being generous to Australia), I probably won’t be blogging between now and the new year.

So, I hope everyone out there has a happy, safe and enjoyable festive season. I’m glad to have finished off my work year this afternoon and am looking forward to some downtime back home with my friends and family in the Australian sun.

I always try to get back home once a year if I can – preferably at this time of year – as deep down I’m family person who loves spending time with my family and people I know best and have known all my life. It’s always good to get away back home and recharge the batteries, get some space to reflect on the past year and see things though a clearer perception away from all the pressures and stresses you sometimes experience in a vastly different culture to your own.

I often face the trip back home with a bit of anxiety and trepiditon. It’s nothing to do with my family or Australia, it’s mainly to do with the symptoms of reverse cultural shock. I always find it difficult to adjust back to the sheer casualness and laidback approach to life in Australia – even in big city Sydney – compared with the high tension, hustle-bustle, uber-competitiveness of Korea. These days when I get back home for the first few days at least I walk different, sound different, dress different and act different than the average Australian. People often think I’m either a tourist, a foreigner, or a freak and give me a wide berth. Then, they get to know me and realise that I am indeed a freak! Once I get adjusted back to Australian life I calm down again and everything is sweet, just that by then it’s time to head back to Korea!

Anyways, I’m looking to some sun, sand, surf, real sandwiches, cheese, meat pies, roast lamb, real steak, real beer and no kimchi. Hope you all have a good festive season wherever you are and I’ll be back in 2010, if not sooner!

Cheers~!