So when I first arrived here, I made a bucket list of all the things that I wanted to get up to in Korea. And with time now running out (15 days!) I thought that would be a good time to revisit that list now and see what I managed to do and what I failed at.
- Visit Jeju-do. The idea was that, since I had put Jeju-do down as my first choice of location, I should have at least visited the island. Unfortunately, that just never worked out the way that I had hoped. I wanted to visit it when Grant was here to make his trip special, but by the time we got around to booking his flights, there were no flights to the island and no accomodation that could be booked online. Though we could have risked it and seen what we could find when we got there, I didn't want to take any chances. By the time he left, the seasons were changing and the idea of going to a tropical island in Autumn with the cold weather was just not as appealing. So sadly, this dream never came to fruition.
- Go to at least one city in every province. My Jeju failure already ruled this out as a possibility, however Jeju was not the only province that I didn't end up visiting. So out of the nine provinces, I ended up visiting seven.
Gyeonggi-do: I visited Icheon, Incheon, Osan, Seoul and Seongnam.
Gangwon-do: I visited Chuncheon and Wonju.
Chungcheongnam-do: I visited Daejeon and Boryeong.
Chungcheongbuk-do: I live in Cheongju and visited Chungju.
Gyeongsangbuk-do: I visited Mungyeong (and am totally counting this even though I was only on the border - the six hours it took me to hike up and down are counting dammit!)
Gyeongsandnam-do: I visited Busan and Tongyeong.
Jeollabuk-do: Sadly not even a border visit here.
Jeollanam-do: I visited Gwangju and Muan.
Jeju-do: See above. - Have a conversation with a taxi-driver in Korean. The idea behind this one was that a taxi-driver would be more open to having a conversation in Korean with me than anyone else. Though I have not yet managed to have a decent conversation with one in Korean, I have managed to have some conversations that involved my broken Korean and their broken English combining to allow for an understanding. I think this is a partial success, and I don't really think I could have expected more from my limited time here.
- Earn some money. So, as I said before, my trip to Korea was not intended to be a saving one. I came here to travel and to have fun. But, as I also said before, I also wanted to leave with a small amount of savings. I think that it is safe to say that I am going to be leaving with a very small amount saved - the small amount being my last pay check, my severance pay and my exit allowance. I have been terrible about saving money, to be honest, but I blame a lot of that on the purchases of laptops, cameras, Thai holidays and a return ticket to South Africa for Grant. So, overall I think the fact that I managed to keep any money without going into debt (I do still owe my father R7000 after all, and that amount is not being included in my savings) is a success.
- Learn to play the guitar. A couple of weeks ago, I would have written this off as a fail. I hadn't picked up my guitar in months. And then, I decided to see how much I remembered and found that (though I am still struggling to hold the strings down a little) I have remembered most of the chords that I learned and still have the strumming down. I could also recall some songs from memory and managed to tune the guitar all by myself, which I was particularly proud of. I am taking this as a success even though I still need to do some work on it, and I'm looking forward to coming home and practicing some more on Cherie's guitar.
- Write mass e-mails on a regular basis. Though I have not been posting them anywhere, I have succeeded in writing mass e-mails on a fortnightly basis. There have been a few slip ups where I have written after three weeks rather than two, but I have written 36 e-mails over the course of the year, and I think that definitely makes this a success.
- Write. I am a journalist through and through. There is no denying it for me. And my favourite form of journalism has always been writing. So, when I came to Korea, I made a resolution to write. A lot. E-mails, blogs, book reviews, short stories, articles, whatever I could think of, I was going to write it. And I did. Not only did I manage to keep three blogs going (though the third was a bit of a fail as I do not update it as often as I should), but I also wrote a number of short stories, got an article published and managed to start writing two different books that I hope to further and finish at some point in my lifetime (I have this really bad habit of starting to write books and never finishing them.) I am counting this as a success, thank you very much.
- Make a Korean friend. I am pleased to say that this aim has definitely been achieved. Though I won't go namedropping, I have made a few Korean friends over the time that I have been here. Though I wouldn't say that any of them are best friends, they are certainly people that I would call up to have a drink with after a rough day, and that's just what I wanted out of the exactly what I wanted out of the experience - someone that I feel comfortable talking to and look forward to hanging out with.
- Hike. I did do a little it of hiking, but not as much as I would have liked. I missioned up Mungyeong Saejae and I braved Sandang Sangseong, but I still feel like this aim hasn't been as much of a success as I would have liked. So I am only counting this one as a partial success.
- Take pictures. Okay. I don't think anyone could deny that this was a success. I have taken a ridiculous number of photos, especially since acquiring my baby. My obsession with taken photos has moved beyond a hobby, and at the moment I am considering making some money from it. So look out world! Here comes Lara the photographer!!!
- Go somewhere else in Asia. My Thai trip solidifies this aim as a success, and though I would have loved to travel some more in Asia (China was supposed to have been on the cards), money and time just wouldn't allow it. I do still have a 9-hour stop-over in Kuala Lampur to experience (which I am totally going to count as going somewhere else in Asia) and the idea of doing an Eat, Pray, Love-esque trip with Jess is still in the back of my mind for about ten years in the future.
- Find a Dr Fish. This also came very close to being a fail, but thanks to Jess, Shaina and Geri, we managed to make it a success by taking a trip to Osan last weekend and experiencing the fishy goodness for ourselves. Joy!
And that is the run down of my bucket list. I am feeling pretty good about it - 8 successes, 2 partial successes and only 2 failures. With only 15 days left, I doubt that I am going to manage much more than I already have (a trip to Jeju-do is certainly out of the question), and so I feel safe to say that this is the summation of my bucket list. I quite enjoyed having aims to live up to though, and am thinking of making a number of different bucket lists - photography, yearly and lifelong. Look out for them!
wow, you have done quite a lot even though you did not manage to complete the list. I strongly believe in making lists in order to reach goals - they really work and keep your life meaningful. When you look back your life you will see all the amazing things that you have been through. And you have certainly done amazing things :D