Hello my wonderful friends and followers

There has been a bit of a hiatus in my blogging and there is good reason for that. You see, I am no longer in Korea. I have returned to the homeland that is South Africa and will be residing here once more for at least the next two years (I am dreading the itch that I believe should start sometime after 6 months of being home - the itch to leave Cape Town having already set in.) In any case, I thought that I would finish off my Korea blog with this copy of my final mass e-mail detailing my last few weeks in Korea. Some of you may have read it from my facebook account, but for those of you who didn't, here it is.

Greetings one last time family and friends.

I didn't think it would be right to end off my year in Korea without one final e-mail detailing the happenings of the last two weeks of my time there. And so, here I am, sitting comfortably in my Cape Town home and writing about my final two weeks in Kimchi-land.
The countdown of my final days in Korea started a few months ago, but it only started feeling real about two weeks ago when I had some of the girls over to rummage through my things. The intention was to give away a large amount of the clothing and appliances that I had accumulated over the year, but it turned out that was everyone else's plan as well, and I ended up taking one or two items without really getting rid of very much.
The next week was a fairly relaxing one. I didn't have to go in to work, and spent my days visiting friends and starting to pack up my apartment. Day by day my time in Korea was drawing to a close and I kept finding more and more things that needed to be done, from packing my suitcases to sending off boxes to paying my final bills and more. By the time my last weekend rolled around, I was on my last legs, but as my friends keep telling me – there'll be time for sleeping when we die. And so, my last weekend in Korea commenced.

I had decided weeks before that a single party to say goodbye to everyone just would not do, since there were so many people to say goodbye to and I wanted to give the friends that I had made over the last year more than just a passing “Hi and bye” as I ran off to the next group. Instead, I decided to do dinners throughout my last week so that I could indulge in all of my favourite Korean foods and get a chance to say some proper farewells. After the first farewell dinner, we all headed over to Buzz bar where a night of partying commenced. It was a very emotional evening as it was the last time that I would see many people and everyone was on the verge of tears. In fact, everyone got rather teary-eyed at one point or another during the night as confessions of love and trust were thrown around and promises of visits were made. At some point after midnight, everyone made their way to a noraebang (singing room) where we all sang our hearts out and we left shortly before the sun started coming up.

A full day was ahead of me on Saturday as I started recalibrating my list and crossing off things that I had accomplished over the past week. Which wasn't very much. I made my way to Chungdae earlier than usual and sat down with a large group of my friends to a kalmegi feast that involved side dishes of soups, eggs, kimchi and more before heading off to quiz. I wasn't participating this time around as I had asked to make a round since it would be my last quiz – my round was on movie, song and book titles that contained the word “last” (e.g. Last of the Mohicans or Last Christmas).

The rest of the week passed by in a flurry of lunches, dinners and goodbyes with a wedge of school desk-warming stuck in the middle. I had to go to school on Tuesday to pack up my desk, but was grateful to find that I was allowed to leave after lunchtime. I had to come in again on Thursday, but it was only a brief visit to hand out the gifts that I had bought for my co-teachers and to go to lunch with one of the other teachers in the school who expressed her regret that she hadn't been able to talk to me throughout the year. After lunch, I made my way to the bank, phone shop and internet shop to close all of my accounts and then went back home to finish the packing that I had barely started.

I woke up early on Friday and the day started with a final goodbye breakfast at Amy's apartment which, both fortunately and unfortunately, had to be a quick one as she had to go to school. It was fortunate, as I still had a ton of things to do including some final packing and a lot of cleaning, but it was unfortunate as it meant only having a rushed goodbye with one of my best friends in the country. By the time we parted ways, we were both bawling and it was a rather embarrassing walk back to my apartment with everyone staring at me as though I was truly starkers (as in raving mad). I did a little more packing over the next few hours before having to meet up with Jess for our final goodbye lunch (at which more tears were shed) and by the time I got back to my apartment, I didn't have very much time to finish everything up. My replacement was moving in on Saturday and everything had to be spick and span for her arrival. So there was a ton of wiping, washing, sweeping, vacuuming and sorting to do and only a few hours to do it in. My co-teachers were coming to pick me up at 4:30 for a compulsory staff dinner and everything had to be finished by the time they arrived. By 4pm, almost everything was done and dusted and I was taking some time to relax before packing the final bits and bobs away when the doorbell rang.
My co-teachers must be early, I thought, opening up the door.
They were as it turned out, but that wasn't the only surprise. They had brought the new tenant with them along with the double bed that needed to be put together in the room. And so, the few minutes that I had intended for relaxation ended up being spent showing her around my apartment and teaching her how to use things like the cable and how to turn on the heat while a man bustled around my apartment trying to piece the bed together and my co-teachers stood outside watching the scene. After half an hour, I was told that it was without a doubt time to go and I tried to locate the last of my belongings in the chaos that had become my apartment before saying goodbye to it and making my way to the staff dinner.
After an hour and a half of speeches that were entirely in Korean, no food and about two dozen attempts at stifling my yawning, it was time to head to the bus terminal to catch a bus heading for Incheon, where I would be spending my last night in Korea in order to get to the airport on time come Saturday morning. About five minutes into the drive (to the bus terminal, not to Incheon), I realised that I had left a crucial component of my computer behind, and I had to go back to my apartment to fetch it. We might have still made it to the terminal on time if my co-teacher hadn't had to stop for petrol, but there was no helping it – I missed my bus and had to wait an extra hour and a half to catch the next one.

Fifteen minutes before it was supposed to arrive, I was patiently waiting for the bus in the parking lot. Twenty minutes later, when it still hadn't arrived, I started feeling a bit worried.
What if the bus had left me behind?
What if it had been cancelled?
With each bus that came and left without me on it, my tensions rose. Of course, after a year of arriving on time, this would be the day when the bus would be delayed. Thankfully, it wasn't delayed too long and by 9pm (only half an hour later than expected), I was on my way.

I arrived in Gimpo just after 11pm and started making my way to the subway station. On my way there the handle of my hand-luggage broke and I was left trying to awkwardly carry that along with my laptop bag, camera bag, giant handbag filled with goodies and dragging my 22.5kg bag along behind me. I was making my way along, obviously struggling, when a woman approached me and offered to carry my bag for me. As I was worn out by this point, I gratefully accepted and we started walking. A short while later we came across her boyfriend. He grabbed some of my other bags and together we made our way onto the subway towards Incheon. After a few moments of silence, the man turned to face me.
“Where are you staying?”
“Here,” I said, quickly digging into my bag and pulling out the address of my hotel on in Korean along with a phone number. He took out his phone in turn and I watched as he dialled the number and started spewing out incomprehensible Korean. After a few minutes, he hung up and turned to look at me. He opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it and took out his cellphone once again, A few moments later he handed it to me and motioned that the call was for me.
“Hello,” I said uncertainly, not having the faintest clue who this could be.
“Hi!” The man on the other end sounded friendly. “The man you are sitting with? He is my brother.”
I looked at my new companions and their concerned faces and smiled at them, attempting to be reassuring even though I had no idea what was going on.
“The hotel says you must take a taxi. But my brother wants to take you to your hotel. Is that okay?”
“Uh...”
“Is that okay?”
“Sure...” I look at the two of them and smile and nod as though this makes perfect sense even though I have just realised that I may be putting myself into a huge amount of danger. The man on the other end of the line hangs up and I hand the cellphone back to his brother. At the next stop, we all get off with the two of them carrying most of my stuff and we make our way to a street corner where the man goes to find his car. I was suddenly extremely nervous and had decided to make my way back to the subway station alone when the car rode up next to us and the man climbed out and started putting my stuff into the boot and back seat.
“You know where the hotel is?”
“Uh huh.”
“You are sure?”
“Mmmhmmm.”
“My friends are waiting for me there.”
“Yes.”
I climbed into the car, not quite knowing what else to do – they had all of my stuff, so I couldn't make a run for it – and before long we were driving along the highway in the direction of the airport. Ten minutes, I decided. If we hadn't arrived at the hotel in ten minutes, then I was going to make a run for it. Five minutes later, we pulled up on a sidewalk, and, low-and-behold, there was my hotel! They carried my bags in, gave me big hugs to say goodbye and good luck and were on their way, leaving me absolutely gobsmacked at Korean hospitality.

Saturday morning dawned and I made our way to the airport, dragged down by my luggage. I arrived there and immediately made my way to the check in counters to stand in the steadily lengthening queue.
After a short wait it was my turn.
The woman took one look at my Alien Registration Card and informed me that I needed to report to Immigration immediately, as the card had expired three days earlier.
I found immigration without too much problem and was informed that I had overstayed my welcome.
But, since I was leaving in any case, it wasn't too much of a problem.
All I had to do was show her my ticket.
Which I hadn't been given.
Back to the check-in counter I went and was given my printed ticket to give to immigration.
Back to immigration to show them the ticket and get a stamp in my passport and then I could return to check-in to confirm that everything had been sorted out.
Phew... what a relief, I thought.
Now I could head through security and relax for a short while before boarding my flight. Off I went to the security clearance.
“Excuse me, mam.”
Oh no.
“Yes?”
“Can you please place your bags on the scale?”
“Sure.”
Hand luggage - 9kgs, a little over the allowance.
“And the next one.”
“But... the website said that they wouldn't be weighed!”
“On the scale, please.”
“But...”
“On the scale.”
Hand luggage + Handbag – 15kgs.
“Please go to the check-in counter. They will tell you what to do.”
Back to the check-in counter I went, and they were not impressed to see me. By this point, I was on the verge of tears with the idea of missing my flight looming in the fore of my mind. After a few moments of arguing with one of the flight attendants, he decided that dealing with me wasn't worth the extra few kilos and sent me through security with an dismissive wave of his hand.
Through security I went without any more trouble and made my way to the boarding gate where I had about five minutes to breathe before we were being instructed to board the plane. Into the line I went and came very close to getting through without issue until, moments after I had walked through the door, I was called back.
“I think you should check that,” he said, pointing at my hand-luggage.”
“But...”
“Oh, don't worry,” he reassured me. “No charge. Just for security.”
And so my hand-luggage was labelled and sent off to Cape Town and I was left 9kgs lighter and a great deal happier.
Onto the plane I climbed and found my seat, where I settled in quickly and was dozing within minutes. That is until the person in front of me sat down.

My impression of him was negative from the start when the first thing he did upon reaching cruising altitude was to put his seat back as far as it would go, right on top of me.
It didn't get any better.
“Excuse me, sir. What would you like to drink?” I was patiently awaiting my turn.
“Pepsi.” The flight attendant starts pouring it. “Actually, Seven Up.” He throws the half-poured drink out and starts pouring a new one. “Actually, Pepsi.” A new drink is drawn. “No, Seven Up.” Finally his mind is made up and the flight attendant starts heading towards us.
“Sorry, can I have some food?”
“Sir, can I get to the other passengers first?”
“Just a roll?”
“Let me serve everyone else and I'll get back to you.”
Now it is our turn and I eat my meal and start settling down again. I am on the verge of sleep when I hear: “Excuse me?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Why is there no B?”
I open my eyes and see my confused face mirrored on another flight attendant's.
“Excuse me?”
“Why is there no B? The seats just go A to C. Why no B?” I roll my eyes at the question. How is she supposed to know? She says exactly this and goes on her way, and I try to settle down once again, but within minutes, he is asking the same question to another flight attendant. By the end of the flight, he had asked the question about five times and received exactly the same answer each time.
And then, most frustratingly of all, as we were coming to land, he calls one of the attendants over to take a photo of him and the person sitting next to him. Which wouldn't have been so much of a problem if it had been one photo, but he kept insisting that they weren't good enough and so I had a flash going off in my face every few seconds.

I had nine hours to kill in Kuala Lumpur which I spent saying goodbye to some friends who had been on my flight and spending time chatting to some of the Saffas who I knew were going to be on my next one. Time ticked by really slowly, but it was finally time to board for the flight to Cape Town and, an uneventful eleven-and-a-half hours later, we were touching down and I was finally home!! If there was any doubt that I was back home, it was qualmed as soon as I tried to change my foreign currency and had to wait in a line for half an hour only to be told that they didn't take my denominations. It was further confirmed when I arrived home to find that the internet was dead – it has been since Wednesday and still is as I am writing this.

And so my Korean sojourn has come to a close. It has been a good year, and I hope that you have enjoyed sharing it with me. Hopefully I will be seeing all of you very very soon!