A Comfortable Place

               Coming to Korea, I knew this year would be one out of my comfort zone. I guess I have also made some sort of subconscious decision to push myself to the limit and stretch myself sort of like Gumbi …. as if living in a new country with a different culture, in a new family, and taking on a role as teacher wasn’t enough. I’ve pretty much decided to take those risks, break out of any shell I still had left over from college – in the end I’ll be a better person because of it.

                Within the first two weeks of school, I have already broken down the barriers I held in place against dancing and singing. I didn’t even make it through the introduction part of my class before I had to break down my “no-singing-in-front-of-people” policy. I had been introducing myself and my state to every class which included a Youtube video of Take me home country roads. Of course, one of the classes failed to have any sound or Powerpoint capabilities. This would be my luck. In my head I thought, “Oh, yea, I’ll just skip the whole song thing – no big deal.” WRONG. My co-teacher turns to me and says, “We sing. Together.” I had no time to freak out since he had already pulled out his invisible banjo and was humming the tune to my oh-so familiar West Virginia song. Before I knew it, I had successfully embarrassed myself and tortured my students. But my mind is at peace because they now know about the Mountain Momma in a place that’s “Almost Heaven.”

                 Not to mention, I also do not dance. Needless to say, this year will probably end with me dancing a performance in front of the entire school or something – if it keeps heading the way it’s going. To start off, during Orientation I signed up for a K-pop dance class intentionally knowing it would make me uncomfortable, but also intentionally knowing that it would push my limits. I ended up doing the B-boy portion (aka – break dancing). I LOVED IT! Although I can’t keep a beat with my body nor are my feet coordinated in any sort of way, apparently I had the upper body strength to do some of the crazy moves and holds, putting me in the center of our choreography. I never would have dreamed of that in my lifetime. If a B-boy class or K-pop club opens anywhere near Hwacheon, expect my name to be first on the list.

                Settling in my home stay family, I have discovered this pattern of exercise excursions that occur about three to four times a week. These outings initially begin with my younger sister 하영 (Ha-yong) asking me “운동 해요?” (aka – exercise). Not knowing what exactly I’m agree to, I’ll put my running shoes on, and out the door we go – I usually have no idea where we will end up.  Thus far our excursions have lead us anywhere to playing baseball/Frisbee/badminton in a parking lot, to biking at night time to the Fish Island (yes, Hwacheon has a Fish Island) to play baseball and soccer, to power walks along the river. My favorite time was our power walk by the river. Heading out the door that time, I knew exactly where we were going – on a nice stroll around the river walk. Nothing more, nothing less. Boy, was I wrong. Our lovely stroll ended up at the youth center where all of the women population of Hwacheon above thirty-five were participating in some sort of yogo/zumba/stretching/dance-mix to American music. Since I’m not one to miss out on an opportunity – and also the simple fact that I’m in breaking-down-the-barriers-mode – we all joined in. I had such a blast, making a fool of myself, uncoordinated and all, but it was quite an epic scene. I plan on going back, perhaps the next time we”운동 해요.”

                All in all, I am loving this subconscious decision I made to leap out of my comfort zones. Every day on my walk to school, I have a moment where I just hold my breath, close my eyes and embrace myself for the surprises that day will hold. These surprises are what make Korea the awesome country that it is, and these surprises are what keep me on my toes, looking forward to the day and stories to come.