Back in the ROK!

After a six month break in America, I have returned to South Korea. I started life as an active duty Army officer, and trained at Ft. Benning and Ft. Sam Houston. I expected to feel different emotions when I arrived at the airport, something between triumph and a sense of destiny. After a 14 hour flight, I was just glad to be off the plane.

At the luggage carousel I discovered that Korean Air had lost my luggage. As I waited outside customs for the military bus to come and take me and the other soldiers to the base in Seoul, I noticed I didn't have that new surrounding anxiety I had the year before. I also didn't have as much hair, or my luggage... but I already mentioned that.

We've been restricted to military bases since our arrival, so outside of the Korean employees on the base, who speak English, there hasn't been much Korean culture to interact with. I doubted that the woman who gave us our two hour Korean culture and language brief was even Korean. I'm itching for samgyeopsal, also known as Korean bacon, Korean bbq, or three layer pig fat.

But other things remind me I'm in Korea. In America, I really missed being able to look out at the mountains. Texas and the Boston suburbs = pretty flat. Classic Korean geography - mountains and stretches of flat farm land, interrupted by high rise apartments - surrounds our base. To me, this is an AMERICAN base in Korea. To the soldiers who don't know anything about Korea, this is an American base in KOREA!

Like the mountains, nothing is immediate in Korea. Every relationship I had over here - with my school, host family, Korean food - was developed over time. This is where I wanted to be and I'm thankful I'm here. I have to realize that even though I'm very familiar with the country, it's going to take time to develop a relationship with the country as a soldier, not an English teacher. I've had plenty of time to study, and the large amounts of Korean language I forgot is coming back. My lost luggage is now back, and I'm back in the mountains.