A Light at the End

April 10 will mark 8-months since my arrival in Korea.  As my previous posts have alluded to, Korea has not been the adventure I had hoped.  I am continuously looking towards the future, not my future in Korea but my future after Korea.  I know I should enjoy the time here and live in the “now” but I cannot help but yearn for my plans that will begin September 2014.

I don’t feel much fulfillment here.  I am at work 40 hours a week but I only teach 22 of those hours.  The rest of those “work” hours are spent sitting at a desk in front of a computer screen.  Of course there is some lesson planning but I only have to create one lesson a week.  I try to occupy my extra time by taking free online courses and reading but sometimes the internet connection sucks (thus, no online courses) and I cannot help feeling unfulfilled as I waste time looking through endless pages of pointless shit on the internet.  I don’t want to spend the majority of my daytime indoors, on a computer, checking my email or facebook for the umpteenth time.    I am 25 years old!  I want to be outside exploring the world!

The good news is that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  After another 17 months here in Korea, I will have plenty of money to last for years of cheap travel!  So patience, Elaine, have patience. 

So what will come next?

I spend lots of time running through all of the possibilities for travel when I am finished in Korea.  The most desired plan is cycling.  The very tentative plans (so tentative that I shouldn’t even write them here) for the coming years look like this:

September 2014-February 2015—Travel somewhere cheaply, like a dollar a day cheap.  Southeast Asia?  The stans (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, etc)?  Road trip the USA with my little brother? 

March-May 2015—Spend quality time with family in South Africa.

June-August 2015—Spend quality time with family in the USA.

September-December 2015—Start cycling from Chicago towards Mexico and make it there before January.

January-December 2016—Take in the beauty that is Central and South America via bicycle.

January-December 2017—Take in the beauty that is Africa via bicycle.

All of this is so far in the future but I cannot help to think this far, it keeps me focused on completing these two years in Korea.  The light at the end of the tunnel.