A New Chapter.

I left Hong Kong for Busan in the earliest hours of March 30. The irony behind this red-eye flight I was on was not lost on me. Watching the sun rise through the tiny, frosted airplane windows was the most clichéd way to start this new chapter in my life. I was leaving everything and everyone I knew behind for an entirely unfamiliar and foreign world. I had no previous knowledge of anything Korean - the culture, the customs, the history, the people, least of all the language - but I knew that this is what I wanted and that I was going to be okay. However, there was nothing that anyone could have told me that could have prepared me for what actually happens when you step out of the comfort of an airplane onto the tarmac of a completely foreign place…

To say I was overwhelmed would be the biggest understatement. It was in the Customs line, as I was being pushed around by hundreds of people who didn’t speak a familiar word, that I knew a breakdown was imminent. It was in the taxi ride to my hotel, driving past blurred signs I could not read, that I lost sight of everything I came for. It was during my expedition to find food, which proved much harder than I ever thought could be, that I began to question everything. It was during the most tiresome and difficult check in I’ve ever endured, that I regretted my decision to come. As soon as I was in the safety of my hotel room, I called home. Upon hearing my best friend’s voice I broke down. At that moment, I hated everything and doubted myself more than ever before. I wanted to jump in a taxi, head straight to Gimhae International Airport, and jump on the first flight home. I didn’t leave my hotel room for the rest of the day.

Now, 6 weeks later, I laugh when I think of that day, but I wouldn’t take any of it back. I think the technical term for what happened is “culture shock” and it is something that I never thought would happen to me. I’ve done a lot of traveling but nothing compares to when you leave everything behind to start an entirely new life in a completely foreign land. In theory, I was about to do and achieve everything I ever dreamed of, everything I ever wanted. In a way, that day was the culmination of everything I ever worked for. In reality, it was one of the hardest, most emotional days of my life. Yet, in retrospect, it was one of the most important and necessary days I’ve ever had. I’ll never forget the day I stepped off the plane in Busan, South Korea to start my new life as an expat.