August 2006, I moved to Seoul South Korea for two years. I worked in a Korean Elementary school teaching about 1000 kids a week, sometimes more. Culture shock set in after the honeymoon period and life became very frustrating at times. My family were thousands of miles away and communications were hard with the time difference. Friends became my other family.
I mentioned in a previous post how about 40 teachers lived in this Co-op Residence in the middle of Seoul, literally the Times Square of Seoul. I immediately hit it off with a bunch of people and we became inseparable. I finally met Andrew, who was super quiet and seemed shy. He had his sidekick Nicole always at hand. When you found someone you clicked with in this fast paced environment, you didn't dare let them go far. Andrew coming from Montana, was used to plenty of space, farms and nature. Korea was the opposite. You had to go far outside the city for some peace and quiet and I don't think I ever saw a farm in the two years I was there. After Korea, most of us left and went our separate ways. Andrew moved back to the States and went to grad school. He later became a Park Ranger in several parks throughout North America, including Glacier Bay, Yellowstone and The Everglades needing a fill up on nature after his tank went empty in Seoul.
Recently Andrew sent me message saying he was going to visit Montreal and would I be around. He ended up staying with us for his trip and we had the most amazing time. I got to know Andrew even better than I did in Korea. I got to hear about his life and his upbringing and his recent escapades as a park ranger. We got to share our stories of joy and horror about our travels since we last saw each other. We had such a fabulous time with you and I loved taking you to my favourite restaurants/cafes of the city and cooking up a storm for you. Please hurry up and come visit us again soon. Best of luck with your next venture living on a farm in Washington State, I am very jealous. I have to hand one thing to Korea, it placed some amazing people into my life.
The rain eased off and the sky was just a ball of orange and a double rainbow appeared. The rain left the leaves on the trees so vibrant. I still feel I could not capture how colourful this street really was.
We randomly walked down a ruelle and found this old style car just waiting to be photographed.
After the rain, it left a glow on the streets with colours and lights.
