Just Show Me Pictures! The New Illness of a Newbie Expat (Pt III)

Just when I think I’ve finally escaped my Korean Crud attacks and colds, there’s a new symptom in town…

How are you? I feel… (From my 5th Grade, Lesson #1)
Okay, this is month #5 and I guess I can’t really call myself a “newbie” expat.  This doesn’t mean I don’t experience moments when I feel like I’m still a beginner to life here.   While I should be finding my teaching wheel and workload fairly greased as I’ve had a proper acclimation period, these days I actually find myself ridiculously tired. In fact, I feel like how those “go to school and study for 14 hours a day” Koreans teens look when they fall asleep on the subway after school exams.

It reminds me of my NYC days (less than a year ago) when I averaged 3 hrs of sleep a night and used to steal winks, while riding on the subway. After around 5 years of consistent living like this, my insides began feeling run-down haggard; the only thing keeping me from looking it, was tons of water and gobs of skin moisturizer! Ironically, living in Daegu my daily sleep routine averages anywhere from 5-7 hrs a day (this is more sleep) and I’m still tired!  How is this possible? This is not Seoul or N.Y.C, but Daegu! Life in Daegu is less demanding, slower, less stressful; often,  I find it downright boring! Why then, do I always feel busy and tired? Is this the cubicle drone’s 9-5 syndrome (which I’ve managed to avoid most of my life…)? Does teaching elementary really take that much energy from you? Did all that fermented, spicy and mystery Korean food grow a tape worm inside of me? Seriously.

But then I have to wonder…

What if this is what being an expat and adapting to a foreign environment is all about?

Acclimation and feeling Lost in Translation
Move over Yellow Dust (aka Korean Crud)… There’s an expat illness in the mix and it isn’t about battling a Korean germ or dust storm in China; it’s about battling the fatigue that comes from acclimating to your foreign surroundings.

1) There’s a wealth of Hangul signs I’m still unable to read quickly or with fluidity and in the back of my brain, there’s a tiny alarm imagining that one of these signs could easily communicate something very important to me.
Imagine if these signs & symbols were all in Hangul

2) There’s mysterious food concoctions that I still can’t fathom in the Korean diet;
3) Dining Out: Whether in a group or solo, unless someone has a favorite joint, we’re almost always spending at least 30+ min looking for a restaurant to eat at (veggie or not, looking for food you feel comfortable with is not as easy-breezy as you’d think); if I’m alone, sometimes, I go home empty-handed;
3) There’s cultural differences that I occasionally find backwards or extreme;
4) There’s cultural observances that I attempt to respect and understand, even if I may or may not understand them;
5) I often hear my name spoken openly in conversation between co-teachers, without a clue as to what’s said (this can get annoying).

What was in the 10 minute speech my CT just gave my 6th grade class?… What’s up with Korean couples wearing matching outfits?…  Don’t Koreans ever need to deal with a runny nose? At some point, you get tired of people translating things for you and then, you get tired of them not. One thing is certain– there are many things you chock up as lost translations and let slide for the sake of time and ease. In retrospect, my inspired and inquisitive traveler self had a lot of energy, when it first arrived. In time, I found that asking questions often took just as much energy consumption as trying to translate the answer I was given, …if I was given any answer at all (remember: lame co-teacher). Since, I’ve lost some of that enthusiasm to seek answers for all of my questions; but that doesn’t mean my subconscious won’t make a routine attempt to figure out each slight.