It’s been six months since I left home. I never thought things would take such a strange turn. My life was supposed to be normal, or so I thought as a girl. As I look out the window nothing seems familiar. Six months in this strange land, but it is still not home. I struggle to make myself believe it is, but it’s definitely not. This ancient land is magical, its people make it that way, but still the change is hard. Who would have thought a Puerto Rican would come to live so far away from home, and under these circumstances. After all South Korea was never a place I would have chosen to live in. I find myself with too much time in my hands and very little to do with it.
Rain is falling hard today; the sun has not appeared for days. It’s finally beginning to warm up, as May is nearing its end. I am not used to the cold. On a day like today back home the temperature would be in the eighties at least. There is no worrying about the cold there. Not ever. The sun is always high and bright, and all the complaints you hear are over the heat. But there is no turning back now, not for two and a half more years. I don’t regret being here. It will give me a chance to discover new things, meet new people, and most important, it will help me forget.
Time is a precious thing. Unfortunately, when we don’t have it we want it, and when we have it we waste it. I was determined not to waste mine any longer. As a recently graduated English teacher I couldn’t find a job due to my lack of experience. How can I gain experience if they don’t give me a job? I had to settle for tutoring. Korean schools teach English to their children, ironically not to their parents.
On a rainy Thursday afternoon, I started my new job. I was tutoring a nine-year-old boy. He did not live far from my apartment, but I could not walk due to the heavy rain. His building was very different from mine. It had twenty floors, and three different entrances. I had to knock on the wrong door twice before I found out the building was divided in three towers. Each entrance led to a tower. I failed to ask which one I was going to. After trying all three, I finally reached my destination; there were no more so this would definitely have to be the one. I learned that his apartment was on the 14th floor of “Torre C.”
Daegu, South Korea
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