2 months in South Korea
The scent of soju, yellowy dry winter days, kimchi flavour, 노레방 neon lights… South Korea hasn’t changed much since I first came here 2 years ago. Nothing has come to shock me, in the last 2 months I have effortless blended into the routines of an exchange student: compulsively planning the weekend ahead, keeping my liver busy and pretending life will never cease to be this way.
So with already enough ado, this is how things are around here.
The University
Ticking Yonsei University as my first choice couldn’t have been a better option. Not only is one of the 3 most prestigious universities, but in my opinion, it’s also the best in terms of location and student life. Still, nothing to be proud of as most Koreans see employers’ obsession for prestigiousness as the biggest burden to get a fair go in the over-qualified job market. Many around here “feel sorry” for their
Tinggal di Jakarta dan Bahasa Indonesia kelas
The idea of living in Jakarta had been dizzying since the day I found out I was coming to Indonesia. The “most populous city in Southeast Asia” is a title that evokes imagery of chaos, heat, people, polusi, humidity and more people.
It took me a couple of days to get my head around a map of Jakarta. Hint: most places are located along Sudirman Avenue, Central Jakarta’s main artery. Only a small portion of this colosal city, but probably the only expats like us will get to see.
It’s hard to understand how a city like Jakarta works -let alone how Jakartans survive it.- I like to think of cities as well-engineered urban planned environments. Trains and buses that fit around schedules, synchronised traffic mechanisms… Jakarta is nothing like that, is more like a living organism.
Food vendors sense your rumbling stomach before you. Macets (traffic jams) learn to unjam themselves. Ojeks (motorcycle taxis) spontaneously appear on any street corner if you are running late to offer their amazing space-time bending services.
Jakarta is also a culinary odyssey. Once I overcame my fixation for the words goreng, nasi, ayam and mie (fried, rice, chicken and noodles respectively) what was left was an endless array of padang delicacies. Jakarta days don’t go without finding a new dish in your palate. You are always spoilt with food.
Unless you live on or below the average Indonesian salary. Wealth disparity is one of the most striking things about Jakarta. On the streets, million-dollar cars drive past infant beggars. Well-off teenagers throw pompous birthday parties without even glancing at the five-year old girl outside selling tissue packages to pay for her meal.
Antipodean goodbye
3 years, 2 months and 15 days.
The timespan between two flights: a tiresome one touching down in Sydney Airport ending the Kangaroo Route and the another heading for the Java Sea in just a few hours.
Three years can be hard to condensate, let alone recount. They represent a complex blend of faces, moments, experiences and lessons. Some good. Some bad. Some necessary.
I came to Australia days after graduating from high school, leaving behind what I called home for 18 years: friends, my mother tongue, parental warmth and restless curiosity for the world beyond it. What a decision that was, one of the best I will ever make.
I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Australia was then an exotic escape from the ordinary; a laid-back refuge for 6 months of English lessons and, if luck allowed, the perfect place to harvest a few amusing stories involving Aussie sheilas and booze. I was very young.
