The Return to Daejeon.

It had been a long time since I had really even thought about Daejeon when Rose contacted me in the middle of April. Her brother was getting married, and she wanted to invite me to the wedding. I decided to go, not only because Rose and I used to be close friends, but also because it would give me a good excuse to visit my former home, and catch up with some people that I had lost touch with.

I got in late Friday night and went straight to a hotel. I called Dan once I got settled and found that they were out at a Karaoke room. I hate these places, but I wanted to see the group, so I headed over. Right there in the room were Chris (my former roommate) and Smith (my former boss), two people that I could have gone the rest of my life without ever seeing again. Luckily, seeing the OTHER Chris, Dan, Simon, Susie, and many other made up for those two. I didn't stay long, though, because I was tired and they had a night of drinking planned.

The next day I got up early and headed to the wedding hall. I met up with Rose, and she and I did a lot of catching up. It was great to see her again, even though the wedding was rather boring, and I was a novelty there, since I was the only foreigner. I got a free meal out of it, though, so I can't complain.

That evening, I met up with the group again, and went to see my friend Dan's band play. They were great, and I had a good time catching up with old friends at the bar. I enjoyed myself a lot more, though, when we headed to a quieter bar, and I had time to catch up even more with everyone. It was especially nice talking to some of the former kindergarten teachers from Swaton, because the last time I had talked to them, my Korean wasn't nearly as good as it is now (and their English isn't so great), so we REALLY could talk for the first time.

I'm not much of a drinker or much of a night owl, so I headed home early and left to go to Busan early the next morning. The whole experience was great for me for several reason:

1) I got to catch up with some old friends. It was especially nice to see Rose, Dan, Simon, and Susie. I had kind of lost touch with all four (Dan only to a slightly lesser extent than the other three), and it was good to see how they were doing.

2) It made me remember why I left Daejeon in the first place. It's not that I hate the city or anything, and as I said, there's a lot of good people there, but really, there's not a lot going on once you get past the novelty that you're in Korea.

3) It made me appreciate more what I have down in Busan. My job is better. The scenary is better. I have more friends that aren't foreigners down here. And I just enjoy my life in general more in Busan. I think I had started to take my life for granted down in Busan until I remembered what it was like just 8 months before. Again, Daejeon's not terrible or anything, and I was certainly happy up there, it's just that I'm MUCH more happy down in Busan.

R