decisions, decisions

Yesterday my school asked me to renew my contract when it expires in July and stay for another year. They even told me that I could take two weeks off to go home for my brother's wedding in September so I wouldn't have to miss it. I'd probably get a raise too, maybe an extra 200, 000 won a month I think. But...can I stay for another year when I'm already getting more and more homesick with every passing day? Probably not. I know I'd just drive myself stir-crazy if I had to stay for a whole extra year, even if I did get a chance to go home for two weeks.

The only thing is that I still don't know what it is I'm going to do when I get back...where I'm going to live, what I'm going to do for a job. I mean, yes I'll have money saved up to live off of for a while, but it won't last forever and it's really not that much in the grand scheme of things. I'm still considering the Peace Corps and I'm still considering going to teach in Japan next year with the JET program, but I wanna go back to the states and spend some time at home before I do all that. I know I could always come back to Korea and teach, and if I did come back I'd like to come back to this school. So maybe I'll take a year off and go home and then come back next July and teach kindergarten again. That's always an option I guess.

Still I can't help but think how good it would be for me financially if I did stay here another year. I could maybe pay off the rest of my car loan or a significant chunk of my student loans. Or I could just save it all and invest in stocks like a friend of mine did. It sounds like a really good idea, right? Even so, I don't think I can stay now...it's just not something I can do at the moment. The pull to go home is just too strong, because every day I always find myself thinking of all the things and all the people I miss. There's just too much to go back for right now, there's just too much I have to get sorted out at home.

So if I can't get my visa extended to stay that extra month and a half then I'll probably be coming home in July...and July is just around the corner. I'll probably start actually packing up my stuff and cleaning out my room soon. Today is Election Day here and I have the day off so this might be the perfect time to get started. Anyway...

The bottom line is this: I miss home and I don't wanna stay here another year...so I'll be back in either July or August.

See you then.

I will miss the food though...