Leaving Korea

Let's start where we left off.
Leaving Korea. To be honest, in the last few weeks before we left the country, I was ready to leave. I was tired of communication barriers, stares, and long boring days at work. I had become completely accustomed to life in Asia and didn't see the excitement and thrill of it any longer! As you may have read from David's blog, our last day in Korea was not as smooth or memorable as we would have liked!
All that aside, it was a very strange feeling to wake up on the morning of February 27th and realize we were leaving our Korean home for good. And admittedly, quite sad. Cate didn't sleep much that night as she knew we were up to something. We had given away nearly all of her toys and books and big bags had taken over our kitchen.
It was a rushed morning as we were being picked up by taxi at 7:30 am- and there seemed to be too many last minute things left to do. I had to return the house key to the school at 6:30 am, and not only did we have our entire world packed up in 4 suitcases, but we also had to be prepared ( and I mean very prepared) for a few long travel days with a toddler. There aren't enough snacks, toys and coloring books for the amount of travel time we were about to begin ( As a side note, the idea of traveling anywhere under 3 hours seems like a piece of cake!).
On my way back from the school, I caught a taxi and felt like I was in a dream. The busy, crazy city we had come to know so well was still asleep and everything felt so serene. I got out of the taxi and walked the short block to our home for the last time. I remembered back to the first time I had left our house to walk to my school, and felt both sadness and fulfillment as I realized we had come full circle. It's not often you can define a year of your life the way we did in Korea. Exactly one year.
When I returned home, our Korean neighbors ( a lovely family whom we got to know a little) were there, and had brought us soup for breakfast. A thoughtful gesture, but very difficult to eat hot soup when you know you have about 20 minutes before you leave your house forever- and you still have things waiting to be packed. :) When the taxi arrived, we asked the family if we could have a moment alone and we stood with Cate, and said goodbye to our tiny apartment- our Korean home- and our life as we knew it. It was a difficult moment-I suppose just as it is to leave any house you have made your own-but different in that we knew we'd never be there again. Or in any place like it.
As we drove to the bus station (our first step was to take a bus from Daegu to Busan-about 1.5 hours away), we couldn't help but laugh that we were seeing things about our city that we'd never even seen before.
From here I'll tell some of the story in pictures. David documented it well.

Waiting at the bus station for our 8:30 am bus to Busan. David and I think that this picture describes our journey well. Cate=exhausted. Me=constantly searching for something to make her happy!
We were so relieved to arrive at the Busan Gimhae Airport. It was a small, brand new, calm place and we got there in plenty of time. Here's Cate directing David on where to go next.

Um. Intense.

One last moment with strangers. If you can't tell, Cate was behind the counter of a sandwich shop with all the workers. She is being passed to some random Korean man ( haha- if you haven't guessed already, Korea is VERY safe and you can honestly believe that everyone is genuine and kind when they want to hold Cate).

Cate with all the luggage.

Poor David had to basically man all of the luggage on his own. That's two giant carts full of luggage. I, in the mean time, pushed Cate's stroller. ( A little unfair? perhaps!)

Goodbye Korea

And my beautiful little girl right before departure.

Thanks for reading!
Next post will be all about our trip to Beijing...