The Thing About Living Overseas
Alright, let's get one thing straight. I absolutely love Love LOVE living overseas. It's been what I've known for the past 6 years of my life and I wouldn't trade it for the world. There are, however, a few things that I need to get out before I go on with living my new life in Japan.
Over the years (6 of them to be exact) I've had many people tell me:
"Oh you are so lucky that you get all of these experiences."
"I wish I lived overseas when I was your age."
"You can get just about any job you want with your experience." (Which isn't really true.)
And finally, the one I found the most amusing:
"Thank God you aren't a military brat!" (This was after they found out that my family had nothing to do with the military and that we were living in South Korea purely for business concerns.) (Also, not all military kids are brats. I happen to know quite a few who are very nice.)
Now, don't get me wrong, I love living overseas, but there are some things that you just don't get out of a childhood in Asia.
1. Public School
Because I live in Asia, I've always gone to international schools. (ex. Nishimachi International School, Seoul Foreign School, the American School In Japan, etc.) The only two grades I went to in America were Kindergarten and First Grade.
2. Languages
I can't JUST speak English. When living in a different country, it's handy to know the local language. Which, for me, has meant a required course in Japanese and (temporarily) a required course in Korean (Temporarily because I started to learn Mandarin Chinese when I found out that the Korean classes sucked at my school.). You know, it's nice JUST speaking English sometimes. It's nice being able to express complex thoughts, well, complexly.
3. coins Coins COINS.
When you travel (which is inevitable when living overseas) you tend to accumulate other currencies. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it does tend to get annoying. Below is only a tiny fraction of the coins that I found while unpacking the boxes in my room.
So, to remedy all of the coins that were in my room, I divided them by currency in Ziploc sandwich bags.
So, there may be more posts like this, but I have to go. We've still got a whole lot of unpacking to do.
Cheers, DFTBA, and Good Night.
1 comments:
Write commentsYour life is filled with exciting adventures and you get to experience stuff that most people don't, that I agree. But living overseas also means feeling like an outsider, having your family (extended) somewhere else and such... I'd love to read more about these experiences. I love your blog description, though! Mine checking out my blog? www.myhopefulpencil.blogspot.com
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