Re-entry

So, it's now been almost two weeks since I'm back home from South Korea.  Strange how quickly time passes when you're not paying attention.

The first few days back were, not surprisingly, the hardest.  After being in the South Korean and Seoul culture for close to a month, living in a communal setting, and being busy every day, it was quite a culture shock to come back to my quiet house with just my parents and I, in small-town Pennsylvania, with not a whole lot to do. It was very much a reminder to me why I'd like to move to a large city out of school, because I like being in a environment filled with life and things to do, and I do not find my present location to fit that bill. I also realized that there were certain parts of domestic life that I had been removed from for awhile, such as having a kitchen and food to use whenever I wanted, and having a choice between a shower and a bath. But after only a day or so, my old living-at-home habits kicked back in, and things didn't seem nearly so foreign as they did when I first got back home.

I've also been going through my typical back-home-cleanout process over the past few days.  After I come back from a trip that's longer than a week or so and I've been living comfortably out of a suitcase, I feel strange when I come home to my room and house filled with tons and tons of things I obviously can live without, and missing some things that I realized while I was gone would really be useful.  What usually happens is that I get home, start doing wash and putting things away, and then the next morning (or whatever reasonable time fits in with my jet lag), I go out to some stores to pick up the things I think I need.  Usually these items are on a list that was compiled while I was gone, and have included items such as face wash, t-shirts, and extra underwear.  Then, I come back home, and for the next few days, go CRAZY with getting rid of other things.  Clothes, shoes, towels, books, you name it, it gets passed over to see if it really needs to stay.  It must have to do with the semi-nomadic nature of travel that gives me the motivation to do this, the less I have in the first place, the less I have to consider when the time to travel arrives.  I love the idea of just being able to dump all my stuff into a suitcase or two, and that being everything I ever need to worry about.  I highly doubt that I will ever actually achieve this level of minimalism, but every bag of stuff that I get out of my room makes me feel that much closer to that lofty goal.

As far as other "reverse culture shock" goes, I think the majority of my discomfort with being home comes more from the fact that I've gone from being in a big city to a nonexistent one, rather than going from South Korea to the USA.  People that I've seen around aren't as well put-together as they were in Seoul, and just generally have less of a "cultured" air to them.  However, I think if I had been staying in the Orefield-equivalent in South Korea, this would not be so noticeable, or if I came home to the Seoul-equivalent in the USA.  However, I think that the fact that technology here at home is somewhat behind South Korea's is a national phenomenon, and not one I'm noticing just because I'm not in a big city.  Also, oddly enough, I'm noticing how strict America's (and Pennsylvania's in particular) drinking laws are.  In Korea, you could just wander into a convenience store and find beer in the cooler right next to the soda, buy it, and drink it out in public, while here in the US alcohol is regulated as if it were a prescription drug.  Being underage in the US, I never thought much about buying alcohol, but after being able to in Korea, now coming back home and realizing I can't (and even if I could, it would be very very regulated) is a bit strange.

In other news, I am planning on registering for another class for this semester.  Every semester that I have been in college so far, I have taken 5 classes, which is the typical course load.  A few months ago when I planned out my fall, I registered for 5 classes as usual.  However, given the structure of my major and minors, if I follow that 5-a-semester track for the rest of my college career, I won't get done "on time."  So I'm considering taking 6 classes this semester to pick up some of the slack.  My concern is that I'll either a) drive myself crazy or b) hurt my GPA.  But given how I've done in previous years, I think I should be okay.