Return from Seoul, all things considered

Return from Seoul, all things considered
Current mood:vernal

Dear few readers, let me continue to tirelessly keep you abreast of our lives and other goings-on in Korea: On the way back from Seoul, I saw wisteria blossoms cascading down their vines, gracing the hillsides, if not superior at least more delicate and romantic than Bacchanal decor. The rest of Korea probably woke out of Spring earlier than a week ago, but it was this last week that our little city broke herself away from the clutches of Old Man Winter. It was this week when you look at the hills and think and then rethink if you weren’t mistaken that a week ago weren’t they brownish? The buds on twigs have developed into fine leaves, blossoms have become spent, and even the least eager of dandelions have gone white-haired in the attempts of reproduction.

In Taebaek, this last week has belonged to the azaleas. The cheery cherry trees, the Japanese Magnolia blossoms, and other various Spring harbingers have made their showing and moreorless left. The bleeding hearts, next, were an unsecreted delight. But now, the glory of the azaleas promise to bring the full force of Spring to Taebaek. In the sunny places where water is abundant, the purples and pinks will make demands of your eyes. In other places, buds poke at the colors yet to come. One of my personal excitements is to get in the mountains at the right times, where they are covered with mountain azaleas. With the abundance of such life, who can fail to feel hopeful for another year to come?

Another delight this last week has been lilacs, mostly white, which have blossomed and smelled terrific. There is also a lilac-like mountain blossom with the sweetest aroma. Maybe it is a Japanese lilac.Maybe none of you laughed at that. And maybe even a few of you wondered if I forgot which country I am in. But really, it is a sort of joke, because some of the things over here are named in the western world as Japanese this or that, even though the Koreans also might have it as well. So it is like a joke, but it might be the case, really. If the wireless internet connection on this train were stronger, I could probably try to look it up instead of finishing this web log.

Other various flowers and blossoms have brought Spring in. But the real sign that Taebaek has moved on from Winter happened on Thursday. That is when the town became alive with plant starts. And really, I’ve been a little antsy for this for weeks, feeling like some tomatoes should be going in the ground, and so on. We got a few miniature tomato plants from a flower shop to sate me. But on Thursday, trucks arrived in Taebaek with the bounty of greenhouses to our newly greened city. Tomato starts, pepper starts, and maybe anything else, for anyone with the right number of South Korean won. It was funny, because seriously, all the appropriate stores became stocked with these goods, packing away the dried Chinese dates (We could also play the game with China, but it’s funnier with Japan because of the residual strife between Korea and Japan, like brothers who have forgotten they were brothers) and peddling now these seasonal needs. On the agenda for this week is some dirt collection at our Becker house. Dirt is scarce in our immediate vicinity, but a short walk away there is mountains of it. So I will get some, along with some worms for our compost barrel. And we’ll get some of those starts to finally produce a garden on our humble roof.

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We are glad to be back from Seoul. I will leave the reporting of our events for now, but let me say how nice it was to pass the one actuary exam. I have just 11 more days until my next test, so I will be cramming it in for a while. It is the test that I already prepared for once, so in some sense I am ready. But in another important sense, these next 11 days are very very important.

Some of you probably wonder what is going on for us, long term. Will we be staying in Korea? Coming back to the states? Moving to Greenland? To answer this question, I will say I can not answer it for certain at this time, but I will give you a rundown of upcoming decisions that might give you some idea.

We really like it here, and we are here, and so, if it were only that, I think it is safe to say both Bonnie and I would love to stay here. On top of that, with Trent and Nicole staying here and having a baby, we have even more reason to want to stay here. Living next to Trent has been a real treat for me after so much time of living apart. You could call it a Trent treat. Or Troy’s Trent treat.

On the other hand, we are far away from everyone else. But it’s nice to have the conveniences of our age, and email and keep in touch. I am pleased that Bonnie and her parents are in touch almost every day thanks to Skype, where they not only talk to each other, but have video calls so that they get to see the kiddos.

Other big factors. First of all, for whatever reason, Trent and Nicole might not end up staying here. It is too early for any of us to know for sure what will be available to us, let alone what we will finally decide. Then, there is the chance of finding a good actuary position. I will start some serious looking after I pass the next exam, and it may be that I can find something desirable to take up in September. If nothing ideal comes up, another year over here would provide ample preparation time to pass some more exams and become even a better candidate for actuary opportunities (We’re talking about a series of about eight exams over the next five years or so to become a “fellow” actuary and earn top dollar.). Lastly, there are the Baton Rouge properties which maintain for us a small passive income. This, above everything, is probably the largest deciding factor for what will happen this summer. If things remain the same, we will be fine. But things will not remain the same. Still, we may be fine. We have to see what happens. There is also the possibility of Bonnie’s belly swelling with another baby yet again. We are sort of on the fence about this, and September seems to be our “golden” month when it might be “most convenient” to choose to have a baby in Korea, or move back to the states for number three God willing. I think Bonnie would like to be within 10000 miles of her mother at childbirth. Let us see.Staying here would be great, language-wise, for Orry, and Isaac too. Not to mention their parents. Also for reasons of cultural observation. Moving to another country besides the US, like Greenland, would be another adventure. It doesn’t seem in the cards for us. But I should say, exactly a year ago, we had not an iota of foreknowledge that Korea was at all in our window of possible futures. And now we can tell that the ajumas on the train are talking about the Summer cabbage.

Happy Mothers’ Day.