~8 month update

It's been a little more than 8 months since we arrived in Korea, so, we have a little less than 4 months remaining until we return to the States. After looking through some of the thousands of photos taken over the months, and the blog posts that have been written, I can honestly say I'm proud of all Amanda and I have accomplished in our time here so far. Many thanks to our friend Kang and his family for all the memories we've shared together. Through their generosity and enthusiasm, we have been extremely fortunate to visit many places, meet many people in their family, go on a number of hiking excursions, and even tour temples amid a typhoon :) It is safe to say that becoming a part of their family has been the most rewarding aspect of moving to Korea.

Of course living here has been a very drastic change from what we are both used to after being an American for the past 24 years. Some things we have gotten used to, but then again there will always be some things that just didn't quite make sense to us.

One thing I am thankful for is having had the time to think about the past and the future. Moving across the world to teach English was a bit of a crazy idea, but one of the reasons I wanted to do it was so that I could have some time to reflect on the past few years, college, etc., and to think about how it will impact my future. Of course, there is never really a plan or a method to think about these things, it just sort of happens. From time to time I find myself reflecting on things I have done in the past, the way I thought about something, or a situation I was in, and have been able to look at some things in a different light. There is a good sense of growth being able to identify what things are important to me, and what things are not so important, and having the confidence to make those judgments in the future.

Now that Amanda and I are on the downside of our time here, we are feeling a bit of urgency to finish some of the other goals we wanted to accomplish: such as making portfolios. We both want to apply to graduate schools, basically immediately after our return given the application deadlines. So, there is much prep-work to be done leading up to then. However, to exactly which schools we want to apply, thinking about having to live in different states, wondering how I can possibly afford another degree while only having made a tiny dent in my current debt even after putting ~80% of my salary to my loan payments every month, are all things that are just kind of floating around in a big gray area still.

Architecture is and will always be a passion of mine, but recently my confidence in the profession has not exactly strengthened. After reading article after article about how the economic recovery is rocky at best; that the unemployment rate is still hard to swallow for architects and many others; that architects don't actually bring home prestigious salaries like most people think, it is really difficult making decisions about the future. For example: the average starting salary for a "designer" (which is what my title would be because I'm not actually licensed) isn't high enough for me to pay two things: Rent and Student Loans... in the same month. So I ask myself: Do I go ahead and continue my education at a university in order to get a "professional degree" allowing me to work toward becoming a licensed architect, but greatly furthering the enormous hole of debt I'm in . Or, do I put school on the back-burner and attempt to find work in the industry that pays well enough for my "pre-professional-level-degree" instead, with hopes of returning to school down the road sometime. Of course, ideally I would just find a few-hundred-thousand-dollars, pay off my current loans, and be able to pay for grad-school as well; get my professional degree from the best school, and then begin working so that I could meet the many other requirements in order to become licensed. But sadly, not even moving to Korea where our rent is paid for has allowed me to climb very far out of the debt-hole. Of course I am certainly not the only one facing issues and decisions like this, but this is just a glimpse of what my mind is on as we begin thinking about returning home.