It’s that time of year again, time for the annual wrap-up. Here’s my list of 111 memories from 2011, not in any particular order, just the order they came to me.
- Realizing, just moments into 2011, that the next time the year changed, I’d be on the other side of the world, away from my family and friends
- Announcing, officially, that I was moving to Korea
- Snowboarding for the first time
- Changing the design of MarshallJonesJr.com from a default, WordPress design to a stripped-down, minimalist design
- Removing the comments from Marshallogue
- Sledding on the golf course with the Lyons family
- Skyping for the first time (and Momma seeming way too excited) 🙂
- Participating in the 365 Project, a challenge to take one picture each day of the year (although I quit after 60 days)
- Designing the website and blog for Eilert Communications Inc., my last design project for 2011
- Getting my passport back
- Attending Bible studies at the Gillies’s house
- Waiting for my FBI background check to get back
- Playing Lincoln Slide at church with Dru, Ted, and William
- Watching Francis Schaeffer videos at Lule’s house
- Trying to figure out all the cool things to do before leaving the country
- Bringing pizza and Chinese food into Starbucks and eating it with friends
- Friends asking if I’d heard anything new about my plans to move to South Korea
- Zach sleeping with me in my bed right before I left for Korea
- Staying up through the night interviewing for jobs on the other side of the world
- Learning to use metal chopsticks
- Saying goodbye to friends and family in the weeks and days before boarding my flight
- Realizing that saying goodbye is the hardest part about moving
- Flying over Alaska on the way to South Korea and seeing the brightness from the sun even though it was in the middle of the night
- Waking up for the first time in Korea to my school director ringing the doorbell (I’d never met her before)
- Teaching my first ESL class with less than two hours of prep and no training whatsoever the day after I arrived in the country
- Getting locked out of my apartment in Seoul in the middle of the night
- Spending the night at David’s house
- Watching David teach all the Korean kids “In the Secret” and then listening to them sing it
- Walking to church, about an hour and a half walk
- Trying desperately to teach over a bunch of kids who weren’t paying attention in c7
- Inviting a stranger over to my place (and giving him my door pass code) to wash clothes while I was at work
- Getting on a bus and just letting it take me wherever it was going (still don’t know)
- Stepping into a freezing shower in the middle of winter on purpose
- Getting drenched in the rain picking up a cake with Sarah Majors and then sitting through church soaking wet
- Watching David giving students high-fives on their foreheads as they were leaving for the weekend and then confusing an old lady for one of his students
- Eating a fried egg, apple, and jelly sandwich a student gave me
- Making hot, ginger tea
- Eating stir-fried, Chinese cabbage and carrots
- Hailing a taxi and riding in one for the first time
- Taking two taxis to work because I woke up so late (3:36pm)
- Riding a ferry to Fukuoka, Japan
- Walking the streets of Fukuoka
- Couch surfing in Japan
- Eating a jar of peanut butter a day for a month
- Eating “live” octopus with Andy
- Singing Beatles songs in a Noraebang
- Asking tons of questions through email as an experiment
- Watching American TV shows online in Korea and falling asleep to them
- Standing outside a subway gate for over half an hour because my card didn’t work and I didn’t know what to do (I eventually jumped the gate)
- Participating in a traditional, Korean tea ritual
- Seeing the size and location of my place in Korea and thinking I’d made a mistake in coming
- Visiting Calvary Chapel Daejeon
- Deciding to schedule a weekly Skype call with my family back in Kentucky
- Ripping my “fake” Chucks trying to get them on over two pairs of socks
- Ice skating outside at City Hall in downtown Seoul
- Deciding to dive into one of the biggest projects I’ve ever attempted and, more memorably, deciding to keep it a secret
- Removing the comments from bondChristian
- Starting a Bible study through IWE
- Losing my wallet
- Buying a ton of apples from a market in Seoul
- Sending money home for the first time, which involved communicating with the bank staff on topics I don’t know much about in Korean
- Explaining why my camera looks so old (because it is)
- Taking a shower in my Korea bathroom that doesn’t have a shower, just a shower nozzle that sprays all over the bathroom, and feeling awkward the first time
- Living without a phone
- Spending my first Christmas away from my family
- Teaching my students “fineapple” after one of them suggested it to me
- Realizing that teacher turnover at JLS is much faster than I originally thought
- Meeting new teachers at my school
- Enjoying lunch with pastors from IWE
- Teaching a group of people how to play Mafia at a church conference
- Volunteering to help organize a singles conference
- Trying to find a why to clear up my face
- Meeting Bryce, for the first time since I was like 13, in Korea
- Wondering what it would feel like to have lived in a foreign country for six months and then realizing at six months that I still don’t really know the feeling
- Walking up to Seoul tower and then walking back down and feeling how much I enjoy exploring new places
- Considering a trip along the entire trans-Siberian railway
- My friend telling me that if I stay another year, I better get a girlfriend because he thinks it would be too lonely otherwise
- Bringing a Nerf gun to class and letting students shoot it if they answer the questions correctly
- Realizing I didn’t laugh as much this year, missing that
- Taking more pictures than I had in previous years
- Becoming known, even offline, as the guy who asks questions on Facebook
- Watching a guy chop up a live fish right before eating it
- Taking a nap in a park in Seoul
- Staying at church “all day,” from the book club at 8:45 am to dinner after Growth Group at 6:00 pm
- Meeting new friends almost every week
- Walking up and down the Han River
- Reading on Facebook that Osama bin Laden, Steve Jobs, and Kim Jong-il died
- Hearing about the tsunami that hit Japan and wanting to go help as a relief worker or something
- Going to a Korean concert
- Hanging out with Daniel on Friday nights
- Donating to charity: water
- Going out with Joon, Sunni, Avery, and David together for the first time
- Getting my Internet hooked up in Korea (after a week without it) and feeling like it was the most amazing thing ever
- Attending Korean dramas, twice
- Sleeping on the beach in Busan
- Telling everyone I’m 23 (because that’s how old I am in Korea)
- Leading Communion for the first time
- Overseeing the Sound Room for the 3:00 service at church
- Discovering the coin laundry, a rarity in Korea, just five minute’s walk away from my place
- Hiking with Loren and Andy
- Playing Green Day songs with Ted and William
- Paring down my belongings to the bare minimum for Korea and then paring down even more in Korea
- Buying the ninja umbrella after passing it up the first time
- Sweating through a Seoul summer with no A/C, by choice
- Using Kuku Klok as my alarm
- Riding a subway for the first time and learning to appreciate it
- Eating tuna out of a can on a bench outside of work overlooking a bunch of rundown houses
- Standing on the beach in southern South Korea and missing my family and friends back home, wishing they could share the awesome experience with me
- Making a Christmas card out of the picture of me standing on that beach
- Walking the streets of Seoul at 4:00 am and still feeling safe and excited
- Talking with Andy by a pond and specifically saying something like, “Once I get back from Korea, I’ll remember all the big stuff I did. I won’t remember just sitting here and chatting. But just sitting here and chatting – these are the moments that actually make this trip so amazing.”
Happy New Year!*
*Just a reminder: “Happy New Year” roughly translates to “I hope you’re thankful all year.”
