The Return

I know, my title to this post sounds like it belongs with a horror movie, much like the supernatural thriller TV series, The Returned (Les Revenants, as the original—and much better—French series was known). And sometimes, when I think of my return, the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

I'm going back to South Korea.

For those of you who may not know, my wife and I lived in Chŏnju, a city about a three-hour drive south of Seoul, from 1997 to 1999. We taught English to children as young as 7 and adults as old as 70, at a private institue, called a hagwon, to universities, and a few private lessons in between.

I wrote a novel, based on my experiences (Songsaengnim: A Korea Diary), and am writing the sequel, Geosunim, oh so slowly. While the character and his history are fiction, almost all of his experiences in Korea are true, had either happened to me or happened to people I knew.

When my wife and I prepared to return to Canada, some of my students asked me, "Will you ever come back?"

"Maybe," I answered, "but not for, like, 20 years."

In March, 2019, 20 years will have passed.

Going back to Chŏnju has been a hard sell for DW. For her, there are many countries that we haven't visited and others that we've been to, but to where we want to return. "I have unfinished business with France," she told me, recently.

Indeed, when we visited France in 2014, there were so many regions that we wanted to see but simply did not have the time to go. We didn't go to Bordeaux, nor to Champagne, nor to Burgundy, some of the best wine regions in the world (luckily, we drank plenty of wine in the Loire Valley and Gigondas, in 2014).

And while we visited Juno Beach, we didn't get to Vimy. So yes, DW and I have unfinished business in France. Same with Italy: though we've been there twice, there are so many regions we haven't seen and need to return.

So many places, so little time.

But I feel a need to return to South Korea. Chŏnju was undergoing so much growth when we lived there, had desperately been preparing for the 2002 World Cup games. There were so many areas around the apartments in which we lived that had a gridwork of streets, but no structures. I wonder if I could even find my old residences.

I want to see the old familiar places, to see if I can find anyone who remembers me. Though I was hoping to finish Geosunim by this fall, I know that's not going to happen. I'm now hoping to have it finished by the fall of 2019. And I'm hoping that a return to the city and country where it all happens will help give me more inspiration.

It helped me to return to North Berwick, in 2010, to finish Songsaengnim and get inspiration for the beginning of Geosunim.

Still, DW is reluctant to go back. And so I may go on my own. DD17 says she wants to go, but I don't know if I want to take her on my own. Not that I couldn't, but I have heard that Koreans still have that fascination with people from the West, where they want to get our attention, want to photograph us like we're zoo exhibits. With the age of smartphones, photographs are more invasive, I've heard.

I don't want to subject her to that.

So, if DW doesn't join me, I'll go alone, for a week, maybe two. It's a long way to go for a short stay, but I don't need a lot of time. And as DW says, there are more places to visit. Perhaps, we'll return to France, or maybe Italy, next summer.

But be ready, Korea, for next year, I return. Twenty years is up.