Austin native Rebecca Rosenberg has been living in South Korea teaching English, and she wants to share her experiences abroad with all of Austin. Austinist believes that we could all use some Korean culture.

The other morning I woke up with one of those hangovers belonging in a special class. I call it a please, someone, shoot me in the face morning. Sure, it was a Sunday after the Boryeong Mud Festival [dear lord, that festival looks crazy brilliant! -Ed], where hundreds of thousands of people gather on a beach to drink and wrestle/paint-themselves in mud and drink some more…but I haven’t known a pounding like this since my newbie days in S.K. Korea’s national drink, Soju, takes a while for a Westerner to get used to, thus resulting in a few solid months of mornings spent writhing in agony. But after enough nights of having the stuff funneled down your gullet by “hospitable” Koreans, you become a hardened drinking machine, ready to take on the world, one shot at a time.

So naturally, I was surprised at the horrible pounding of déjà vu in my head, and in my semi sauced fuzzy state, I had a revelation. I gotta stop this stuff, man. I can’t count how many times I’ve said that. But this time I mean business.

For all those who have been following this chronicle of an Austinite living the Korean dream, it is time to take a break from the rendition, and definitely a break from the all-nighters that have made these entries possible. I can’t count the number of nights I have forced myself to stay out a little longer, have just a FEW more, all in the name of research and good writing. Be it a weak supplication to the soju gods or not, maybe it’s time for more art museums and less makoli. And though the summer here brings more shows, parties and free outings of all kinds, it also means time for more beach trips and hiking, more time on top of a mountain, breathing the not-so-fresh air, and reflecting on what I will appreciate about this place when I am finally back home in Uh’merika.

Austin is a town that really, really loves itself. But while that’s as well as it should be, I think it’s always healthy and perspective-enhancing to take a step (or a giant leap) outside and see how the rest of the world lives/rebels/gets artsy. Besides, that Austin marg is gonna taste SOOOO much better after having no options but to pay eight bucks for crappy ones at Gecko’s in Itaewon (home of the U.S. Army base in Seoul).

Admittedly, maybe I am a bit fickle. I have bounced around between Mexico, New York City and S. Korea during the past five years, though I will always call Austin my home. And maybe those years of couch hopping and lugging crates of records across numerous state-lines have taught me something: I don’t want to leave Korea just yet, because any good place takes a while to really know. After almost a year here, I feel I am only now seeing the real subculture of the youth and art community, as well as meeting the people who can take me deeper into the crusty, kim chi stained underbelly of Seoul. Dingy brick lined alleys leading to dwarf houses await me, giant wax wizards in pedestrian malls await me, rooftop keggers and school children’s discarded melodicas await me.

I am a firm believer in “keeping it real” and therefore will always have a special and unconditional love for Austin. But to all you super hipsters who rarely make it out of the same two mile radius of bars, much less the outer reaches of Western society, I have to say I don’t feel I am missing anything a good single season of live music can’t remedy. A stint of pre/post/during SXSW shows and a mountain of fish tacos oughta’ satiate me for a while.

In the meantime, readers may be treated, once in a while, to a cultural manifesto inspired by a quiet day at the folk village or a weekend temple stay. But you don’t really want to hear that, do you? No, you Austin kids want to hear about someone just as polluted as you, scooping up traffic cones and using them for lurid caricatures, and people running in traffic to get to the snack shack, right?

In any case, peace out for now, folks!

For the past month, Rebecca Rosenberg has been kind enough to share her experiences with Austinist readers. For now, she’s taking some time away from the Ist, but look for her and her crazy stories of an Austinite in Korea to return periodically, just for your kicks.