CURRENT MISSION

Learn, be inspired, and inspire

ABOUT ME

Hi,

My names Terry Park, I'm 22years old and even though Im very new to couch surfing and the world of travel, it's something that sounds really cool and have always wanted to travel to different places, meet new people, and make new friends along the way.

I love to have new experiences and try new things my best memories usually involve a first of some sort.

I'd like to believe I'm very open minded

PHILOSOPHY

The most important thing to me is the human connections I have to different people in my life.
I believe every interaction and transaction must be mutually beneficial in order for there to be harmony within any kind of relationship.

I believe human connection is the most important thing

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

So here's a how I ended up on this website.

It all starts sometime in March of 2013, I'm laying on my bed trying go to sleep and hoping it happens soon, it's pretty late and if I don't get decent sleep I'm gonna feel real crappy about waking up for morning classes. But I'm thinking and stressing about my plans for the summer and what I'll be doing. Friends and classmates are talking about the internship they landed at different companies, and I'm laying in bed without a clue on what my plans are for the summer. So, I got up and turned on the lights, hopped on my laptop,got online and started sending out resumes left and right to any available position that I could apply for. One of them happened to be my current position as a Guest-English Teacher at an elementary school in South Korea. I've been doing this job for 11months now and my contract expiries at the end of July 2014. After the completion of my contract I plan on traveling for roughly 6 months and I hope that couch surfing can be a great resource in which I can meet new people, make new friends, save money, and experience a country with the help of a local.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

None, but hopefully that will change :)

Interests

Football(soccer), Eating, music, podcasts, and Movies

• movies
• traveling
• podcasts
• music
• surfing
• soccer
• teaching

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies - Anything by Quentin Tarentino I am a fan of, Shawshank Redemption, City of God, far to many movies to list

Music - I am fairly opened minded to different genres of music, the music I listen to usually depends on the type of emotion I am feeling or want to feel

E.g.
Getting pumped up - EDM ,Southern Gangster Rap(hehe)
Studying- classical piano
Ext...

Books - not a huge reader but a few books have made a lasting impact on my life (Tuesday's with Morie, 5 people you'd meet in heaven, What I wish i knew when I was 20, Art of War)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

When I first arrived in Korea for a new teaching job, I made a friend playing football(soccer), lets call him Inny. Inny was a local from Chungju and had grown up in the city his whole life. Inny called me a few months into our friendship asking me for help. He was down in his luck and was having a hard time finding employment and had owed the last 3 months of his rent. He came to me asking for a loan, I refused, personally I don't like lending large sums of money to friends and people in general. However, I did offer him to come stay and share my apartment and my fridge. He accepted.

So for 3 weeks he stayed with me sleeping on my floor sharing many many meals together. This in itself grew to be frustrating sharing a tight space with somebody for such a prolonged period of time. After he left I didn't hear from him for about 2 months, I was hurt and offended, I felt used.

However, when he did finally contact me and we met up, at this point he had found a job at a factory and had sorted out his finances. The minute he saw me he apologized and told me that he had made it a personal goal of his to not contact me until he was back on his feet. Now I see him every week, we play on the same football team and every time he sees me he insists on paying for everything and never stops reminding of how the help that I gave him.

Looking back, helping Inny out is one of the things in my life that I am most proud of and on top of that I now have a friend for life.

Teach, Learn, Share

It's amazing how expectations and goals has such drastic effect on one's life. If the bar is set low, we will sink to a point in which we can barely graze over it. However, when one sets a high standard, it's amazing the change we can make in ourselves.

"Shoot for the moon because even if you miss you'll land along the stars"
- Les Brown

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Austria, Belgium, China, Cuba, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Haiti, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, South Korea