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91 moving on People leave for all sorts of reasons, be it other economic or career oppor- tunities, family, new relationships or the need to keep going. The Guri expat community has added and subtracted, multiplied and divided so many times that any central expat figurehead comes and goes in two or three years. “Guri is my foundation. It’s the place that really cemented my commitment to forging a life abroad and becoming a citizen of the world,” says Evan Foster, an American who lived in Guri for two years starting in 2011 and has been traveling since. “I left Guri for the same reason that I decided to travel there: my desire to explore the unknown.” But even if you leave for several months, or maybe years, and the entire expat community has replaced itself, you can still walk into Kim’s bar and feel like you’re at home again. “Guri and Korea will always have a small piece of my heart,” Schlueter reminisces. “There is something nostal- gic and addicting about it. It would prob- ably be like going back to the house you grew up in.” Part of being an expat is learning how to say goodbye. Hundreds of expats have come and gone through the town with the turn of every new school se- mester. Recently I told Kim that it was coming time for me to move on from Korea. He said he would throw a big party for me when I did. I asked him, isn’t it hard to keep saying goodbye? Kim says there’s a handful of friends he’ll remember forever, but he doesn’t think about the inevitable future when the people he grows to know and love will have to leave. He says he lives in the present. “Sometimes people have to do certain things in their life. I can’t stop them, so I wish them well and that’s it,” he says. Expats will come and go, but as you leave, you bring something of the place with you, says Proctor. “The people and the places will always stay in my heart. Coming back is like coming home.” ‘(Kim and Misa) truly make you feel like you are at home or with family, when you are on the other side of the planet, and that is a tough thing to do.’ Rob Schlueter, former Guri resident