Korea

So! I am in South Korea and have been here for a few days now!

Traveling, including layovers and driving to/from the airport, took a total of 28 hours. I managed to sleep about 3 of those. Needless to say, jet lag has been a problem. I was definitely doing the whole "oh my god what am I doing here all these people stuck I shouldn't be here" thing for the first two days or so, but now that I've gotten a little more sleep I'm feeling a bit more generous.

They've been running us 24/7 since we arrived. For example, today's schedule: 7:30 breakfast, 9:00 lecture, 10:30 lecture, 12:30 lunch, 2:00 lecture, 3:30 lecture, 5:30 dinner, 7:00 Korean lessons. There's a period of about a half hour to forty minutes after each mean (besides breakfast, usually) to just hang out, which gives me a little bit of time to go and check my email, blah blah blah. I've been getting up at 6:30 every day and that gives me about a half hour to skype with Dan in the mornings. I miss him so much already and I know it will only get worse as the time here progresses.

Lectures have all been about Korea and Classroom Skills. It's getting to the point where I kind of feel like they just keep reiterating the same things over and over again, and they're focusing more on younger learners and not too much on high school teaching skills. I won't find out who I'm teaching until Wednesday, which also complicates how useful the lectures will be because I don't know what I should really be taking away and what won't apply to me.

I've made a couple of "friends" here. Definitely not BFFs but there are a few people who I could see myself hanging out with while I'm here. Just not the sort of people I think I would hang out with back home, so perhaps this will help me "grow." Or just realize I already have the best bunch of friends I could ever ask for and perhaps I shouldn't abandon them all to see the world, ha ha ha. I kid. Sort of.

Yesterday we had a field trip to see a Korean temple and a folk village. The temple was pretty cool, but like when visiting most religious places I always find myself noting the beauty, but also being distracted by the complete lack of connection I feel with anything involving religion. Sort of like when you drop a penny into a well and wait for a splash that never actually comes. Hmm. It was pretty though; I think the east wins out in the religious building arena. Western cultures may have done some amazing things with stone, but nothing beats the barrage of color which the temples here display. The folk village felt more like being at the South Korea of Epcot, which was to be expected. Sort of like when you go to Busch Gardens and go the the "Germany" there and go "Oh, look! Beer! Lederhosen! Truly this is authentic!" Um, no. But there was a neat dancing production and I got to glue paper to a Korean fan and make a picture. Hmmm.

I've only spent about $10 since I've been here, but I've also only gone out once. They've been feeding us about 10,000 pounds of food a day, so much you can't possibly consume it all. For example, today at lunch I had: two seaweed wrapped rice balls, udon noodle soup, watermelon, a tiny bit of kimchi, and fried vegetables. The problem with having the noodle bowls is they are so big they could be a meal themselves, but oftentimes it's not something I want as a whole meal given the other choices. However, I also end up hungry for the next meal. I think it's because we're getting a lot of vegetables and not a lot of complex sugars, starches, etc. I have to say, though, I am dreaming of tall frosty glasses of milk and macaroni and cheese. They have cafeteria carton milk at breakfast, but it's just not the same.

Anyway, things are going OK so far. On the one hand, I'm really anxious for orientation to be over so I can move into my new home for the next year. On the other, I'm terrified about leaving the womb of understanding and camaraderie which exists here. Of course, I came here to "grow" and "experience" or whatever, so I will have to MAN UP and JUST DO IT, blah blah blah.

I miss Dan like crazy. Like, crazy crazy. Like, I always feel like I'm forgetting something when really it's just the feeling of him being around that I don't have. Like, things would be 10times funner if he were here and I wish he could experience some of the things I get to. Hmmph. It's too early to start the countdown.

ch ch changes (you know, soon)

T-minus three days 'til takeoff. In 72 hours I will be just arriving in Chicago O'Hare for a two and a half hour layover, and then hopping on a fourteen and a half hour flight to Seoul. From Seoul, I will get on a bus and travel about 2 1/2 to 3 hours to Jeonju University, my orientation venue. After 10 days, I will hop on another bus for a couple hours to reach Gyeongbuk. The day before that bus ride I will have found out the location of my position. So, it'll still be a little over two weeks before I'm actually settled into "My New Home," or whatever.

I've spent a LOT of time in the last week crying. I wasn't naive to think that this would be easy, and I knew I would cry a little bit when I left Dan, but christ. I left Boone on Tuesday, around noon-ish, after a morning of delays and hugs and 'oh-god-I-can't-do-this.' He seemed fine until I actually starting picking up my bags to put in the car. He kissed me through the car window and my last memory of Boone is him standing there in the driveway, half waving and looking as if someone had died as I bawl and drive away.

Ugh. I feel like a Twinkie someone's sucked all the cream filling out of. That is, hollow and spongey and all kinds of gross. I miss him so much already.

This is nothing though. I'm at my mom's house, my brother is coming up today, and everything is still easy and familiar and there's a kitty I can play with and all the snacks I can eat. We're having my birthday dinner today -- twice baked potatoes, shake and bake pork chops, and grasshopper pie (whipped cream + creme de menthe + melted mini marshmallows + butter oh gooooodddddd). So I can't imagine how much I'll miss him this winter.

But I'm trying to stay optimistic! I'm going to a whole new country, nay, a whole new CONTINENT! I have friends in Japan who I think will let me visit! Not to mention all those other places in Korea and nearby countries -- the Phillipines, Vietnam, China, Taiwan! I want to make the most of Asia while I'm over there and while I have the income. I've got hoop dreams! I've got wanderlust!

To be precise, I've got wanderlust coupled with homebody-ness. I think the first is a natural inclination or sparked by reading too many "adventure/quest" books as a child (Tamora Pierce, anyone?), and the other is the separation and abandonment anxiety which resulted from my tumultuous upbringing.

Also! Dad was going to visit the first week of August. I haven't seen this man in five years, since I graduated high school, and he didn't attend my App graduation. I told him not to visit, because I was going to be in Boone, had to get my Visa done, etc. He was going to come anyway -- he was going to drive down to Tennessee (the not-close-to-Boone side), spend a night there and drop off his wife with her dad, drive over to Boone and spend an evening with me, drive out to Hubert the next morning to try and hang out with Steve after Steve got off work (you know, the night before he went to court, because he's not stressed enough about that), drive back through Boone and I guess see me one more time, and then drive back to Tennessee and then to Michigan. So, 934838974 hours of driving in a week for approximately 8 hours of visiting time? Ridiculous. He was supposed to arrive last Monday, and I called last Friday, couldn't get a hold of him, so left him a message on his machine basically telling him AGAIN not to come.

I never got a call back. He never showed up Monday, and he didn't send me a card or call me on my birthday. I think he's pouting. I'm pretty fed up with this bullshit. I'm sorry if he's in some sort of midlife crisis or something because he just married off his oldest stepdaughter and then must have went "Oh shit! I have kids too!" and now is trying to "play daddy" after twenty years of ignoring me, but I have other priorities -- you know, like spending my last moments in country with people I love and who CHOOSE to be a part of my life.

So yeah. Shout out to all my friends, Boone and Jacksonvillian, and my mom and brother, for being a good family. Love you all.

Packing needs to commence. I have a load of laundry in the dryer that is waiting to be folded. All this rambling has made my coffee grow cold. Boone, I'll miss you, but I really need to figure some shit out. You know, and pay off my credit card debt. I love you all!

And Dan, I love you. I miss you so much my stomach hurts.