I Am a Rockstar Chapter 1: In which nothing is said about being a rockstar

K, here's my exciting news:

I quit my job.

However, in my line of work, "giving notice" does not mean two weeks. More like eight. But because my boss was worried that she couldn't get someone to start right before the holidays and I'm such a nice person (no comments from the peanut gallery, please), I gave 11-1/2 weeks notice.

I can sense you doing rapid mathematical calculations in your head and realizing that this means it took me 2-1/2 weeks to share my news with you, my faithful readers.

But don't look at it that way - I'm letting you know nine weeks in advance! Wow! Don't you feel privileged?!...

Technically, though, I have more than 9 weeks left. In 9 weeks, I start my Christmas vacation. I'll have 2-1/2 weeks off, then I come back for 1-1/2 weeks to train the next person. But I'm calling it 9 weeks for a few reasons:

1. Nine weeks is easier to digest than thirteen weeks*, or in a word - sanity.

2. I'll only be working eight days in January. Following a 2-1/2 week vacation and preceding...the end of my job...it will go quickly and should be easy.

3. I'm moving home at Christmas; so I'll be packing a bag to come back out here in January. This lends to the notion that I'm really quitting in December. Rather than taking a trip home for Christmas before coming back to work, I'll be moving home for Christmas and taking a trip back out here for work. See the difference?

One of my weeks at Christmas is unpaid time off, but the rest is vacation. So I'll be paid for my last 3 weeks here, but only working half of it. Cool, right? I think so.

Then I'm back in the good old Northwest for a month. I'm not going to work, either. For a whole month. I'm pretty excited about it. But I hope I don't go crazy. I don't think I will. I should have plenty to keep me busy. Between catching up with friends and family, getting rid of as much of my stuff as I can part with (it's tough to be a nomad and a packrat at the same time - not practical), and preparing to move to South Korea, I shouldn't get bored.

That's right, I said I'm moving to South Korea. Seoul, to be specific. I'm hoping to go in mid-February, right after the Lunar New Year. This has led to all kinds of ideas for a new blog name. Here are my favorites:

"Life through my eyes: your window into Seoul"

"For those about to ROK,** we Seoul-ute you."

Too cheesy? Any other ideas?

I'm sure that some of you are wondering what happened to my dreams of becoming a US diplomat. Oh, they're still firmly in place. But they're also still dreams and I have to have a backup plan. To be honest, I'm not very optimistic about the exam I took last month. I'll find out how I did sometime over the next few weeks, but I'm not holding my breath (mostly because that would be stupid - holding one's breath for a few weeks could not end well).

However, if I do pass, I will be invited to take the oral assessment. I could take that in DC in December and I would find out at the end of the day how I did.

Were I to pass the written exam and pass the oral assessment with a high score, there would be a good chance of getting hired within the next few months. In this case, I would not go to Korea. In any other case, it is off to Korea for me!

If anybody*** wants to come with me, let me know soon and we can probably be roommates and get jobs at the same school! All that is required is that you have a passport from an English-speaking country, a Bachelor's Degree in any major, and the ability/willingness to commit to a year.

Stay tuned for Chapter 2, in which I reveal details of my secret life as a rockstar.

*If you recognize that I actually have 13 weeks left, that means I gave 15-1/2 weeks notice! Wow! I'm a really nice person!

**ROK = Republic of Korea aka South Korea. All the cool kids use this abbreviation. Admittedly, the phrase doesn't make sense if you understand what ROK means, but I still think it's mildly clever...

***By "anybody," I don't really mean anybody. For example, if you randomly stumbled onto this blog and we've never met, this doesn't include you. Sorry.