I'm off!

AAAHHHH! I'm so excited, scared, nervous, happy, anxious, sleepy, crazy, (insert emotion here) - basically I'm just a big ball of nerves and emotions. I can't believe I'm really moving to Korea tomorrow/today (it's past midnight, but I haven't gone to bed yet).

I'm basically done packing. But I grossly miscalculated how much stuff I had. I can't tell you how gross my miscalculation was.
It was Seriously Gross.

The plan was to pack all of my clothes, shoes (please don't ask me how many pairs of shoes I have), and other necessities, then fit in books and movies as I had room. I have a ton of books that I haven't read yet and it's always nice to have a few favorite movies.

Suffice it to say that I am grateful to know that there are good places to find English books in Seoul and I can buy movies on iTunes.

I found myself pulling articles of clothing out of my bags left and right - if I wasn't positive I would wear it more than a handful of times, it came out of the suitcase. It seems a shame to leave all of this perfectly decent clothing behind, but I suppose it will be as if I had new clothing when I return a year from now.

Now I'm just hoping that I won't have to pay too much because my bags are over the weight limit. I was blessed enough to get my visa in Seattle yesterday, so I didn't have to make an extra trip today, after all. Who knows? Maybe they will just waive the extra charges tomorrow... or better yet, bump me up to first class :) Then my bags would be within the weight limits.

I'm going to sign off for now - I've got to figure out what to do with all of the stuff I'm leaving behind!

Annyonghi kaysayo!

Woot woot!

Oh yeah, baby! I've got my plane tickets and I'm flying out on Saturday!

Somehow it doesn't seem real until the flight is booked.
Would you believe that I just got the tickets this evening?
And that's only because I wouldn't stop harassing the recruiter to book them.
He kept telling me, "Oh, it's no problem, there are plenty of seats. We've got time." In fact, I think those are exactly the words he said to me over the phone last night.

My response was, "Yes, I understand. But I would like to know when I'm flying out..." So he finally gave in and called the travel agent to book my flight. Lo and behold, there weren't any seats available for Friday night.
Hmmm...maybe it would have been wise to book the tickets more than four days in advance? So he said he would book them for Saturday. He told me that he would book them the next day (today) and send me the itinerary.

And he did! I fly out Saturday afternoon. They've booked me nonstop to Seoul (flying time is just under 12 hours), so I will arrive Sunday evening.

Yes, I know. Saturday afternoon + 12 hours does not Sunday evening make.
But Seoul is 17 hours ahead of PST, so we're talking Saturday afternoon + 12 hours + 17 hours. AKA Sunday evening.
Kinda trippy.
It'll be cool on the way back, though. I'll leave Seoul, fly for 12 hours, and get to Seattle 5 hours before I left.
hehehe

I'm going to get back to packing - I'm actually way ahead of the game and may not end up scrambling around the night before, hurling things haphazardly into suitcases.

Hmm..that'd be nice.

Tomorrow I'm going up to Seattle for my visa interview.
They'd better accept me, cuz hey - I've got plane tickets.
It seems to be more of a formality than anything else. I just have to try my best to not act crazy, and they should give me a nice shiny little stamp in my passport.

Of course, the shiny little stamp takes 24 hours to process, so unless I can sweet-talk the interviewing officer into speeding things up and returning my visa'd passport to me tomorrow, I'll be schlepping back up to Seattle on Friday to retrieve my little blue book.

Including the trip to the airport, that would make three trips to Seattle in as many days. For anyone who hasn't noticed the price of gas recently - it ain't cheap.
Here's hoping I can charm the folks at the Korean consulate...

I know that I have been woefully remiss in my blogging lately.
I would apologize, but it's my blog - I do what I want.
Also, I haven't seen you folk commenting recently, so... yeah.

There seems to be something about coming home that sucks the blogginess right out of me.
Call it catching up with family and friends.
Call it slow internet access.
Call it laziness.
Call it what you will.
But I can tell you right now, that new adventures breed blogginess.

Well, new adventures and comments.

So the new adventure are coming, now it's up to you, citizens of Townsville! Comment away and watch the blogs of new adventures pour in like...
like...
blogs...

Errr... right...

Onward!!

Highlights (not the magazine)

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted, blah blah blah, I’ll try to do better, blah blah blah. Well, now that that’s been said, let me catch you up. Life in Jersey has been eventful and uneventful all at once. Although it has its ups and downs, overall, I am definitely enjoying it. Most of all I am enjoying paying off my debts. Due to low expenses and good pay, I have been able to put a substantial amount of money towards this cause every week. It excites me to think that at this rate, it should only take me about 35 years to become debt-free, instead of the 70 years I’d been planning on! Seriously, though, I’ve discovered that student debt can be an extremely intimidating and overwhelming animal. Especially if one spends one’s college years gallivanting around Europe… But I don’t regret a minute of it. My experience was worth the crushing weight pushing down upon my chest, forcing me down into the depths of the ocean. I can hold my breath for a long time.

Exaggerated metaphors aside, I really don’t regret any of it. But I digress. Umm..I think I was trying to catch you up on my life in NJ? Ah, yes. I’ll give you the highlights:

My weeks fly by out here. I am up at 6:30 every morning* and I only take enough time to throw on some clothes and put my contacts in before starting work. Although I typically have a couple of hours free after the kids are off to school, my day doesn’t end until 7:30 at night. Recently I have been so busy with work that I haven’t had much time to myself in the morning. I enjoy my job, and this, coupled with the quantity of hours I’ve been working, results in weeks that fly by. I take it easy on the weekends, though, so it sometimes seems like my weekends are as long as my workweek. Not bad, right? It may not be the case, but if that’s what it feels like, that’s what counts, right? Of course right!**

Ok, so, that wasn’t really a highlight. It was more like a description of my everyday life. So? What are you gonna do about it? I’m 26 years old, nobody tells me what to do. WHAT?!?

Highlights. For real this time. I got a 4-day weekend because of Thanksgiving this year. Woot woot. Last year I worked on Thanksgiving, and the last time I had 4 days off in a row was before I got a job after coming back from Spain. So this was definitely a treat. I went over to Christin’s house Wednesday night, then on Thursday she and I went with Brian (her fiancé) to Connecticut to have Thanksgiving dinner with his family. We did some shopping and chillaxing on Friday and Saturday, then on Sunday, our church didn’t have a service. Instead, we had a community outreach which we called “Gas Buy Down, Prayer Fuel Up.” The church bought eleventy-billion*** gallons of gas, then sold it to the public for 99 cents/gallon. We also washed people's windshields and tires, gave out coffee, cider, juice, water, and donuts, and prayed with people who had any prayer requests. It was very cool. I must say, though, while it was an act of service we were doing for the entire community and everyone was welcome, there was a part of me that was a bit indignant at the Hummers that rolled through. Oops! Forgot to mention something. Saturday my boss called me and asked if I wanted to go to the ballet with them - they had an extra ticket! Of course I said I’d love to. After a delicious dinner in Little Italy, we sat in the 8th row at the New York City Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker. It was Very Fun Times.

Those are the main highlights. The one that is just beginning is my Christmas vacation. I started today. Right now I am sitting in Newark (evidently pronounce “Noork”…) airport waiting to be let on a plane that was supposed to depart an hour ago : ( It’s not all bad, though. I’m posting a blog! Tonight (or at this point, maybe early tomorrow morning) when I arrive in Seattle, my parents and Jess will pick me up at the airport and we will head to Port Townsend where we’ll meet up with the rest of my family at the condo we’ll be staying at for the week. Yay! I’m so excited! Then I’ll go back to Centralia with them for a few days before I return to NJ on New Years Day. I think we’re going to board soon, though, so I’m packing up the old lappy until next time. Good night, San Francisco. You stay classy.


*By this I mean that I should be up by 6:30 every morning - my alarm starts going off at 6:15 but sometimes it is as late as 6:50 when I finally drag myself out of bed. Some things never change.

**10 points to the first person who names the movie I’m referencing. 20 points to the person who names the character.

***This number is approximate.

Pictures

I rarely take pictures anymore. The days where I would take 30 meaningless pictures without even thinking twice about it (which is, incidentally, how ninjas do most things), are long gone. However, I do take pictures when I have a good reason, such as today. ELIDA IS HERE! It's so crazy, and I'm so excited - even though this is the worst possible weekend of the year for me. I'm meeting up with her and Jerome in about an hour and a half.

Consequently, I charged up my batteries and brought my camera with me to school. And guess what - I have more pictures from my trip to Madrid. I just forgot to put them on my laptop. So here are some from my last few days there.

Ahhh, the Wonderfully Minging Casa Mingo. Matt was trying to pour sidra like the Spaniards, but most of it wound up on the floor. Bless.

This was in the Gatwick Airport. I feel very strongly that there is something inherently wrong with the entire concept. This may be a clue to the origins of the stereotype of Brits having bad teeth.

Ahh, yes. My lovely stay at the exquisite Chez Gatwick. I think I was there for about 15 hours? Luckily for me, it only felt like 15 years...

Well, there you have it, folks. A few more pictures for ya. Maybe someday I'll post daily pics again, who knows. I will definitely be posting some pics of me with my old roomie in the next few days. Hooray!

Posting of post postponed until post-travel

I typed up this post a couple of days ago when I was hanging out in Gatwick. However, since I was not connected to the internet, I was unable to post it at the time. I'm hoping to post more about my trip in the coming week, but for now, here's Tuesday's post:

It is now 7:26 am of Tuesday, March 28th. I’m sitting in Gatwick airport, twiddling my thumbs. Except for the “twiddling my thumbs“ part... I’m fairly good at avoiding boredom. But I’ve been counting the hours until my flight, and they are many. Luckily, I’ve come well prepared. I’ve been reading Jane Eyre, and I occupied about 3 hours in finishing the book. I’ve got the entire collection of The Office with me (both seasons and the special), so I’ve watched some of my favorite bits as well as the special features (yes - this includes the commentary, and yes - I know I’m a nerd for watching it. It’s actually quite funny, though. Ricky Gervais is ridiculous). I accidentally left one of Kelly’s DVDs in my laptop (oops… sorry about that, Guills, I could mail them to you…), so I spent about 2 hours watching episodes of Arrested Development which I hadn’t seen. I also have a copy of Nicholas Nickleby with me, which I am eager to read. So, I’ve got plenty of supplies to help me while away the hours.

My plane was scheduled to arrive at 10:15 pm last night, but it was delayed and did not arrive until 11:45 pm. I didn’t mind, that just meant less time that I had to hang out here at Gatwick. My flight today is not until 2:00 pm, but I am over halfway there. Consequently, with all of my provisions and the amount of time that has already passed, I’ve been feeling quite optimistic, if a little tired.

I haven’t slept, because I don’t want to risk any of my things getting stolen. I’m not really that tired, though, and in a bit I’ll go buy some coffee at Starbucks - on second thought, that could be a bit risky. Last time I went to the Gatwick Airport Starbucks, I ordered an Iced Caramel Macchiato and the barista put steamed milk in it instead of cold milk… Hmm… I wonder if they’d let me make my own drink? Yeah, probably not.

Anyway, back to my optimism. I was just contemplating the fact that the time has gone by relatively quickly and it shouldn’t be too hard to get through the next few hours. Then I looked at my itinerary. I have a total of 15 hours of flying ahead of me today plus a 3 ½ hour layover in Atlanta. Fun times. Well, at least I should be able to get a little sleep on the plane. Maybe I’ll get lucky and they’ll upgrade me to first class. I definitely need to get as much sleep as possible, because I don’t get in until almost 11:30 pm tonight, and I have class tomorrow morning - my first day of classes in my last quarter at the UW. Technically, the first day of classes for spring quarter was on Monday. Obviously, I didn’t go…

I think I’m going to close here. Someone just walked by carrying Starbucks coffee and the sight of it made me conscious of the necessity of a caramel machiatto. One of the annoying things about traveling alone is that I can’t just run down, get some coffee, and bring it back - I have to pack up all of my stuff and drag it down to Starbucks. But that is of little consequence, I desperately require a caramel machiatto. Now. I am convinced that oversight of the requirement of this critical, life-giving manna would lead to certain death. Hence, I must bid you farewell.

Random side note: If you’re looking for a song with some cowbell, “The Undeveloped Story,” by Anberlin is a great one.

It's good to be home

Well, maybe I should say it's good to be at my sister's home. While I was in Spain last year, my parent's cleverly seized the opportunity to sell our family home, so I don't actually have a home right now. Much to my relief, my sister has taken me in. I don't really know how long she'll put up with me before I'm back on the streets, but for now I'll just enjoy having a bed to sleep in and not think about the inevitable.

My plane flew in to Seattle night before last at about midnight. So by the time I got to my sister's place, it had been 25 1/2 hours since I left my brother's place in Spain. That may seem like a long time to be traveling, but my bags had it even worse. They just got in about half an hour ago.

I love traveling. There's nothing like that thrill of excitement that you get when you first enter a new country. It's strange, but I forget about that rush until I'm actually entering the country. Then it just kind of hits me. This past month was the first time I had ever been to Morocco or Ireland, and in Morocco I had the added thrill of being in a new continent. I think I'm addicted to travel. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to go anywhere right now. I'm perfectly content to be back in C-town relaxing and getting some rest (oddly enough, though, I've only slept a total of about 10 hours in the last two nights- go figure). However, I know that in a couple of months, all I'll be thinking about is that next hit..er..trip. While I was coming home, I had a layover at JFK in New York. At the airport I popped into a Starbucks to get my usual Iced Caramel Machiatto and a pamphlet caught my eye. It was about some contest that Starbucks was running where the winners get a free trip to the country of their choosing which has a Starbucks in it. The brochure was old; the contest ended a few years ago. I looked over the list of countries, though, and I started getting excited thinking of all of the places on the list that I wanted to visit. I definitely have an addiction. I'm planning on going to England over spring break, but that's not for another 8 months or so. I could be a wreck by then. I'm hoping to get a car in the next few weeks, though. If I get it off of Ebay, it will probably involve flying somewhere and driving it home. Maybe that will help stave off the cravings. Oh well, for now maybe I'll just go unpack my bags. After wearing the same clothes for the last month and a half, I'm pretty excited to rediscover my clothing.