En route

6 hours of flying down and here I wait in San Fransisco.  In just under 3 hours I’ll board my Singapore Airlines flight to Seoul and be sitting on a plane for another 12 hours as I traverse the Pacific Ocean for the first time.  Excited?  Absolutely!

With my extra week at home I managed to see a few more good friends, some that I hadn’t seen or talked to in quite some time.  I loved their reminders that the last time we spoke, maybe as much as 2 years ago, I was talking about teaching in Korea and well, now I am!  If I can do it so can you.  Set your goals and go for it!

The nervousness has mostly died down.  I barely slept last night between repacking and all the adrenaline pumping through my system.  It still seems so surreal and I’m not sure if I believe that I’m actually going to be finding my home for the next 1+ years in the coming hours.

Friends and family, you will be missed. I’m terrible at farewells but gave out lots of hugs with only a few tears shed and plenty of my signature “until next time.”  Although these days I’ve been telling everyone next time is in Seoul because everyone is invited to come visit!  I’m already pumped for my brother’s visit in October.  We wanna check out Bukhansan National Park, the old city in Seoul and see if he can get us a special DMZ tour through one of his buddies on base.  But right now that seems too far away to think about.

I can’t wait to meet my coworkers and my students on Thursday and set up my apartment this weekend.  Its hard to fathom that I’ll be spending my upcoming weeks exploring a new city and new country.  Lets hope the culture shock isn’t too bad, I know the food will be great, even if it isn’t as good as my pizza joint back home.

Signing off for now.  See you in Seoul!