I fly to Korea in two weeks?!

!!! ? .... !

Hooooooboy. I'm currently at my mural-site in Meadville (rocking out with my infamous erratic sleeping schedule) and just got an e-mail from Lindsay with my E2 Visa number. That means the next step is to call the Korean Consulate in NYC at a respectable hour and try to schedule my interview to be granted my visa. Then I let my parents, who are amazingly kind and helping me buy my ticket, know when I need to fly out (either the 26th or the 27th). Then I figure out how the hell I'm getting to NYC and back, haha.

This past week was my last week of work at Allegheny's Alumni Affairs & Development offices. I've been there for 5 years and I've loved that job. While the college reunion is a really fun event to work in the summer, 95% of my love lies with the people I worked with. In about 7 different ways, I wouldn't have gotten through college without them.

Over the weekend, I was treated to video game time with Kris in Erie (mmm....BioShock in HD) and suddenly, it was a surprise going away party when Scott came home with pizza and Sara, Tristan, and lil baby Ambrose came in! We played Guitar Hero, Apples to Apples, and In a Pickle AND Scott and Kris presented me with 2 books on Korean culture and a cake that said "congratulations" in Hangul (Korean characters)--too good!

I've got to be out of my Meadville apartment by Saturday, so this week is sorting through my possessions--or at the very least getting them to my parents' house--and finishing up my mural (my primary goal at this point). I'm having dinner with some of my professors and trying to say goodbye to all of my loves in Meadville. It's going to be hardest to say goodbye to Jeremy. He's been my best friend here for three years. /sigh/

Then this weekend starts my camping up at the Belden House. It's always such chaotic-spaz-love, haha. I'll be reading my Korea books, making Hungul and Korean phrase flashcards, running off to NYC for a minute, saying goodbye to everyone, watching my sister conduct the marching band, packing, and flying off to my new adventure.

When I get there (20 hours later + 14hr time difference), it'll be evening on the 27th or the 28th and I'll arrive in Seoul. Then I'll take a 4hr bus ride south to Gwangju and meet up with one of Lindsay's Korean partners, Eun-ju, who will meet me and help me navigate to my apartment in Hampyeong. Then, if I arrive Thursday, my Korean co-teacher (who stays in class with me to help if the kids are misbehaving or if there's a massive communication breakdown) will take me to Nampyeong Middle School to show me around. Then I have to the weekend to, as Lindsay said, "relax." I imagine that I'll be buying the things I realize that I need (including the SLIPPERS I wear at work--no shoes for me, bwahaha!), meeting a ton of people, and learning how to navigate food and geography. Teaching starts that Monday and allegedly, I won't teach the first day, but we'll see (they said the same thing to Lindsay and Whit and they taught multiple classes their first day).

And a few weeks after me, Lacey arrives in Daegu!

We're gonna have us a craaaazy year.

That's it for meow. Quick cigarette break and it's back to painting that damn grassy hill.
-Tamz