The Road to South Korea Just Got Shorter

5 Dec

The scenery is starting to change. The bright leaves of fall have given way to naked trees. My laundry that has been scattered all over my room is now finding its way in an organized fashion to my suitcase. And my Passport, previously mostly barren except for a stamp here are there from Germany and England, now has a Korean Visa in it. Funny, it seems I am going to Korea…

I am in that busy hazy phase prior to making a life-altering shift. You know the one, where you tend to the immediate details at hand preparing you for something that… hasn’t fully consciously hit you yet. Yep, that’s me. Although it’s starting to hit me… waves of excitement and anxiety are finding their way to my body. I wake up before the sun rises, before the busy little bodies in the home where I stay rise. I get up and I start to work… on whatever I can think of to do next to make sure I have everything cared for before I leave.

Bye the way, did I mention that I am leaving on Tuesday? As in less than a week from today? I was patiently riding on the slow visa train to Korea when all of a sudden, I switched tracks and landed on the express. And here I am wandering in everything I want to make sure is complete and wondering about the little things I am not thinking about that still need to get done.

Last week it suddenly dawned on me… that I needed to buy a plane ticket. I felt sort of like an expectant mother who had gotten so comfortable in the process of pregnancy that I almost forgot about giving birth. And then one day, the alarms sounded… it is time! It is time NOW!

So here I am bustling in the wake and energy of my plane ticket purchase preparing for my imminent trip to Korea. My new place of employment, the Gyeonggi English Village (GEV), is ready for me to arrive and to begin training for their new program. I will be teaching English at a hands-on-learning campus created to immerse Korean and international students in the English Language.

Happily I will be making a brief stop in the mid-west to visit with my family – my parents and my sister and her family. My gut says its important to spend some time with them before I leave, even for just a few days. I will leave for Korea from there.

This is not something that happens for me every day – preparing to travel to Asia! It’s my first time there. I am grateful for a few little tokens of comfort like knowing that I will be picked up at the Seoul airport by a taxi driver sent just for me who will be holding a sign with my name on it. It’s funny I have always seen that scene played out in the movies, but it has never happened in my own life… until now. I get butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it! From there I will be taken to my apartment on the GEV campus. Yes, my own apartment – a luxury that I have not had the pleasure of since I have been traveling.

I am wrapping up my time here at the family residence in Philadelphia that I have called “home” for the past 3 months. The youngest boy has been feeding me a steady diet of hand-made presents, since I won’t be here for Christmas. Practically speaking, this home has been a perfect place for me to be at this time of transition and visa making. I have been just a stones throw away from the post office, UPS office and other “city needs”. Additionally I have been most fortunate to have use of a happy, thriving, macintosh laptop computer. It’s a lovely toy, if even for the short-term, and especially with the expected death of my slow but well-loved PC laptop… hanging in there for now, but… it doesn’t look good.

I am trying to make the most of these last few days here… preparing the family as best as I can to transition to life without an extra set of hands. I did my best to stock up on groceries and even cooked a few casseroles to put in the freezer for a little added comfort and joy when I leave.

And now, well, I keep walking the walk of “what is there for me to do next?” on my road to South Korea… getting shorter and shorter as the days go by. A busy and expectant time!

If you’d like to learn a bit more about my journey and trip to Korea, I invite you to view the video I created. It’s on my Indiegogo campaign at www.indiegogo.com/southkorea. And while you’re there please consider a contribution of any amount to support the continuation of this long lovely journey and big school of life.

Thanks for joining me from time to time on the road. Much more to come!

Photo of Forbidden Road, my favorite “getaway” in near-bye Wissahickon Park in Philadelphia, PA.