I am sitting in the O'Hare International Terminal waiting for my plane to South Korea to board. The stewardesses have been streaming by in preparation for the flight. I was told by a friend that they only hire cute stewardesses on travels to South Korea. It's true. I'm wondering how to handle the jet lag. Should I sleep right away on the plane or avoid sleep as much as I can until Korea? It will be 1:45pm Saturday Michigan time when we take off and 4:00pm Sunday when we land in Korea.

Korea, it is still a strange thing to think that I will be spending a year in a country on the other side of the globe with a vastly different cultural structure. I am not sure when it first occurred to me that this might be a good idea. I suppose I had a friend that mentioned that she was doing it several years ago, and like many ideas planted long ago, eventually they begin to germinate. After graduating with a secondary education degree in English as well as Biology, I knew that I did not want to sit on my diplomas. Michigan is a hard place for a lot of people right now, let alone teachers. The market is extremely competitive. I have friends that have spent years subbing without finding a steady job. I do not want that. I will lose my willpower, my drive, and I am afraid I will wallow in self-pity. If I know myself, I need something to keep the momentum going. Aside from that, I am young. If I wait a year, who knows what else will happen that will keep me from leaving? The longer I wait, the less likely I will ever be able to make a drastic move like this.

I almost did not go. My interview for the jobs in the Fall did not go well. I was not sure why at the time, other than I thought the interviewer came off as cold and disinterested. By a great stroke of undeserved luck, my case worker Jinny was also looking to fill a few spots in Incheon Province. One was at a college teaching English teachers methods as well as higher level English speaking. The other was at a higher level high school that required a placement test to enter. The first paid more, but the second was far more relevant to my experience. I will be teaching at the high school. The web site really impressed me. They teach English through literature, not just conversational topics. This might just be a perfect fit for me, since it is not the words themselves that I love, but their meaning.

The stewardesses have boarded. A Korean child sits next to me playing Bubble Bobble on an Ipod Touch. It's fifteen minutes until boarding and I am waiting on one last phone call before we leave. I smell cold Korean food opened from tupperware.

(Written on 5/19/2012 at 12pm CST)