Moving...bleh

As my dear readers know, I recently signed a new contract with my school, keep me in Seoul for about 16 more months, give or take a month. I decided I needed a change in my living situation if I was going to be here that long and lo and behold, friends of mine were leaving an awesome apartment. I snapped it up and in five days, I move into a apartment that has not only an oven but...hold on to your britches!...a dryer. I have not had dryer-fresh clothes since I was in the States, over a year ago. Oh, it's going to be heavenly.

The only bad part of all this is that I have to pack up two years worth of stuff. I came to Korea with a backpack and a large duffle bag. Now, I have everything you can think of. Kitchen stuff, tons of shoes/clothes/bags, a Rubenesque cat. I haven't moved in over two years (for me, that's a long long time) and I've gotten out of the habit.

One funny thought, though. As I pack things away, I find myself flicking away wall hangings that are no longer there and things like that. This apartment is incredibly familiar to me but when I first came to Seoul, I thought everything was so foreign, so different that I'd never get used to it. Ha.

The BIG Trip!

Annyeong, chingus!

I think a lot of you know my big news but here it is in detail. I'm going on a three month round-the-world trip, leaving August 29th! I just bought my ticket last week and now all I have to do is save, save, save so I can shop shop shop.


First stop: Delhi! I will make my way to Nepal/Kathmandu via Agra (Taj Mahal) and Varanasi and I'll do a trek to the Annapurna base camp. I'll head back into India and my main priorities are visiting the states Punjab and Rajahstan. I'd like to go into a couple of the Himalayan states too but I'm not sure I'll have enough time. I'll be in the area for 6 weeks.


Second stop: Turkey! Erin is meeting me in Istanbul and I really couldn't be more excited about that. We haven't planned anything yet but I imagine we'll wander around the city for a few days before exploring more of the country.


Third stop: Holland/Belgium! This stop is to visit Felicia, who just moved to Ghent in January. Shana and Aleli might meet up there, too, for a full FANS reunion. That would be in-cred-ible and I really, really hope it happens.


Fourth stop: San Francisco! For a whirl-wind 8 days, I'll be in the Bay Area and hopefully I'll see as many people/family as possible.


Fifth stop: Belize! Julia's wedding and my ass is a bridesmaid. I can't wait to make an embarrassing (for her) speech.

Sixth stop: Costa Rica! Some friends from Seoul might be there but to be honest, I'd really like to just chill out on the beach for a couple weeks after all this travel.

Anyone who wants to meet up, let me know!