"So Emo" right now

(I wrote this post July 13th, the Minnesota countdown is actually at 1 week today!!!)

To quote Will Ferrell in Anchorman, I’m in a glass case of emotion right now.

In 26 days I will be on a plane headed to Minnesota, and I am so excited to see my family and friends back home I can hardly stand it. However, in 26 days, I also have to say goodbye to some of the people I've spent the last year exploring and enduring Korea with. Some folks are sticking around another year, but most are leaving the Land of the Morning Calm for good. My fellow S.M.O.E.'ers are heading off to graduate school, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, China and Ireland, or back home to the U.S., Canada or the U.K.

When I come back from my home visit, only a handful of the people that have become a part of my life here will still be around, and it’s hard to imagine what Korea will be like without them.

However I'm trying not to be too much of a sap and just enjoy the time we have left together. All of us came here because we love to travel, so I'm sure we will visit each other in the coming years.

In spite of a few bumps in the road, it’s been a really good year. For some of us this year was a break between undergrad and graduate school, for others it was a break from the corportate life, for others, a chance to get teaching experience due to a lack of jobs back home.

For me, this year was about taking risks and being able to look back on my life without regrets. I knew back in college that I wanted to teach or volunteer abroad someday, it was just a matter of when. In January of 2008, in the midst of a particularly frustrating trimester (probably in the middle of teaching "The Great Gatsby" to an un-enthused group of juniors and seniors) I wondered if now was as good a time as any.

After talking to the staff at North, including my principal, I pretty much received a unanimous "get out of here!" I’m really glad that I took their advice, because coming here set things into motion that I never could have anticipated. There are so many ESL teaching jobs out there, and at this point, I could teach anywhere. I’ve thought about Hong Kong, Japan, Spain, and South America for the next leg of my ‘travel the world’ journey.

Here is the tentative plan for now: I signed a contract with S.M.O.E. for another 6 months. (Not really something they like to allow but I fought for it) After that, I want to do a stint teaching at a University in Japan, in or near Tokyo. I know of a recruiting agency that hooks you up with 3-5 month university jobs and I’m really hoping that works out.

After that, my friend Ashley and I want to move to South America, Brazil specifically. When I was dating the Brazilian guy, I started studying Portuguese for fun and I think it’s THE most beautiful language. It’s also pretty easy to pick up having studied French for 7 years and knowing a little Spanish. Also, pretty much everyone who has lived or traveled there has nothing but good things to say about it. It sounds like a magical place, aside from the poverty, crime and corruption, of course.

Lately I’ve been reading Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, and he believes that things aren’t coincidental; that everything that happens in life is part of “the mysterious chain that links one thing to another.” I wasn’t a believer in signs before or the idea that my destiny is prewritten, but I never imagined that Korea would lead me to Brazil. Maybe things do happen for a reason.

…or maybe I’m just overly emo right now. In any case, I have time to figure it out. I’m really obsessed with Paulo Coelho though, so if you’re looking for a good read, I’d recommend picking up a copy of “The Alchemist,” or any of his books really. He’s a beautiful writer.