Assah!!!

(Translation: Awesome!!!)

I spend so much time worrying about things that in the end, just seem to work themselves out.

I had my phone interview with Westgate yesterday, and I finally found out the details I desperately wanted to know. The past few months I'd been worried that they would want me to start in March, giving me no time to travel between contracts and maybe a week or so to go home and visit my family.

But as luck would have it, I wouldn't start until April 29th, giving me TWO whole months off to travel and also spend some time at home! It's perfect. I say "wouldn't" because I haven't actually been given the job yet, but I was feeling good vibes...through the phone :)

Anyway I think I'm going to spend the month of March traveling in Asia. I finally have this big chunk of time to visit some of the places on my ever-growing list. My contract ends February 28th, and I think on March 1st I'll fly into Bangkok, and spend a week or so in Thailand, my happy place.

After that, I'd like to hit up Vietnam and Laos, followed by Beijing. Beijing isn't really close to the other places, but I can't leave Asia without visiting The Great Wall of China, it would just be wrong. Then from Beijing, I'd fly home to Minnesota in the end of March, and spend April at home with the fam.

There are, of course, many more places I'd like to visit, but seeing as I'm horrible at saving money/budgeting, I'm sticking to places where I know I'll get more bang for my won. India will have to wait.

But I'm super excited. A major reason I decided to stay abroad another year was so that I could travel more, and for awhile it didn't seem that I would get to do much of it this year (what with familial obligations eating up all my vacation days) but lo and behold, it's happening :)

On a related note, my students finally caught wind that I'm leaving them, and for Japan of all places! Their faces register utter shock and horror when I tell them this. Most Koreans still harbor ill-feelings towards Japan for that whole 35- year occupation thing, and you can't really blame them. Like many Koreans complain, the Japanese government never issued a formal apology, and they sort of pretend like it never happened. A few of my students also told me that Japanese people have very "low quality" pronunciation when speaking English, and proceeded to mock their pronunciation of words like "McDonalds." As if their pronunciation was perfect... but anyway, I got a little choked up saying goodbye to a few kids. I'm around for 2 more months though, so it doesn't feel like goodbye yet. Plus I'm too busy daydreaming about my trip ;)