Last Christmas speaking English?

I cannot believe that it is December, yet again! It is seriously true that the older one gets, the more quickly time progresses. Getting old.......

Well, I believe it has been almost six month since my last update. This fall has been full of life changes, both good and bad. I started my first career job this past August teaching ESL in high school. I was in a very strange, very frustrating play. K and I had huge marriage problems we had to work out. Needless to say, K and I are still in the infant stage of our marriage, being still under the 2 year mark. We had a serious trial to go through in August and September, but it really caused us to become closer. We realized how much we wanted to make our marriage work and we were almost feral in protecting it. Counseling and God have been huge help factors. Let me just say to all the married people or soon to be married people out there. COMMUNICATION! Never underestimate it or take it for granted. It is most likely the single most important thing a marriage can have to make it succeed. Use it.

With the new year approaching and K and I turned 27 and 24 respectively, we are looking to this next year to be one of huge change for us both. This year is the year that I must fill out Visa forms. We have to register our marriage in Korea. We have to acquire employment overseas, sell a lot of our stuff, find a way to get our cats to Korea, travel around the US and then permanently move to the Republic of Korea by next December.  It will certainly be by next December, if not sooner depending on K's graduation date. I sure would love to hear from those of you who have had to break the news to your parents that you were moving within the year, no ifs, ors, or buts. How did you do it??? I might be eating KFC from a bucket next Christmas downing exorbitant amounts of soju and pretending that I understand everything my in-laws are saying to me. This could very well be my last Christmas speaking English. say whaaaat?

Kimchi woes

So a small insight into my cultural marriage as of late. This afternoon my husband asked me if I would cut some fresh kimchi for him and put it in the fridge. I groaned and looked across the room at him in disdain. "You do it." I griped. "I HATE cutting kimchi! It stains my hands and makes me smell." He looks over in surprise and frustration and says...and I quote, " You are my wife. You are going to be cutting kimchi for the rest of your life." That effectively shut down my argument. Hello Kimchi. Welcome to the rest of my life...apparently.  

You may call me Master Kim

So I graduated today. For the second time. It meant more this time because it felt more final. Last time I jumped straight from undergrad into grad school. This time real life is waiting for me. I have a job teaching ESL at a local high school and I couldn't be more excited. I have so many plans for the future year that I can't wait to get started! It was really great to have all my family down in Cleveland today as well. I loved being able to celebrate getting my Master's degree with them. I wouldn't have made it this far without them, that is for sure. I think that the best part about all of this is that I love being in a stage of transition, especially the days right before the big change. I love the anticipation and anxiety. Moving on and going to the next step thrills me. Also having a steady income and work schedule thrills me as well. haha.

I am going to love having a bit more time on my hands. Korean study is going to be taking more of a focus in my life now that I actually have time for it. I actually used some of my Korean today in Target. It was really random and fun. I was there with my family and we had just sat down in the Starbucks. A cute little Asian mom with her two young children went past us and sat down two tables away. I could hear them speaking and recognized their language as Korean and I thought they were adorable. My dad encouraged me to go over to them and talk to them in Korean but I was really unsure because it seemed super awkward to do that. Well, my dad wasn't going to leave until I spoke to them so I waited until they were about to leave and I smiled at the little girl as she went past. I waved my hand and whispered, Annyeong!, which means goodbye in Korean. They stopped and talked to me, surprised that I spoke and understood Korean. I was glad my dad kinda forced me to do that. I think the biggest reward was the little girl and boy saying back to me as they left, Unnie, Annyeong! "Unnie" is the Korean equivalent of "big sister". I loved it. It definitely revitalized the motivation for learning Korean as quickly as possible! (^^)

Besides learning Korean and teaching ESL, I am starting to investigate different Ph.D programs in the States as well as in Korea. I know that I want to take 1-2 years off of school to gain experience in the classroom, but eventually I want to go back to grad school to get a doctorate in TESOL or Linguistics. If there was one thing that my Master's program taught me, it was that I want to be a Lifelong Learner. I never want to stop, either as a student or a teacher. The ability to constantly learn is something that fascinates and inspires me to make the most out of my life to help impact my student's lives. Anyways, the roundabout thesis of this long overdue blog post was that you will be hearing a lot more from me now. Expect more thoughts and ideas and daily happenings! 

This is for real. This is Life.

Last Friday I mailed off step 1 out of an undetermined number of steps involved with moving to another country.  This is real. This is happening. I mailed my passport renewal application. I have a telephone interview with a Korean recruiting office sometime in the next two weeks. K and I have started downsizing our stuff and making arrangements for my car and our big furniture. I am having to consciously make it effort not to commit to things beyond next December. I am tying up loose ends, trying to get a few trips with close friends in before I leave. K and I are wanting to travel the country a bit before we leave. I almost feel as though I have a terminal illness and I have to see as many loved ones before I leave as I can. Of course, I understand that there are things such as Skype, but beyond that, once I leave I don't really know when I will be seeing them again. It is definitely a strange detached feeling.

This is a charged topic that I most certainly do not like discussing with my parents. I have a deadline for telling my grandparents...another duty I am not looking forward to carrying out. My mom is probably the hardest one to talk about it with. I do not like making her sad, but it is hard to see a way around it. I wish I could make her see that this is what I want to do with my life. I love it; I'm happy.  I am sooo excited about it. I feel like I've always been meant to move to another country and have adventures. Of course there is also sadness involved. I don't like how she thinks I've made this decision easily and am happy about leaving her. This was probably the hardest decision I've ever made. I am leaving my childhood home, my family, my friends, not to mention my language and social customs behind...permanently. Whoever thinks I hopped skipped and danced to this decision with a smile on my face is crazy.

Life is about change. Whether you are ready for it or not. Life is Change. I feel like in America, people enjoy "stagnant". They want to put roots down and never go outside of what is comfortable for them. And going beyond that, they look down on or shake their hand in a condescending fashion if anyone they know wants more than that for their life. I have never wanted to live in the same city I was born or grew up in my entire life. I don't want to die in the same hospital I was born in. Oh, I am sure I could live just fine in Knoxville Tennessee for the rest of my life and never go beyond that. But I would always regret it and I would never flourish like I see myself doing somewhere else. I would never be challenged to the extent I am about to challenge myself. I mean, god....learning another language and living in that culture! I love language but Korean is no walk in the park. Learning and becoming fluent in Korean is going on the top of my list of challenges of my life.

It hurts my heart to be leaving my life behind, but I feel like I am going into a new life. One that will be just as  fulfilling and exhilarating as this one. I still have 10 months left before we have planned to leave. It has always been my hope for this blog that it would eventually serve as a sort of bridge between my life in Korea and the people I love that remain in America. I hope that you continue to read this blog throughout this coming year and once we are in Korea. I am already expecting many mishaps and adventures and laughs. And they will all go up on here. :) 

Welcome the year of the Dragon

Last Monday was the beginning of the Lunar New Year. The Year of the Dragon...bit of a big deal. It is my year and as such should be a good year for me. It will definitely be a year of huge life changes. My husband and I are 99.9% positive that we will be moving to Korea permanently in a little less than a year. He graduates from Lee in December and then off we go! So on top of trying to finish my Master's degree and teach a lovely group of high schoolers, I will be applying for a new passport, a visa, an actual job, and beginning to pack up and sort through my life. Phew! I'm already tired, just thinking about it. I have to figure the logistics for getting our two cats to Korea, as well as all of our stuff (much will be given away). If anyone has gone through this before, I welcome any and all advice!

I am also well into my last semester of student teaching. Much more is required of me this semester and I blanch at thinking of everything that I have to do in so short a period. I love my classes though. My first block is amazing, as is my fourth and most of my third block. There are a few students that I would love to just pummel and if there weren't laws that stopped me, it might have happened already. They probably need a good pummeling too. I'll just leave that up to Life.