A Year In, A World Away, The Great Adventure Continues....

One year ago today, Shane and I stood, electrified yet somber, optimistic yet intimidated, in the international terminal of O'Hare in Chicago. We'd said our lachrymose farewells to our families and most of our possessions were packed away in storage. We arrived.                                                                                      
And here we are today, living a damn good life. 
                                                                                                              
It's been the most challenging, most rewarding year we've ever had, both in our relationship to each other and in terms of our individual personal growth. 
                                                                                                               
Articulating my feelings now is difficult. A whole year. Here. It's like I'm homesick, sure, but not exactly only that. My idea of home has become confused and jumbled. Here, Yeonje-gu, Busan, Korea is decidedly not home, but what will my home be like? Where will I return to? 
                                                                                                            
Then again, I'm not really concerned about that right now, home is home and will always be. I will be there only six months from now.
                                                                                                           
What really has triggered this chain of thought is that now that we've been here a full year, we've been saying a lot of goodbyes once again. By the end of September, most of the friends we've here (apart from our wonderful co-worker friends) will be returned home, or off on their next great adventure. Goodbyes, but this time with us staying put. It's tough, but inevitable. 
                                                                                                             
That all sounds incredibly despondent, but it's not and we're not. 
                                                                                                                
In truth, my lack of dedication to Soju Cocktail can all be explained away by a summer well-spent. A few intensive projects have fallen on both mine and Shane's laps, and we took a fabulous week-long vacation to the Land of the Rising Sun. I took some time to polish up this article, and we're having a lot of fun with Diga. And beach time. We just can't resist the Sirens' song of Busan's beaches. We're soaking up every minute we can of that. 
                                                                                                                 
A lot remains to explore, to understand, to try to explain with my feeble words.                                                                                               
Thanks for hanging out, Readers. Peace from us to you.

More from our first week

On our second night in Korea, both Shane and myself had a "whoa, we live here" moment. Our co-workers and friends, Bryan, Dianna, Courtney, and Leah took us out to our first out to dinner meal in Korea-- to a place called Family Taco! The burritos were delicious though decidedly not Korean. As we walk through the streets of Busan, we are bombarded with flashing neon lights, smells of many cuisines, and poor translations. Shane enjoyed the Kenny Rogers music house we passed on the way to Family Taco. One of the other great joys of Korea so far has been browsing the thousands of products lining the grocery store walls. On our five minute walk to work, we pass each day about four different grocery stores. While browsing for dinner one evening, we found "Thousand Ireland Dressing," which we passed over. Shane has already begun to experiment with cooking Korean dishes like duk-bok-ee, a thick glutenous rice noodle, covered in red chili paste sauce. I look forward to many more of his kitchen experiments.

A Week In, A World Away, The Great Adventure Begins...

From the beginning of our relationship, Shane and I have dreamed of moving away, of seeing the world. September 2010 sees our goal realized, as the dust from our immigration to South Korea settles. Our first week has been exciting, as we experience the world from a fresh point of view. As we walk through the bustling concrete streets, we have been reminded again and again to not ask why, but why not. Our flight, on Asiana Airlines, was spacious and spectacularly uneventful. I wish I had snapped a picture of the flight attendants, as we were both struck with their beauty and immaculate uniforms. On the plane, we ate our first Korean meal, Bib-im-bop with kimchi, fruit, and red pepper paste. We arrived in Seoul at 5 am, while the expansive airport was nearly deserted. We grabbed a few quick snacks-- a Hite mini beer for Shane and drinkable apple yogurt for me, and waited for our short flight into Busan. A few hours later we arrived in the city we will call home for the next year. Immediately after being picked up at the airport by our boss Mr. Won, we were whisked to the SLP Language Institute where we will teach for the next year. The school is very nice, clean, and fairly well organized. More to come on school later. After brief intros and a tour, we were taken to a hospital to have a health check for immigration-- a physical which may have surpassed any physical I ever got in the U.S. We were seen immediately and underwent a hearing, eye, blood pressure, blood sample, urine sample, and chest xray. After we were deemed sufficiently healthy, we were finally brought to our apartment building and allowed to sleep.