It's all who you know

Song of the moment: "All Will Be Well" - The Gabe Dixon Band
Person shoutout: Happy 21st birthday little sister :)

The past three days have been a big circle of crap. I've been trying to get a criminal background check done for Korea and the process is ridiculous. I originally was told to do a local criminal background check. Ok. Did it. THEN they tell me "oh wait. You need a STATEWIDE criminal check...and it needs to be done immediately." Super. I call the number, set the appointment and am told i'll have it the next day when I go to the appointment. Surprise surprise. They lied. I'm told i'll have to wait 4-10 business days to get it. That doesn't work for me.

I go home all upset and try and figure out what to do. While i'm figuring out what to do my mom calls around to friends to see if they know anyone who can speed up the process. Apparently Senator Lawson is a friend of a friend of the family (thank God for Kim Armstrong) Who knew. I call and plead my case and am assured everything will be ready for me to pick up the following morning at 9am. Finally something is going my way. Or so i think.

BUT once again. Liar liar pants on fire. I get to the statehouse, wait for an hour and am then told that they have no idea who I am or what i'm there for. Not a damn clue. I start crying and the big guy who is in charge of it all tells me he will do what he can do. He tells me my paperwork was lost or buried or who knows what. He apologizes and tells me to come back in an hour. I do. It's done. He's sorry. The end.

I pay my $32 parking garage bill and am on my way out of Indy.

Long story short? It's all in who you know. It's also all in how you ask and how pathetic you can look when you cry. Apparently i top the charts in pathetic.

One step closer to Korea. Next step is the interview at the consulate in Chicago.

Keep reading for that gem of an update.

This is my final answer

Song of the Moment: "Hope" - Jack Johnson

The long awaited decision has been made. I have decided to go with my original gut feeling of Pohang, Korea. It was the first school that offered me a position that felt right. I will be teaching 5 year olds in the mornings and 7 year olds in the afternoon. Somehow it just feels like it's somewhere i'm needed or am supposed to be. Cheesy? Yes. But honest.

So now the countdown begins. 44 days until I go to a country where I will stick out like a sore thumb, try new and weird foods, miss everything and everyone, where i'll get lost and not be able to call Mike or Jess and have them navigate me home, where i'm sure i'll offend someone with my poorly spoken Korean and who knows what else. The trade off is I will have experiences that many will only dream of. While there are some negatives associated with leaving everything you've ever known behind, the opportunities far outweigh them. At least I think so. At least I hope so.

Ready or not...Korea here I come.

At a Crossroads

It is 12:30am on Jan. 6, 2009 in Muncie, Indiana. I'm listening to music and hoping that my typing doesn't wake up my best friend in the other room...sleeping like a rock. I have until 9am to tell the school in Pohang, Korea if I accept their job offer. I am hoping that by that time I will have received a sign from someone bigger than me telling me what to do. I am waiting to hear from the Jacksons in Incheon, Korea on a potential job there, so until then I feel like I am doing this blind. The Pohang job will start on Feb. 20th. That's right. It STARTS Feb. 20th. If at 9am I decide that Pohang is for me then I will have less than 45 days to get everything done that needs to get done. The other will start soon after.

Regardless of where I go I will have a to-do-list that will keep me busy up until the day I leave. I will have to find time in there to save money, say goodbye to everyone who has meant something to me, purchase everything that needs purchasing and pack up my 23 year-old self into two suitcases and live in a foreign country for the next year. Easy right? I wake up some mornings wondering what the hell I was thinking when I got myself into this. Other mornings I wake up and am so excited to meet the day that I literally jump out of my bed onto the floor...convinced that the day has something to behold that is worth getting out of bed for. Convinced that I can accomplish everything I want to do. Convinced that I can do it on my own and finally feel like my life has began.

At the end of it all the truth is that I will be in some part of Korea in a little over a month. That idea in itself is part terrifying and part exhilarating. It's finally happening.