Annyeonghikaseyo

This is hard, you guys.

I just said goodbye to Lauren five minutes ago. I've gotten better at the Buddhist "all things must pass" thing, at not being caught up in trying to hold on to things. I know that it's wisdom in action. I'm not quite there yet.

We both choked up a bit and made it quick. 

I'm off to California in a couple of hours and when I get back in two weeks, she'll be gone. I have no reason to think we'll ever be in the same place again. Sunday mornings will seem so empty and Starbucks may go out of business.

The last two days were hard enough; Wednesday the school went to the Lotte World amusement park and some of our favorite students rode the rides with some of their favorite teachers. Last evening was the graduation ceremony.

I emceed that and did pretty well, other than when I said, "Ladies and gentlemen, the 2011 graduating class of Saint Jos... I mean Saint Paul Preparatory School." Hey, eight years at one school...

I'm a ridiculous squishy-soft Muggleheaded goof at goodbyes, but I managed to not get emotional into the mike as I introduced our 20 graduates one by one. I was somewhat stunned when Ron, the principal, announced that the students had voted me Teacher of the Year; I haven't won anything since a volleyball/badminton set in 1964, and the volleyball was punctured at that. This award is a lovely little glass pyramid whose bottom has the school logo and my name and award.

I'd rather have a plastic lamp in the shape of a woman's leg; I could put it in my window. (But that won't stop me from keeping this pyramid with me always.)

There were a lot of hugs and photos and some tears (no, not mine) as the graduates said goodbye after the ceremony.

Later, eight or so of us teachers gathered for beers outside our local mom-n-pop. Looking around the table, I found it all so odd: some of us leaving forever, some for two weeks, some for the summer, some staying through the summer and then leaving forever...

I wonder if I'll end up feeling like my favorite character, the 900-year-old Doctor in Doctor Who, just going on and on (in my case, in Korea) while people come, get close to me, and leave.

Now it's over the ocean to see Nate and Bodhi and the family and wonder when I'll see them again after this.

This is hard, you guys.

Well, we're movin' on up...

From the Writers' Group: Cliff, me, Emma, Justin.
The LIKE gang: Molly, me, Luke, Joanna, Jesse.

It's moving day!

My ride is supposedly coming at 10, and I should be in Seoul by 2. Theoretically, of course. I set my alarm for the disgustingly early hour of 6 a.m., which actually is about when I've consistently been getting up anyway. I woke up, however at the surreally disgustingly early hour of 4 on the dot. It's still not light out and I'm sucking down coffee prior to packing the last items and :: gulp:: cleaning and decathairing the apartment.

I've had a busy round of goodbyes: Joelle, who's now in Cambodia, at breakfast on Friday, followed by my last day at school; Raymond at lunch and the whole LIKE gang, nine of us, at dinner on Saturday, people from the Writers' Group for a spirited Eat Poop You Cat game (with a very welcome drop-in goodbye visit from my LIKE friends) on Sunday.

Being a teacher over here is kind of like going to college, compacted into one year: you arrive all wide-eyed and marveling, you make friends, soon you're the grizzled (quite literally, in my case) veteran, and before you know it, it's time to say goodbye. In a month, Joelle will be in Egypt, Cliff in the Phillipines, Emma in New Zealand, Luke in Idaho, and I, more than likely, lost in a subway system whose map looks like the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

And now, as W.C. Fields said, "Once in every man's life he has to take the bull by the tail and face the situation." Time to move. Ladies and gentlemen, meet my new employer, St. Paul Preparatory Academy (henceforth known as "SPPA" or "St. Paul").

But first: Daegu, my third home, or fourth, if you count Ann Arbor for my year at the U of M. (Do you?)

I never would have believed 358 days ago that I would look at this huge, sprawling, industrialized, polluted place with fondness. But I do. I'll miss the clean subways, the Samsung Lions, and Donghwasa Temple at Palgonsan. The municipal government has put many millions of dollars (which is quazillions of Won) into beautifying this place with landscaping, parks, and trees by the thousands, all in preparation for their coming-out party, the world track championships in 2011, which they've been promoting since before I got here. They want to turn Daegu (which I had never heard of 400 days ago) into an important world city, Cleveland into Chicago, perhaps.

More important to me, of course, is the experiences I've had and the people I'll miss, whom I won't name here for fear of leaving somebody out... except for Tiki. I have a sense of deepest sadness over my funny, playful, frightened buddy, the only cat I've ever known who would play fetch, nip me on the chin while I tried to sleep... or pop out a screen and jump down 15 feet to run from a stranger. It's not okay and it won't ever be okay that he's lost and suffering or dead. Just typing this, I'm crying (a few strong, manly tears) for the first time since he left. Don't tell anyone.

But now it's time to move on up to the second-most populous metro area in the world, new adventures, new vistas, new opportunities to be bewildered. There's last-minute stuff to be thrown into boxes, counters to wipe down and a floor to sweep, and a Rum Tum Tugger to stuff into a carrier.

Time to make the donuts. Sadly, that's just a metaphor.

See you from Seoul!

Ruh roh!

I have no idea where to start this; so much has happened, and in the next 80 hours I'll be traveling from Atlanta to St. Augustine to Jacksonville to Chicago to Seoul to Daegu.

To cut the story down considerably, I came to Atlanta to get my Korean work visa; I started driving from St. Augustine Tuesday evening, after the most triumphant Hogwarts team won at trivia, and stopped for the night in scenic Adel, Georgia. I drove the rest of the way to downtown Atlanta in the morning and had my one-minute interview with the Korean consul-- he had four of us in there, talked to me first, heard about my degree and experience, and told me I was cleared.

I had originally planned to drive back to St. Augustine today and wait for the passport to be mailed back to me, but the only way I can be in Daegu on time to train on Monday morning (September 1, the start of my contract) is to wait until tomorrow at 2 p.m. and pick it up at the consular office.

So I checked into an EconoLodge on the south edge of the city, where I sit even now, at 12:30 a.m. Thursday, and went to the Braves game... I kind of wanted to have my last big fun thing in the US to be something I really love, and I hadn't been to a major league game in nearly twenty years.

When I got back to my room, I found that Fred, the representative in Daegu, is booking me to fly out of Jax at 7:27 a.m. Saturday! So I'll have from 9 or so Thursday night, when I get home, through Friday to wrap everything up at home. It can't possibly be done, my friends.

I'm going to be flying out of Jax to O'Hare, where I'm supposed to sit from 8:57 to 1:00 p.m. central time, then have a lovely thirteen-hour-and-fifty-minute flight to Seoul, where I touch down at 4:50 p.m. Sunday Korean time, take off at 7:20, and touch down in Daegu at 8:15. (If you're scoring at home, according to my body clock Seoul arrival is at 3:50 a.m., departure at 6:10 a.m., Daegu arrival at 7:25 a.m. I expect to be tremendously alert during the layover in Seoul.) The entire trip from Jax to Daegu is theoretically 12 minutes short of 24 hours. Add on getting to JAX and from the airport in Daegu and it will total... uh, carry the three... exactly six weeks.

So I suppose I'll get to my new apartment at 8 or 9 Sunday night Korean time and start training at school the next day. At least, as I'm still under 80 years old, I shouldn't have any jet lag.

Actually, I already have jet lag just from driving to Atlanta. Ruh roh.