The End Is Near

I will be departing from Korea on Nov. 21st. I haven't quite come to terms with this, and people keep asking me if I'm excited. Why do I feel guilty saying no. Yea, Thanksgiving and Christmas will be great. It'll be great to see some family and friends whom I haven't seen in over a year. But, I know the actual day to day grit is going to be as boring as hell. Everyone will be working and I don't even know who will be around in my hometown to see. Maybe I'm crazy, but I can't go more than a week without work (or something) before I start going absolutely nuts. Or maybe the problem is that I don't go nuts, I just spend hours upon hours glued to my computer doing absolutely NOTHING. I think I gained 5 pounds in a less than month period between my last job and this one in Korea.

Anyway, these are my goals for while I'm home:

1) Find a job for Christmas time, either at Macy's or Border's.

2) Wallpaper and redecorate my room and turn it into a TV room for my mom when I'm not around (which tends to be most of the time).

3)Figure out something for my bank account situation. I like my bank, but it doesn't accept international transfers, which is more than slightly inconvenient, as I live abroad. Either a) get a new checking account, b) get my name on my mom's account so it doesn't look like she's the king of some South Korean money laundering business every time I transfer my money into her account to pay my bills or, c) some other solution... like a Swiss bank account..

4) Figure out a better way of investing money. I have a 6 month CD which makes 0.9% interest. What's the point?? Maybe I'll roll it into a 3 year or something... or start thinking Mutual Funds... but I'm scared of the stock market...

5) Go to Ecuador. For a month. And just chill and do some reforestation.

6) Go through the wonderful visa process again...

7) Find a cheap ticket back to Korea, seeing as how it doesn't look like I'm gonna get much money in that department...

8) Study Korean. Every day. (nice thought...)


As for my remaining 2 weeks (less, really) I need to get a lot of stuff done....

1) Go to the pension office and get that crap cleared away.

2) Go to the dentist and get a cleaning.

3) Give a way a crap load of clothes that I've incidentally acquired while being here...

4) Eat all the food in my house.

5) Spend quality time with the Boyfriend

6) Spend quality time with my friends

7) Clean.

8) Pack. Strategically.

9) Secure my next job.

10) Figure out if it's better to exchange money in Itaewon, rather than at a bank.. and if so, where...

11) Make sure everything is set for my extended stop-over in San Fransisco.

12) Catch swine flu while I still have health insurance and can afford Tamiflu.

13) Probably boat loads of other stuff, but I can't think what...

Anyway, dear blog readers, not to fear, I hope to be back in the ROK by late February. In the mean time, you can enjoy stories from San Francisco, home, and possibly even Ecuador if things go according to plan...