LOVE Chicago! (but not the rain)

The interview went great this morning!! The man was very friendly and asked very good questions. Unfortunately my Korean pronunciation was awful! He had to look at my application to figure out which school I would be teaching at :-) The good news is he asked me point blank when I was leaving for Korea, then started signing my papers!!!! All that's left now is picking up my visa on Thursday at 3 pm. After the interview, we watched a movie (at 10:30 am-weird!) and then went to Navy Pier to eat lunch and just relax for a while. We did everything you possibly could inside and then finally left. It's been raining *all day*-not fun! After the Pier, we did a little shopping on State St. then headed back to Union Station to beat the rush.

I'm having a hard time grasping the enormity of what's about to happen in my life. It doesn't feel real. It feels like I've just kind of glossed over the last four months and none of this is actually happening. I think once I get on the airplane Friday morning without my mom, things will really sink in. The emotions that I'm feeling about Friday are confusing and overwhelming. I'm psyched to be following the dream of living in a foreign country, but terrified of trying to fit into such an incredibly foreign country. I'm excited to see and experience new sights and sounds, but petrified of the consequences of regret.

My next blog post will most likely be from South Korea!

Updates

The last 72 hours have been insane! Tuesday night I received my visa issuance number, which was the last piece of the puzzle that I needed! Or so I thought...

Wednesday morning I called the Korean Consulate in Chicago to make sure that I had the right documents assembled. To my surprise, they told me that I needed to come to Chicago for an interview. With my brother getting married next weekend and me tied up with medical appointments and other prior engagements, there was absolutely no way that I could get to Chicago and back and still make it to the wedding, the rehearsal, all of my appts, etc. So I called my recruiter Joyce (through KorVia Consulting) and asked her to talk to the school. Fortunately God was smiling down upon me! My amazing mom and I will be traveling to Chicago on June 7th, my interview is on the 8th, I pick up my passport on the 10th, and we both fly out of Chicago on the 11th! Of course, she'll be returning to KS while I'll be en route to Korea!

All of these changes are just now starting to sink in. I'm spending as much time as possible with my family and it's getting harder and harder to say goodbye to them each time I see them. The actual booking of the ticket really cemented things for me. My hands were literally shaking the entire time I did it. I've also started packing suitcases and the rest of my house up. Seeing a full suitcase in my bedroom and seeing piles of stuff everywhere else is an emotional kick in the pants. I'm incredibly excited to begin this new life, to sit down and dig in my beliefs, feelings, and all of the long forgotten corners of my mind. I can't wait to sit down and completely reinvent myself over the course of this year. But I hate that it's coming at the expense of my friends and family. *sigh*

Since the next two weeks are so busy, I probably won't be updating this much (if at all.) Once I arrived in Korea, look for more frequent updates!