still don't know what love means

On Monday, a week ago, I found a real job in Korea. It begins November 13, presuming the work Visa is sorted out in a timely manner and I can get my interview with the Korean consulate in Los Angeles finished over the phone. If I do have to drive to California, it will disrupt my delicate monetary balance, and I will bring my brother along for surety on the road.

I will be teaching in Seoul, at a school called YumKwang Christian School (which is lucky, because they have services in English and I won't spend ages hunting down a church). It's very exciting, but I'm also incredibly tense, having gone through all my clothes while trying to mentally inventory everything I might need for a year that I can get away with packing. I think I will really need my Sharper Image clothes steamer....it's rather small and not very heavy. How will I bring my bulky old laptop?? My stomach is in knots, unfortunately. I suppose it's not too early to sit down and do a mock-packing to get a real sense of weight, dimension, and what all I should bring.

Knowing this is the last couple of weeks I'll have to spend with Yoshi is heartbreaking. I am more in love with him than ever, and his sweet spirit has obviously charmed everyone else around him (except for maybe the larger dogs at the dog park; his attitude there is disappointing). I knitted him a sweater, and although it is pretty baggy, he looks so handsome in it and it clearly keeps him warmer. He doesn't tremble nearly as often in the fleeting cool hours of the evening and early morning. I'll bring him down to Tucson to spend the next year with Toby and Tyler. If I could bring him to Korea, he would already have been packed! I hope these few months in Phoenix have been good for him; he's gotten loads of quality attention from our family, and my complete lack of social life has left me a great deal of time to spend with him and take him places with me. I've spent a month away, I've spent four and a half months away with sporadic visits, but I've never spent a year away from this little dog. He is my ray of sunshine! I hope it doesn't get too dark in Seoul.

Well, in the hopes of pursuing graduate schools, I mentioned to the school manager (who interviewed me) that my Five Year Plan included me in grad school, and she seemed amicable to that idea. It really was a great interview (did I mention she sent my recruiter a job offer immediately after speaking with me for 40 minutes?) so I'm satisfied this is a good fit. I'm fully intending to complete my general GRE and build rapport with potential advisers for conservation biology. I'm simply gridlocked with things at the top of my To Do list, however. It's stressful.

On the bright side, I'm getting things done, bit by bit, and if I want to keep that up, I'd better stop doing this.