In-between

Today we begin orientation! We traveled by bus yesterday to a different city (Jeonju, say "jun-joo"), and are reveling in our dormitory accommodations - no roommates! Hosteling is great, but we're happy to have a room to ourselves. PDA in Korea is a no-no, including all those comforting/innocent touches that have become so automatic, and Adam and I are having a hard time remembering. In fact, that may just be the  hardest thing in this country so far; if that's the hardest thing, you can tell we've got it pretty good here. :D

Kissing (lips, forehead, hands, anything) is OUT. Sweetly caressing faces and rubbing backs and snuggling up next to each other is all OUT as well. The only semi-acceptable form of opposite-sex touching is holding hands/linking arms while walking. 

I read a couple forums on this topic, and was surprised at the number of people who expressed relief over Korea's reserve. It's probably mostly because I'm a hug-crazy, touchy-feely person in the first place, but PDA has never bothered me. "Aww, look - people who love each other!" is my typical response. But the majority of Koreans, especially older ones, feel intense embarrassment or shock when they encounter PDA. One thing Korean soap operas are fairly famous for is having terrible kissing scenes (read: chaste, uninvolved), and very, very few "bedroom scenes."

That being said, same-sex touching is very common in both genders and at all ages. Men hold hands, girls are very huggy, boys sit in each other's laps, etc. The complete absence of homophobia is a relief to ME. In the USA (well, anywhere) it makes my blood boil, but here it doesn't even exist. 

Right! All that to say... Today we begin orientation! :) The dormitory doesn't have wi-fi, so I won't be posting as many photos because it's harder to upload them (no Instagram, boo). Also, we've got a pretty full schedule, and I think/hope it's all going to be a lot of fun. I'll let ya know.

Both Adam and I are impatient for the day when we'll be in our own apartment, though. Where we can unpack for real. Where we can start our daily lives and explore our neighborhood. Where our life will center for the next year+.

Soon! Soon, we tell each other. Only one more week...  

In the meantime, meet TACOCAT, housemate of my brother Dan and his wife Lily:

Drinking from my water glass

Attack mode

In-bread cat

Beginning again

We're here.

We're here, in GwangJu, South Korea, and we are very. satisfyingly. happy. In fact, happiness has been the surprising and enjoyable emotion dominating over the past several days.

It's not surprising because we don't have reasons for it (we have plenty!), but more because we've been stressed and busy and traveling and paperworking for so many months,and now that it's all over we're feeling a rush of all kinds of good  feelings from the relief of stopping. Everything went pretty much according to plan - not just the flight either (though, business class was an awesome surprise!), but the entire journey from New Orleans to Georgia to Colorado to Chicago to New York to Detroit to HERE.

We keep turning to each other and saying things like, "I'm having so much fun! This year is going to be so much fun!" and "why do I have the feeling that I've been set loose in a playground that just happens to be called Korea?"

Here's a small list of some reasons why we're so darn happy right now:
1. Korea is a very safe country, internally.
2. We will have 2 full days off every week, on the weekend (like normal folk!)
3. We will be living and teaching in the same city where my friend Hyo Jeong lives.
4. Our jobs are going to be relatively easy, compared to what we've been doing, and what we did last time.
5. This time in Korea is a step in the direction of fulfilling one of my dreams: opening a hostel(s)
6. We are comfortable here, having visited before, and being familiar with how the country operates.
7. It's an adventure!


We still don't know where our apartment is, or where we'll be teaching, or what age group (update on that in about a week) - but we feel ebullient because up to this point, we've been given exactly what we hoped for, and that's pretty incredible. This jubilation will surely settle down once we have 9-to-5 schedules to follow, and rowdy students to wrangle and co-worker stresses to deal with, but for right now, we're just enjoying it.

How I feel today.