Leaving

In less than 24 hours, I should be on a plane to South Korea.

That blows my mind.

Because more information seems to make people (and by "people" I mean "my mother") feel better, I thought I would extend that a bit:

* I land in Incheon (just outside Seoul) at what will be Saturday at 4:45 pm in Korea - that would be the equivalent of 5:45 am Eastern - and once all the people in my program arrive, we will take charter busses to Gwangju, where we will be in orientation until Monday the 28th. Monday I will leave for Gwangyang with my co-teacher (with whom I may or may not be actually teaching - I haven't figured that part out yet) who will be the person who will basically be telling me what's going on and will help with communication in the school, showing me where my apartment is, where the school is, and how to negotiate some basic transactions in a new country.

* I know very little about details like internet access and stuff like that. I'm sure I will have some, but no clue as to how much or when or where. I will be able to have access in my apartment, but again, I'm not sure exactly when, and I should be able to connect in my hotel room in Gwangju.

* I set up a skype account, so if you want to get in touch with me through that, let me know. (if you don't know what Skype is, check it out - it is pretty wonderful.)

* there are 48 people in this program this year alone, and one other will be going to the same town I am in. There are a number of folks who are returning to this program there, and there are other English teachers in the area. I'll be about 20-25 minutes away from friends in a nearby town where there are also 6 people from this program this year, and a little closer to another city where there are about 6 more folks from this year.

* if you want to email me, you can do so through a blog account I set up at (replace all CAPS with the appropriate symbols) ofrecklessnessandwater AT gmail DOT com. I'll reply from my regular address.

* my bags are weighing in at about 60-ish lbs. each, so a total of 120#. which is a little less than how much more I weighed at this time last year. Little realizations like this are startling.

I can't think of anything else.

I wish all of you starting school the best of luck and a wonderful year.