"let's eat together deliciously"

finally after 10 hours of flying, 6 hours of driving, 5 hours of sleep and 4 hours of trying to control a group of elementary students, I met my host family!  (I am realizing now that I forgot to take a picture of them... all in good time.)

I will say this though; Koreans know how to present food.  this is a picture of where we were eating.  we had our own separate room which was pretty neat.  it had a sliding door and everything!! 

all I could think of when they were placing the food on the table is:  man, my dad would love this.

granted, the fish and shrimp still had their eyes (all I could think of was: my mom would hate this) but it was still so yummy!

a few pictures

this was our meal on the plane ride there!  it's bibimbab or as mom calls it "beepbopboop"

 me acting like a silly-head in front of Korean customs which actually took like 30secs.  I was very surprised. (this may or may not have been right after we ALMOST walked into the men's restroom....)

what I saw the first time I ever stood on Korean soil... beautiful, eh? haha (jk it just looked like any other airport...) 

we stopped at a rests top on our way to Gwangju via charter bus.  not only was this rest stop the most fantastic rest stop ever, they sold MILKIS!  which everyone knows is delicious (Catherine can vouch for me...)

a dream is a wish your heart makes

I woke up this morning knowing two things: 1.) that the "blemish" on my face had at least doubled in size and 2.) that this was the last morning in quite a bit that I would wake up in the great US of A. 

it is no secret to anyone where my passion lies. in fact anyone living within a 10 mile radius of me knows. to illustrate my point further-- I'm pretty sure that there are people all over the country who know.  here's why: I'm that weird white girl that is majoring in Korean for no other  reason then I love it. and that catches people's attention-- they remember and they tell other people.  

when people (I'm speaking in general of course) find out that I am a college student, the first question that they naturally ask is: "so, what are you studying?"  

I have learned to both hate and love this inquiry.  on one hand I am able to share by passion with another human being (which is what makes life so wonderful) and on the other I am setting myself up for about 20 minutes of explanations, correcting stereotypes, North Korean communist jokes, and completely unrelated remarks people make to try to relate: "I had a sister who lived in Japan; Japanese is like Korean, right?" "I think my neighbors have Korean friends..."

BUT I have accepted this as my fate.  if I had 1,000 KRW for every time someone made the comment: "why Korea?" (usually followed by the same perplexed facial expression) I would come out of my adventures in the black.

so why? why am I on a plane at this very moment (though this blog post will be published later) traveling 5520 miles across the Pacific Ocean? why did I make this life-changing decision? because let's face it, I am not going to return the same person.  why?  it all goes back to the same reason.  at some point during my excitement of Korean pop culture and my rush to know absolutely everything about that country.  I was touched by the beauty of the people, culture and language.  while I inheirently tend to become overly excited about new things (hmmm... I wonder where I got that from... dad?), this time it struck a chord in my excitable heart. and there it will stay.  

and who do I have to thank for it?  my French teacher who introduced me to Kpop?  perhaps the creators if Pokémon who raised me to love all things Asian? maybe Melinda Phillips who, in 5th grade,  taught me how to read Manga?  I guess I should thank God-- when it comes around to it, I should always thank God.

now I'll be the first one to admit that I have chased dreams all my life: Ruby the Archaeologist; Dr. Ruby, M.D; Ruby the Superhero (ok that one is more like a fantasy).  and all my life I feel like they have slipped out from under me like a rug  at the mercy of the practical joker named Fate.  but not this time.  this time I caught up.  this girl has succeeded, and no one can take that away.