Debut Blog Entry

It's still about three months until I head off for South Korea. I don't even know what part of the country I'm going to yet, but I should find out sometime in December.

I am about to start my third quarter of Korean language at the Korean Cultural Center here in LA, but I don't feel like I learned much this last quarter. We had substitutes for two weeks, and the rest of the time we spent learning one thing each week, without reviewing or applying the knowledge in later weeks. I'm about to start cramming for the placement exam in three days; I hope I can make it to the next level. And I hope that by the time I go back to Maine I'll have learned enough to get by in Korea. I hope to have the drive to continue studying during my month in Maine; I'll still have the textbook to guide me.

I'm preparing for my big move, and it's a little excruciating. I'm eager to sell everything I own (pretty much), but right now I'm settling for things I don't need. It's not going as well as I would like, although I have made a major dent in my old textbook collection. I think I am going to have to make some major trips to the thrift store right before I leave. And also ship home a number of boxes. With two cat carriers and a litter box in the back seat, I'm not going to have much packing room.

Major undertaking number three is the GRE. I think I've decided to take it in Maine before I go abroad. It's feeling a little soon to take it, but I don't want to take it in Korea, since I may not be near a testing facility and it's more expensive there. It will be too late to take it when I get back, if I want to start grad school in June 2009, so that leaves the next three months as the only viable solution.

By the way, I'm considering going to school to become a teacher, assuming I end up liking it. Teaching English to Koreans will probably be different than what I'd do out here, but it's the same idea. If I don't like it, I'll have plenty of time to come up with a major before I start school. Linguistics, maybe.