In about four hours I will drag my two stuffed suitcases through campus to meet the bus that will take me and some of my colleagues to the airport. Granted, my flight doesn't leave until 6:30pm so I'll have a LOT of extra time to kill at Incheon Airport, but I get a free (monetarily and stress-wise) ride to the airport. This trip I am not traveling alone--there will be six SFSers making the trip to Portland! Our flight across the Pacific will last somewhere around eleven hours before landing in Vancouver, BC. Here's the part that gets stressful...we then have EXACTLY one hour and five minutes to go through customs, recheck our luggage, board our flight to Portland, and get the plane off the ground. Yikes! I'm praying that today goes without a hitch and by Saturday at 2:30pm I'll be saying hello to mom and dad at PDX. Want to know something really fun?! I land in Portland on December 18th a full 4 hours before I departed from Seoul (on December 18th). Yay for crossing the international dateline!
After a super busy first semester, I'm hoping for a restful and relaxing break...but I know my best laid plans will soon be jam packed with activities, catching up with friends, and wedding preparations for Erin's New Year's Eve nuptials. With so many things going on around me I've found it difficult to recognize that it is indeed Christmastime. Sure, I've done some shopping (Insa-dong is my absolute favorite shopping spot in Seoul for Korean style gifts), attended the Christmas concert (have I told you how talented my students are?), and put up a few twinkle lights in the window. Finally on Wednesday night, I caught the spirit of the season. Two other new teachers organized a secret Santa gift exchange, so for the last week I've been giving and receiving little gifties. On Wednesday all of the ladies who participated gathered for the big reveal and it was so much fun! The person I was giving gifts to figured me out a couple of days before (wouldn't you know I drew the other Miss James at SFS) and I narrowed my secret Santa down to two. Ashley turned out to be the elf in question and each day she blessed me with a fun gift and clue, written all in rhyme. I hope we continue this tradition next year! Well, I have a few exams to finish grading and a bit of packing and cleaning up to do before I can take my trip across the ocean, so off I go. I'll write and post more about my trip home soon! Merry Christmas to everyone reading!
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