With the refinance practically settled in stone, I'm only 3 days away from departure! My first flight will be from Austin to New York on the morning of Monday, August 26th. From there, I'll take a shuttle bus to the hotel where we'll be having pre-departure orientation. On the morning of August 28th, we'll be leaving from New York and flying to San Francisco, then from there to Incheon. 

We got our host family information and everything and I found out an alumni that went last year had my host family as well. I've been asking her questions like crazy and trying to learn more about my host family and she'll also be there when I go to New York for orientation. From what she's told me so far, the dad works in the automotive industry and the mom works in the organic food market. They like to eat dinner together at 7:30pm every night and Sundays are usually family day. They have two dogs and a 15 year old daughter. My curfew is midnight and they said to notify if it's going to be any later. Hopefully this means I'll have time to go out after dinner for a few hours and do my own thing before coming home and waking up for school at 5am. People said I'm lucky to be on Line 2 because everything else in Seoul worth mentioning is also on Line 2. I'm about 20 minutes from Gangnam, 30 minutes from Hongdae, 45 minutes from Myeongdong, and an hour away from Dongdaemun.



I'm going to be attending Daewon Foreign Language High School in Junggok-dong. The commute to school from home is from 70-80 minutes and that's pretty much the only thing I'm worried about. The school is only about 20 minutes away from Dongdaemun so I think I'll subway over there after school once in a while. Korean classes/tutoring are in Hongdae on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday meaning I'll leave school and commute to Hongdae, but on Tuesdays and Thursdays I'll have free time at 4pm. It's nice starting to see the first few months come together in my head, but my biggest concern is just trying to balance spending time with an extremely family-oriented hosts and trying not to be too restless and adventurous. I'm kind of surprised at my location honestly. I didn't realize there was places so far from the center of Seoul and I thought I'd at least be above the Han River. Another girl lives about 10-15 minutes from Dongdaemun and 20 minutes from school... So jealous of her because she's right in the middle of Seoul.

It feels really nice to be leaving because people have been sending me off so nicely. Sarah sent me a care package with a mixtape, a cute plush, some stickers, cute buttons, a Clefairy button, a polaroid of herself, a Hello Kitty sushi phone charm, a seaweed face mask, and handmade luggage tags. So cute so cute it was definitely the highlight of my day/week after getting home from work. (I'll update with pictures of the individual gifts or a group pic of it all tomorrow morning)





My co-workers have also been writing me cute little notes on the schedule to say goodbye. One of the servers is baking me jello cupcakes for my last shift tomorrow night. I was going to stop working on Thusday, but most of the people I really like are working on Saturday so I decided I should just have a really good last day and enjoy my last night with everyone there. I'm going to miss a lot of the personalities there, but I guess in 9 months I'll be right back with some fresh faces.


A few friends of mine have come to see me one more time before I leave and I think it's really sweet. Me and two friends went to get sushi together and it came out to $14 each (+$6 tip), it was worth it to see them and have our last sushi date together before we all part ways. My other friend came in today after my shift because we had made plans to go out, but I told her to just come visit me and eat where I work. My manager was going to treat me to a free meal so I decided to get a T-Bone and then I let my friend use my 50% discount to order a soup and salad for $3.50. I totally forgot to get a picture with my first two friends because we were busy eating sushi, but my co-worker (who takes awful pictures) snapped a few for my other friend and I before we left.



Well, let's hope I have a great last day at work! It's really late and I should sleep now. It's like I'm already on a Korean sleep schedule heh heh. Bye!

Now Playing: The Great Escape by SNSD

Honestly I haven't had anything big to update about in these past few days so I kind of saved it up for one big post. I've been really busy and I haven't posted anything new this past 3 weeks because some things came up. I've been losing a lot of sleep and  some weight from being so stressed and not being able to control my anxiety. My countdown is now at 13 days and my saving are sitting at $1,800.

The reason I've been so busy is because there is a bit of a scare that I won't be able to go on the scholarship program. There's a chance my mom and sister won't be able to keep paying for the house if I left them for 9 months. I've been doing some refinancing on the house so that the monthly payments will be smaller and I won't have to worry about my family losing the house while I'm away. The thing is, I'm going to have to put a down payment on the refinance out of my savings and I'm not sure how much it's going to be. I won't know exactly how much I'll still have saved if I go to Korea but it won't be more than $1000. It's kind of sad to think that I got this job to save for Korea but most of it has gone into paying the mortgage and bills. The paperwork process has been very tiresome and has been taking it's toll on me. Waking up early, spending 2 hours in traffic, doing paperwork for 5 hours, and going home to get ready for work is really tiring, but even when I get home from work I still can't sleep. Even after all this, nothing is guaranteed.



I put in my two weeks notice at work and I feel a little sad to be leaving, but I also let them know that there's a chance I might be staying if things don't work out with the house. I've started falling into the rhythm of it and work comes naturally to me now so I can handle rough situations without being stressed and actually sort things out myself. This job has been so rewarding to me during the past 6 months, both financially and personally. I have learned how to open up and be much more outgoing and confident in myself and my ability. The money I make is more than other people make from doing way more work. I admit it's not an easy job by any means, but I definitely have to thank management for making it such a successful location. In the restaurant industry, your money depends on how busy it is and how much people like their experience and the management has done a great job of selecting a great staff. A lot of people have left including our managing partner, three servers, a bartender, and soon to be three hosts within two weeks. The feeling of everyone moving on is bitter-sweet, but it's so encouraging to watch everyone branch out. At least if I stay, I can move up to serving.










I've been packing over the last week when I'm stressed out and can't sleep so that I can at least feel productive. One of my fears is that I'll end up packing for nothing and have to spend even more time unpacking everything, but I'd rather be prepared to leave if everything works out. My first suitcase is full of winter clothes (sweaters, jackets, scarves, gloves, hats) and the other duffel bag is t-shirts, jeans, socks, underwear, and basketball shorts. I've had to shift things around because the suitcase was too heavy and the duffel wasn't heavy enough. On top of that, I haven't even packed toiletries or miscellaneous items like books, shoes, wires, hair products, etc. I moved some things to my carry-on duffel, but I'm still worried haha. I guess I'll keep the books inside my backpack or something but I won't be able to finish packing until I leave. I can't believe it's only 2 more weeks! A lot of people keep telling me not to pack too much and to just buy things in Korea, but I honestly won't have enough money to buy a lot of clothes and things. 



I sold my camera for $275 but now I'm a little bit sad not having one... I was debating upgrading to a Canon Rebel T4i for around $600, but I'm scared that I'll need that money if I go to Korea. On the other hand, photography would be a great hobby if I'm in Korea and I wouldn't need to pay to take pictures like I would for anything else, right? On the other hand, I feel bad complaining about money and having a $600 camera. Hm... Decisions, decisions. If I can find a sale or a good seller on Craigslist, then I'll upgrade for sure before I leave. I also bought a Polaroid Mini InstaX 8 back in April and I have 115 films saved up just for Korea (I used 5 on the last day of school).


I still can't believe that it's only 13 days before I'm supposed to leave. I'm still anxious that something will come up and I won't be able to go. It's not 100% that the refinance will be approved just yet, so we'll have to wait it out and see. Even after I'm gone, I'm scared that things might happen or something will fall through. It's so stressful for me right now because everything is just up in the air. I've lost a lot of sleep and haven't been eating very well, but I really really hope I'll be able to go to Korea still. If not, it's okay because I can start serving at work and buy myself some nice things to compensate. I'm kind of just hoping for some miracle at this point and convincing myself not to slip into depression if things don't work out in the end.


Anyways that's about all I have to update about. It's just been very stressful lately and my anxiety is through the roof. I haven't been sleeping or eating like I should be just because I'm staying up worrying and feeling too sick to eat. I don't know what to do until things finally settle and the outcome is clear. Wish me luck and send good vibes my way because I really do need it. Thanks guys.

Now Playing: Do You Love Me by 2NE1