"Leaving on a Jet Plane"

I apologize for not updating my post in the last few days, but as you can probably imagine, it has been very hectic!

Friday was my official last day of work at Brown, and it was a bittersweet goodbye to all the folks who have been like a family to me these past few years. However, I feel they understand that this is an amazing opportunity that I can't pass up, and it is just time to move on with my life. I also got to go to lunch with some co-workers and students - of which I received some great advice about traveling abroad and what to be aware of in Seoul. (thanks for the heads up Mark and Arian!)

Saturday, I decided I could at least pack up some winter clothes in one of my suitcases. I'm allowed two, but they need to be under specific dimension and weight. It is kind of bizarre packing your winter gloves in late May, but I need to pack for a whole year. You should see how much deodorant I'm bringing! (I hear it is not easy to find, and expensive when you DO find it)

Apparently my little sister also wants to buy my car from me - something I wish I known earlier (thanks A LOT Lauren). This isn't something I wanted to have to think about over the past few days - but the paperwork is going through today, and I won't have to worry about car payments, insurance, registration, inspections, etc. (then again, Lauren, you're saving me money and a ton of aggravation in the long run - {insert hug here})



Saturday night I got to introduce my family to grilled pizza. I made them Grilled Taco Pizza, which is basically a pizza dough cooked straight on the outdoor grill, ground beef in salsa (instead of tomato sauce) with cheeses. Then you can top it all of later with lettuce, tomato, olives, sour cream, guacamole, and crushed up Doritos (or some sort of combination to suit your preferences)

Sunday was very eventful as well. After church with my parents, we had a amazing 90th birthday party for my Aunt Hilda. A ton of family showed up, the food was excellent, and Joe Zizik put together a tearjerker of a slideshow of basically the history of the entire family. It was also a good opportunity for me to say goodbye to a lot of family members as well.

Later that afternoon, we went to my cousin Joe Massad's Eagle Scout Ceremony (congrats Joe!). I got another chance to hang out with my close relatives that attended and say more goodbyes - which is getting really sad now. I did, however, get to see my favorite teacher from high school who inspired me to study history and go into teaching - Mr. Currie! That was a treat, and I hope he is keeping up on this blog, and hopefully I can share some information about Korea with him in the future.

Also, if you've been paying any attention to the news, NKorea has been flexing it's muscles even more -making an already nervewracking experience more nervewracking. (thanks alot Kim Jung Il!) The runnning jokes have been the following:

My Dad: "We've checking out the weather for Nick's flight into Seoul, and it seems like there's a cold front moving in with a chance of ICBM's..."

My Cousin: "When you come back, you and your mail order bride will be glowing in the dark"

Uncle Gerard actually left me on a high note however with this one: "What's Korea's National Bird?" --- Duck!

Alright, time to do some final packing! Next post will be from Korea! (although I will have 15 hours to write one on the plane...ugh!)