The First Journal Post

The pic above is an actual pic of my journal that I kept for the trip. There's not a lot of in it but This post is dated on 12/24/11 7:02pm ET which is about 2 hour before I left Atlanta, the following is exactly how i wrote.

Waiting for my flight to Londong @ 8:40pm in connection to Frankfurt, DE. Bittersweet. As long as this word(bittersweet) is, my thoughts are getting longer & deeper as the boarding time approaches. Should I call everyone I knew in the States, for it may be the last time I will be in the US? With this train of thought, I sincerely thank Alex and his family. I knew for a fact that I wouldn't have been able to do something Mr. Butler has done for me and Alex. Driving 14 hour straight is one thing, but doing it with 5 of your family members had just passed is another. This maybe childish, but I wanted to do that handshake so bad and call him 'Alright, b'. Until last night I didn't think this would happen, so I did it with Ashley on Thursday. But when Alex texted me last night, 'we're about to just drive all night, and I will come see you'. I really felt blessed because, really, honestly, that's all I could ask for, as I just said on Facebook, 'it's been fun 6 years, America, see you soon.' and told Alex and Ashley that I will come back here(georgia) in 2014 for Tennessee game. I can only hope that 'the handshake' is due in 2 & a half years. @ 7:22pm ET.

Now that I think back to this moment, I can really see that I was really thinking deeply.. And some of the things I wrote are true even till now. That writing may just be the last thing I ever did in the US. Things have also changed a lot. 


I live in Korea now, pretending like I've lived here my whole life, to re-learn the language and culture. And by language and culture, I mean I'm fluent, but it's like I lived in Spain for like 6 years and have that accent and have no idea about the new slangs. But in a couple of months, I'll be as good as my friends who have lived here for their entire lives. 


In a way this is kind of a scary thought. And makes me graceful at the same time. If you're reading this now, the chances are that you know me, and know me pretty well, some more than others. Some of you have lived with me, and maybe their girlfriends too ;). But right now, we're 7300 miles apart. 


For example, when I was in a Middle 1st grade at White Horse Middle school in Horsehead Town, living in the shady second floor of 15-story Chunggu apartment complex, going to tutoring after school until 10pm, and wearing that green uniform of ours, I didn't know a lick of English. Well, maybe I knew 'Hi', 'Hello', 'How are you?' and such, but that's it. But some of you may have went to Austin Road Elementary School, in back-then-redneck Henry County, living on an empty street in a shiny two story house with an entertainment room in the basement, wearing that sweatshirt of a team that his/her dad is cheering for, going hunting on the weekends, but not speaking Korean (the real chances are s/he probably didn't even know where Korea was, Idk). 


The funny thing is, not even ten years after, we are not only acquaintances but are friends. With the earth's population over 7 billion now, breaking this slim chance of meeting this person is amazing. I know some of you readers aren't Christians, but for me this is the proof. 


postscript, this post may have been a little personal, but I wanted to post that first journal post on here, once i get to the european stories, i'm sure it'll be more general. feel free to comment, people, in fact, I insist you to comment and express your opinions.