Home Behind Me

My vacation was neatly divided into three parts: one week of whole family togetherness, one week of travel, two weeks of chilling with friends and family back home. The whole month went by very quickly, possibly because the definition of "home" has expanded to include the entire continental US. It was an entirely satisfying visit.

To recap:
One of the first things I did at home was go to church with the family and watch my little brother get baptized. Apparently he'd been wanting to do it for about a year, but he wanted to wait until both sisters could be there to watch it. This is no easy feat when one is out of the country and the other is 6 hours south. I'm so glad we could witness this incredible blessing together.
The next thing I did was get my wisdom teeth removed. I learned that recovering from surgery isn't a terrible way to recover from jetlag.

Week 1: Time with all the siblings in one place. Here, we explore San Francisco together.

Week 1 cont: Whole family zip line adventure!

Week 2: Chicago! I visited with Fbright friends Beilin and Erik in the downtown area.

Week 2 cont: Then I hung out with my sister and her roommate , doing touristy stuff like the Bean.

The rest of Week 2 was spent in Kansas City visiting some family there with my brother. We lounged, watched movies, read books and did everything we could to avoid being outside in the hottest weather the region had seen in nearly 30 years! This was the first time my jeans-and-long-sleeved-button-up-clad brother had really experienced humidity, and he told me that I had overestimated it since we were indoors with a constant air-conditioning buffer.


Weeks 3 & 4 passed in a happy haze of daily coffee or lunch dates with friends and family on either side of the Bay. I'm reminded that some of my best friendships are good because they never change. Others are good because they have changed as we change.

Week 4: Spending time with cousins results in silliness, like drawing on each other's faces.

Last day: Picnic with Grandparents' friends and my cousins.

To conclude:

It's been a wonderful time to refresh myself with great conversations about where life has NOT overlapped with people for the past year. We all have stories to tell.

But now, I'm ready, or almost ready, to go back to Korea. Even here, reminders of my time in there were persistent and ubiquitous. I found myself wanting to react to things with "jinjja?," looking up when I heard "hana, dul, set!" before pictures and falling asleep lesson planning. I missed my students and delighted in their notes, slaved over their recommendation letters, and prayed that I would not forget their names.

So as I despair over my luggage, I'm still happy to be going back. It's nice to be "returning" somewhere. I have a life full of firsts ahead of me, but for now it's nice to go back and forth between two places that can feel like home.