A Story Beginning

Here begins my written journey. Many have expressed the desire to know my experiences, and since the options are myriad, malnouished 'personal' updates or a girthy, detailed mass update, I believe you will agree that the latter is superior. So in the spirited voice of the MXC announcer, "Let's get it on!"

Where do I begin? With the terrible visa process that soaked all my patience? Too frusterating. With the scramble to find western luxuries before departing this familiar market? Too materialistic. With the hard goodbyes of my loved ones? Too personal. No. I will begin when I landed in Toronto for my interview with the Korean consulate. Not with the actual interview which was short and not worth mentioning, but with the other Canadians I met at the consulate who were about to embark on the same journey.

We had never seen each other and would have never spoken to each other if it weren't for the similar fate we shared. Yet with a secretly shared excitement inside and a longing to express it with anyone else who could empathize, we greeted with mutual affection. We talked of our frustrations, our gameplans, and our traveler's joy.

I met a girl who was on the same flight as I was that very night. I never would have done this with a perfect stranger but the circumstances invited company - we decided to spend the evening hanging out together. We had a couple final Canadian beers and exchanged our knowledge of the land and the people before us. We just wanted to know that other people were doing the same thing as us and everything would turn out fine. I thought to myself that this wouldn't be the first meeting of this kind and that the same meeting might happen multiple times with other lone foreigners in Korea.

And then we departed. Off and up. High, high, and over. Across. Far. Very far. Terrifyingly far. And then 14 hours later. I was transported. There was no stopping the adventure. There was no turning back. I was much much further from home than I had ever been before.