Every-day Life

I have a sort of strange fascination with the concept of every-day life. It's very contradicting really, or maybe it makes a little sense. My biggest goal in life has always been to have an extraordinary life. I remember in middle school, we sat in the library to listen to a guest speaker talk about her life and travels. I can't remember her name or why we were listening to her, but I vividly remember looking at this 80 year-old woman and thinking about how amazing her life had been and how I want mine to be like that too. She had brought this enormous pine-cone that she had found in some forest somewhere. At that time I decided that I didn't care if I ever got married or had kids or owned a big house. I wanted to see places, live in my perfect city, and have a job that involved freedom and excitement!

I think it's maybe because I grew up in very small towns in Ohio. And for a good portion of my life, I didn't have either excitement or contentment. I felt kind of trapped. Money was very tight, everyone around me was unhappy, and there was nothing to do but daydream and join school clubs. College has turned me into a completely different person, and I've accomplished a lot. I've been flying to the top. Columbus is amazing compared to tiny towns like Lancaster and Circleville, and I love my school. I love my major. And now I'm in South Korea with loads of summer travel plans. Now I'm busy thinking about which country I'm going to be teaching English in after I graduate, and should I go to Boston or Chicago or Toronto or London for graduate school? I have freedom, and I have plans, and my life is going to be very exciting.

But as I mentioned, I do love every-day scenarios, maybe because I'm not sure if I'll ever have it. I love coffee cups because they make me think of small cafes that I might go to every day on my way to work. I like looking out the window to see damp trees and streets after it rains. Yesterday I was sitting in a restaurant with friends, and suddenly I was just hit with this really cozy in-the-moment feelings. Suddenly I was hyper-aware of my surroundings. There were old movie posters on the walls, and steam was rising from the grill on every table. There was a baseball game on behind me, and in front of me I could see out the open doors of the one room restaurant. Fans were whirring to keep the place from being a sauna. The table across from us had three middle aged Korean men, and they raised their beer glasses in some sort of toast. All around people were eating and talking and dishes clinked and meat fried. It wasn't too loud, but it wasn't quiet at all. For a good 10 minutes, it was the most fascinating thing I could experience.

I'm always in my head. I'm thinking, or I'm daydreaming, or I'm talking or listening. It isn't very often that I look up and really live those moments of ordering a coffee or walking down the street. I dream about those moments though! I keep imagining my future apartment, and the first thing I think about are the dishes that I'm going to have. There was this scene in this old Australian soap opera I watched. The girl was just jogging down her usual path. That's it. And I still think about it. Having an every day routine that I choose and makes me feel comfortable. Gilmore Girls was my favorite show for so long because something was so interesting about so much drama in such a small town. And all winter I kept thinking about how I'll probably end up moving someplace warm, like California or Australia, but now that it's getting warm, I know that I love having four seasons. I can see myself in Europe or the East coast.

This traveler path is going to make me lonely, but I think it also will help me truly love my every-day life when I do finally settle down in a city with maybe a family....definitely at least a dog.

Jeju!!

About an hour after my last post, there was finally a success! Turns out knowing Koreans is awesome. We couldn't use OUR bank cards because of the bank we were going through, but our friend Umi could use her card. She didn't have enough money on her card at the time, and we were worried that we would lose our good deal if we left it too long, but it turns out that you can deposit cash through ATMs in Korea! So Totoi, Dazha, and I all took out the 72,000 won (about $72) that ROUND TRIP TICKETS would cost, and then Umi immediately deposited that cash onto her own card and then bought the tickets for us. Yay! And we got to pick our seats, so on the way there and back the three of us get to sit next to each other for the like 40 minute flight. I'm very excited!

I'll be in Jeju June 16-19, and then on June 25th I'll be flying to LA with Totoi. Then her mom is going to pick us up and drive us down to Mexico! Then I'll meet up with Dazha and Francisco for a couple weeks before possibly flying to Florida to see my little sister again. Then it's one very long road trip from Florida to Ohio again. And I have to move into my apartment again.... But this is going to be the best year I've had yet: Korea, an island, Mexico, and Florida~

Why is this so difficult?

I'm sitting here with Totoi and Dazha, my two Mexican lady friends that I've come to know in my months here in Korea, trying to buy tickets to Jeju Island despite the recent tragic event, and it has been the biggest pain in the ass ever. Our cards are ridiculously secure to the point of not even being usable online, and Korea loves Internet Explorer, which keeps crashing on my computer. And the site is absolutely terrible. It is inconvenient and closes down after 10 minutes of inactivity. Sigh.

But it will be worth it.......hopefully..... I mean it's an island in the summer right? Oh this had better be worth it....