Traaaaaavelling!
I remember the times of 2002 when I updated my blog-y thing at least kinda frequently. HA! 3 months later, I post.
In that expanse of time I finished school, did pretty good in all my classes despite the lack of motivation of the last entry, and started summer vacation! Whooooo! I can't believe it's already been a month and a half+ already. I haven't done much, but it's seriously nice.
Umm, so the biggest development in my life is my impending trip to foreign lands: Korea and Japan. I leave actually on July 3rd, so in 3 days. :x
My travel plans are: July 4th to the 18th in Korea, then fly over to Japan and stay there from the 18th to the 30th.
Ahhh, I can't tell my excitement for this. I was really looking forward to studying abroad in Japan over the summer, but I didn't get into that program unfortunately. But perhaps even better for me, I'm going more on a vacation rocking hostels and just going out to enjoy the culture!
But I'm also SCARED out of my mind. I've never been away before. The longest I've REALLY been away from home is the 2 nights on that shortened trip to New York City.
But I'm afraid with both children away for such an extended period of time, Mum's going to have a hard time. But she seems to have plans to stay busy. Going over to visit Family, go to the movies. I hope she'll be OK. <3
I seem to be MORE excited for Korea than Japan though. Sister's there who will be able to help me, plus I know more people there. I've more recently become entranced by the culture and pop culture. I ADORE the food. Really. (Kimchi = <3) Plus there is more for me to find that's not accessible here in the states. (Read: old CDs/records)
For Japan, it's more familiar to me. I got into liking specifically Japanese things in 2001. So that's a big 7 years of my life liking the pop culture, the language and the similarities and differences between it and US culture. And I'm not big on seafood. Ramen will probably be my best friend there.
Ths BIG BIG BIG plus for Japan though, is that I know the language enough to be confident that I can go there and be OK. 3 years of studying it will do that. However, I've only ever studied Korean by myself, and I can't say I get that far doing that. Watching dramas gives me vocabulary, but I doubt "cute" will help on the streets. But that seems to be part of the excitement. Not knowing the language now, I might progress a LOT while there. Which is pretty cool.
But I just can't wait to get to a country which speaks a language I don't know! I'll walk down the streets and not be able to understand what anyone is saying. There's something exhilarating about that thought. And really noticing the difference in customs. That is really what I want to see. I got a twinge of that while in Chinatown in Toronto earlier last month, and it was fantastic. The world is an awesome place and I need to go explore it.
I plan to come back and update this again about my travels! Hopefully I'll come back more worldly. Plus with pictures galore! YES.
But in the meantime I need to plan what to do while I'm on the 13+ hour flight. And how to get over my jet lag. x.x
OH. And on a pretty unrelated note: GO SEE WALL-E. Best movie of the summer. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Pixar. <3
In that expanse of time I finished school, did pretty good in all my classes despite the lack of motivation of the last entry, and started summer vacation! Whooooo! I can't believe it's already been a month and a half+ already. I haven't done much, but it's seriously nice.
Umm, so the biggest development in my life is my impending trip to foreign lands: Korea and Japan. I leave actually on July 3rd, so in 3 days. :x
My travel plans are: July 4th to the 18th in Korea, then fly over to Japan and stay there from the 18th to the 30th.
Ahhh, I can't tell my excitement for this. I was really looking forward to studying abroad in Japan over the summer, but I didn't get into that program unfortunately. But perhaps even better for me, I'm going more on a vacation rocking hostels and just going out to enjoy the culture!
But I'm also SCARED out of my mind. I've never been away before. The longest I've REALLY been away from home is the 2 nights on that shortened trip to New York City.
But I'm afraid with both children away for such an extended period of time, Mum's going to have a hard time. But she seems to have plans to stay busy. Going over to visit Family, go to the movies. I hope she'll be OK. <3
I seem to be MORE excited for Korea than Japan though. Sister's there who will be able to help me, plus I know more people there. I've more recently become entranced by the culture and pop culture. I ADORE the food. Really. (Kimchi = <3) Plus there is more for me to find that's not accessible here in the states. (Read: old CDs/records)
For Japan, it's more familiar to me. I got into liking specifically Japanese things in 2001. So that's a big 7 years of my life liking the pop culture, the language and the similarities and differences between it and US culture. And I'm not big on seafood. Ramen will probably be my best friend there.
Ths BIG BIG BIG plus for Japan though, is that I know the language enough to be confident that I can go there and be OK. 3 years of studying it will do that. However, I've only ever studied Korean by myself, and I can't say I get that far doing that. Watching dramas gives me vocabulary, but I doubt "cute" will help on the streets. But that seems to be part of the excitement. Not knowing the language now, I might progress a LOT while there. Which is pretty cool.
But I just can't wait to get to a country which speaks a language I don't know! I'll walk down the streets and not be able to understand what anyone is saying. There's something exhilarating about that thought. And really noticing the difference in customs. That is really what I want to see. I got a twinge of that while in Chinatown in Toronto earlier last month, and it was fantastic. The world is an awesome place and I need to go explore it.
I plan to come back and update this again about my travels! Hopefully I'll come back more worldly. Plus with pictures galore! YES.
But in the meantime I need to plan what to do while I'm on the 13+ hour flight. And how to get over my jet lag. x.x
OH. And on a pretty unrelated note: GO SEE WALL-E. Best movie of the summer. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Pixar. <3