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I've been home for over a month now. A final blog is in order, I'd like to establish some closure for the year.

Most things in life don't really feel like chapters, there's usually no clear boundary from one phase to the next. But the time before Korea, Korea, and coming home are all very distinct chapters dividing my life.

My biggest fear about coming home was that I wouldn't carry my optimism back with me. But home is better than I remember, and to my relief, not much seems to have changed here. I'm the one that changed.

What was the biggest impact this year had on me? Take this scene, for example:

Random person: “You're an English major?! What the h-- um, what will you do with that?”
Me: “I'm not sure.”
Random person: “Oh, so you want to be a teacher.”
Me: “No way, I'd rather die.”

I repeated this little scene over and over in college, with relatives and meeting new people and such. So the funniest thing to come out of my year of teaching English is realizing that I WANT TO BE A TEACHER! I've started the process of applying to grad schools.

Stay in this lane. Used to be ironic and now it's just... true. You can never have enough irony! So, my friend Colleen and I are apartment hunting in DC this weekend. Next week I'm also starting a new job with a really nice family in the city, another challenge probably worth another year's worth of blogs, but to respect their privacy I won't do it. Six months ago I would have been shaking my head at this plan, but it feels right, so I'm rolling with it.

I'll try to post pictures from Tokyo (worth a whole blog, if I ever get around to writing it) and possibly the cruise as soon as I get ahold of my camera again. I also visited my aunt and took trips to Cape Cod and New York, so I'll throw those pictures in with all the rest. A vacation album, I guess.

Farewell, 2009 – I will remember you fondly.
Hello, 2010 – I have a good feeling about you.

UPDATE
Picasa retired its slideshows for photos, so all my photos from my first year in Korea are here now:
Picasa Photo Albums Archive