Introduction

So as I begin writing this post its currently about 7:45pm here in Korea. That means that exactly this time tomorrow (in the local time zone) I will be in Guangzhou, China getting on a plane bound for Bangkok, Thailand.

The past week has been so incredibly hectic its almost as if it didn't happen. All I can fathom that has happened in the last seven days is that I have gotten far too little sleep some way or another since at this point the only thing keeping me awake is a half-liter of Coke Zero.

With the exception of what I have here in my backpack every last thing I own has been shipped off in one of eight individual boxes which I carried, one by one, to the post office over the course of this week even though the heaviest of them was about 45lbs and the post office is about a 15 minute walk from my house. It wasn't that bad really. My arms don't hurt when I pick things up anymore like they used to... on Tuesday.

Throughout all of it I've still been going to work. It's kind of crazy how much energy you can muster up when you have to. My last day was yesterday. It was a little sad, but like with most other aspects of my life in Korea, it hasn't yet set in that it's all over.

Yesterday, being Friday, was also my last day to ship anything since my post office isn't open on the weekends. It also happened to be the day after the night all the teachers went out together. What that adds up to is me getting home around 4:30am and then waking up at 9am to walk my guitar to the big post office a half-hour walk away that can process over-sized packages... It also ads up to me spending last night sleeping on a bare mattress with my backpack for a pillow since my bedding, and everything else in my apartment that isn't part of the furnishings, is long gone. Adventures already.

And then this afternoon my landlord came by and finalized everything and then I was officially made homeless.

I'm now at the apartment of my travel buddy, Nicole. She's out somewhere having dinner and I'm here, exhausted, finishing up the last couple errands I have to do before my departure. One of which is re-start this blog.

I know I haven't written about Korea in a long time. To me it almost feels as though those old posts were written by a different person in a different place which is kind of weird. Since then, my life just became a normal life, at least from my point of view. It felt weird to blog about it.

But anyway, enough introduction! Now things are changing. This week has been crazy, yes. But it's over now. I'm so excited for tomorrow I think I would explode if I weren't too tired to explode. It hasn't sunk in yet. I'm still just in Korea where I have been forever. I think this time tomorrow I will be pretty shocked.

That's really all I have to say about it right now as I chill out here in my pajamas with my Coke. So, for those of you who don't know the details of my trip (which includes me, really)... on to the facts.

Nicole and I fly out tomorrow for Thailand. We will travel together throughout Southeast Asia for about a month and a half. Then we part ways mid-April. The original plan was to go to India and Nepal together at that point but, because of some visa issues, it was scratched. Instead, she leaves for Sri Lanka and then Eastern Europe while I continue around Southeast Asia and then on to Western Europe. Eventually, we both end up in Chicago at some point or another... in theory.

Anyway, to break things down. Here's the itinerary.

The Itinerary aka Operation Ridiculous

Sunday, February 27th
From 2:15pm to 5:10pm we fly from Seoul, South Korea to Guangzhou, China and then from 7:45pm to 9:30pm from Guangzhou, China to Bangkok, Thailand.

Sunday, February 27th to Tuesday, March 1st
Spending a couple nights in Bangkok

Tuesday, March 1st
From 8:40pm to 9:50pm we fly from Bangkok to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand.

Tuesday, March 1st to Thursday, March 31st
During this time we will be traveling around Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. While we have a ideas of how much time we will spend in each country, we don't have definite plans. Eventually we will end up in Phnom Penh, Cambodia at the end of the month

Thursday, March 31st
From 4:35pm to 7:20pm we fly from Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and then from 9:15pm to 10:15pm we fly from Kuala Lumpur to Langkawi,a group of islands in Northern Malaysia.

Thursday, March 31st to Saturday, April 16th
We spend this time in Langkawi as well as traveling around Malaysia eventually ending back up in Kuala Lumpur where we part ways.

Saturday, April 16th
From 9:50am to 11:30am I fly from Kuala Lumpor to Surabaya, Indonesia.

Saturday, April 16th to Monday, April 25th
I spend the week with my friend Diana who has been living and working in Indonesia with the Peace Corps for the past 11 months. You can (and should, it's amazing) check out her blog here.

Monday, April 25th
From 8:50am to 12:25pm I fly from Subrabaya, Indonesia back to Kuala Lumpor, Malaysia and then from 5:50p to 6:30pm I fly from Kuala Lumpor to Singapore.

Monday, April 25th and Tuesday, April 26th
For one night (and one night only, unfortunately) I will be in Singapore visiting my friend Bryan.

Tuesday, April 26th and Wednesday, April 27th
From 9:20pm to 10:30pm I will fly from Singapore to Kuala Lumpor and then from 1:20am to 9:00am (Parisian time) I will fly from Kuala Lumpor to Paris, France.

Wednesday, April 27th to ???
I'll spend about a week or a week and a half visiting my friend Kenneth who is in graduate school in Paris. The ??? just means I haven't booked the flight yet.

???
After Paris I'll be flying to Dublin, Ireland for a few days. I just added this last stop a week or two ago when I realized that the cheapest flights to Chicago from Paris had a layover in Dublin. I figure, as long as I am there I might as well stay a couple days. They speak English there! It will act as my first step back into my old life. It's still just a tentative addition at the moment, since I haven't booked my flights.

?????
USA! Twelve flights later and I'll finally be back in the States. I'll let all of you guys in the US know my exact arrival date as soon as I know it myself but right now the speculative number is the 15th of May. No later than that anyway. :D

Woah. So that's it. I think that's the first time I have really thought about it all at once. It's a little overwhelming just looking everything written down. Ahh... it's starting to set in...

Wish me luck and I'll keep posting as often as I can.

Cheers.

Kate