One More Goodbye

The trip was average and my first 3 days home have been less jet-lagged than in the past. Sure I'm sleeping practically 12 hours every night, but they're 12 hours that most people on the Western side of the world sleep at. No crazy stuff like falling asleep at 7 PM--I think the hurricane shutters blocking out all of the light might be helping my body adjust faster!

The yard is a mess of tree limbs and leaves, while there's a lake behind the house and the pool is a nice green color with more tree limbs in it. There are fallen trees all over the city, some smashing cars or houses, some blocking roads, others knocking down power lines. More of the traffic lights are working now, but Grandma and Grandpa T. still don't have power (day 6). The latest storm (on Sunday, Jeanne) hit Lakeland harder than the others.

It's weird being home, but nice. I went to Cody's high school football game tonight and played with Hanna a lot while there. She has to be the cutest and smartest almost-2-year-old ever!! I've done some yardwork and cleaning in the house the last several days. Yesterday I unpacked most of my stuff; now I just have to find room for all of the new books. I suppose I'll get the process for applying as a substitute teacher started next week, as I've heard it takes as long as 6 weeks to get approved (background check, fingerprinting, drug test, physical, besides all of the normal job paperwork). Once I get that going I'll get more into life here. I need to get new health insurance, as my old policy expires in 2 weeks but I can extend it for another month. Car shopping should be fun, then there's that insurance. Grandma P. is letting me drive one of her cars for the time being. I haven't driven yet, though. I need a more professional wardrobe than I wore at the hogwan--outlet malls, here I come! Then there's stuff like eye doctor, dentist, dermatologist, etc. that I couldn't or didn't want done in Korea.

I've thought about it for the last several days, and decided that this blog has reached its end. I'll continue a paper journal, though it won't be quite as long largely because things here are more normal. Reasons I've reached this conclusion:

1. I expect the re-entry shock might be quite an experience and interesting to hear about, but I don't want my family to read about my feelings and feel responsible for how well I might or might not be adjusting.
2. If I'm going to write an online journal, I can't help but be detailed. Now that I'll be working in a place where people speak the same language as me, there'd be more chance of them stumbling upon this. I don't see pseudonyms working well for me. I don't want to get in any trouble with hurt feelings or worse, a lawsuit for libel or breaching a student's privacy or anything like that.
3. I enjoyed sharing my experiences with people and hearing your reactions from time to time, but now that I'm around people who speak English and I can communicate with my family face-to-face or by phone more easily than before, writing a blog wouldn't be nearly the priority that it was while I was in Korea.

So instead of having a randomly updated and not very detailed page, I decided to not have a page at all. Thank you for reading and goodbye!