congratulations! (?)

after a few warm sunny days the dirty snow drifts have melted and the sheet of ice on the chicago river is breaking up. praise jesus, spring is (almost) here! warm air smells different and dramatic seasonal changes always put me into nostalgic overdrive. new environments typically trigger heightened awareness of my surroundings. hearing a bird sing today after so many months of cold silence made me smile.

the more reading i do about seoul the more excited i am about relocating there. chatting online with random guys in seoul and peppering them with questions about where i should live and reading seoulite blogs has also helped to make the move more real. in fact yesterday i felt my first tinge of butterflies in my tum. by now i know that theres usually a lag between my rational and emotional reactions, and it looks like the emotional is just starting to register.

one weird thing thats been happening is that people keep telling me 'congratulations' for moving. congrats for what? i havent been appointed ambassador or won a contest. im relocating to a very safe country where i have family and where, if all else fails, i can easily make decent money teaching english. sure, my korean sucks and culture shocks will abound but its not like i have to learn bird or something. i know that some people view moving to another country scary/risky but i guess im continually surprised at how 'risk' averse folks are. worst case scenario? my ass is back in chicago in a coupla months. baby jesus lets hope not.