It's been a crazy week, one of those where you're not sure exactly where you are or what you're doing and all you know is that you're stressed. As always, I've had a thousand blog entries running around in my head that have been lost in the business.

A week and a half ago I got a call from my school telling me my visa had run out in late June. My school advised me to get out of the country as soon as possible and I agreed. So I booked a ticket for a week later and started packing up my whole apartment. Moving is something that wears you out in the strangest way. It's emotionally draining, physically tiring and psychologically depressing. After the first day of packing I looked around my messy apartment and wondered how in the world I was going to pack it all. The hours of effort needed to get that place spotlessly cleaned, boxes moved to storage and all the loose ends tied up were daunting and made me tired just thinking about it.

I'm glad to say that I survived moving and my sanity is in tact. On Friday I left Pohang and my spotlessly empty apartment with Joyce and flew to Seoul. We spent the night in a cheap motel in order to get to the international airport by eight in the morning. Being an illegal alien, I had to change my visa status before I could actually pick up my ticket from the counter after checking in. I was nervous that I would get hassled or be endlessly questioned because of my illegal status but there was nothing of the sort. The immigration man was happy and cheerful, cracking jokes as he changed my status. He told me there was usually a hundred dollar fine but for some reason no one was having to pay it at the moment. Lucky me.

An hour later I had said goodbye to Joyce and was running frantically to my plane that was supposed to take off in ten minutes. Some how I didn't plan enough time for myself to get through security and immigration- actually the lines were just insanely long even though they looked short. It took me 45 minutes to get out at which point I seriously thought the plane had left with out me. I started running, only to be met by a frantic airline lady who somehow recognized me. She shouted into her radio that she had found me and together we ran through the airport. Everyone was waiting for me; the gate agents, the guys who seal the doors, the flight attendants (who jokingly asked me if I had been too caught up shopping to realize the time) and a whole entire plane of 300+ people. As I found my seat and put my stuff in the overhead bin, the PA system announced the final passenger had finally arrived and we were ready to set off. As everyone watched me settle in I felt very sheepish. Thank God I wasn't flying standby, actually if I had I would have been much more careful because they would have left without me.

I arrived in Japan a few hours later, navigated to my parent's house through three hours of Tokyo trains and collapsed in the living room, thankful that it was all over. I am now officially unemployed and homeless. It's a freeing and restful place to be... for now.