I'm off again. I say again because I just came back from a week-long trip to Oregon. I had a blast. I saw friends that I hadn't seen in years. After being isolated from friends for so long it felt really good to reconnect with people; to realize that there are people in this world I enjoy and who enjoy me. I've felt devoid of that in a peer-sort-of-way. I've been spending all this time hanging out with my parents in Tacoma and I have enjoyed being with them. They've enjoyed me too, I think. But I just miss my friends.

So I'm off again. I'm leaving for Bangkok today, flying stand-by to Japan which will be no problem and then on to Bangkok which will be a problem. The flight to Bangkok is oversold and is "risky" and generally "bad" (some of you out there know what that means). Stand-by traveling is such a stress. Every time I travel like this I try to remain calm but nervous stress wells up in me an hour before the flight leaves. In that hour I burn through a days worth of calories. I'm one of those kinds of people who loses weight on stress and I usually come back from trips thinner than when I left. I guess that's a good diet plan for me.

In Thailand I'm going to be visiting a ministry called Rahab Ministries that does outreaches to Thai prostitutes. I'm hoping to learn as much as I can from them about how they started, what the difficulties were, how they operate their programs, etc. Since I'm totally new to this field I thought it would be a good idea to educate myself. I've done a lot of research but there's something totally different about actually observing and taking part in a ministry. I'm so excited. I might drive the ministry people crazy with all my questions.

After a week and a half in Thailand I'm finally returning to Korea to start my Korean language program. I'm super excited about that too.... and a bit nervous. It's been a while since I was at school. When I was applying to Seoul National University I had to email them a copy of my college transcript. I was shocked to see how bad my grades were. YIKES! I can't even remember why I did so badly--I must have conveniently blocked the whole experience from my mind. I think I always intended to be a good student but the daily grind ground me down to the nubs. I must lose motivation quickly or something... I'm not sure. That's what makes me nervous--the fact that I'm not sure. All these small voices in my head start saying things like, what if you're terrible at Korean, what if you drowned under all the work, what if you hate yourself for ever doing this, what if you fail. To which I say, shut up, I'm highly motivated this time and my goal is to do the very best I can. Which of course implies that I wasn't highly motivated last time and didn't do my best... which is probably true.

I hope I survive....