2 weeks and counting

SO - first post of my shiny, new South Korea blog. Ironically, I'm still in the United States, and I will be here until May 27; nevertheless, it is still utterly insane that I am leaving the country in 2 weeks for 2.5 months. Despite having been abroad last summer and the summer before that, this will be the longest stretch of time that I'll be living in another country as well as my first time in East Asia. At this point, I don't think it's really sunk in yet...at this exact time, 2 weeks from now, I will be on a flight to San Francisco, where I will anticipate transferring to a Singapore Airlines flight to Incheon Airport in Seoul, South Korea. Within a few days, I'll start studying Korean for 4 hours a day at Sogang University's Korean Language Education Center while living in a hasukjib (하숙집) unitl August 17. Every aspect of my daily life - my learning, my speaking, my thinking, and even my name (my Korean name = 장미, romanized to Jangmi, which means "rose," which is my middle name - I can't believe that I'll be spending my summer as Jangmi instead of Dana) will be in Korean. What?

Well, I suppose that my first task with this blog ought to be to answer the question that absolutely everybody who hears about my summer plans asks: Why Korean? To dismiss the first potential response, no, I am not studying Korean because my lovely friend and suitemate Hayeon Lee told me to. Truthfully, I probably would never have become interested in Korea had I not lived with her for two years - but the decision to start learning Korean was actually my idea. I had always intended to take another language at Yale, and once Hayeon started teaching me some dorky amateur phrases and played me some Super Junior, I was hooked. I fell in love with learning as much about the culture (vastly different from my own Italian-American upbringing) as possible. Plus, the Richard U. Light Fellowship is one fabulous, fabulous incentive - really, I can't express enough thanks for providing me with this amazing opportunity. Learning Korean at Yale is great, especially if you're taking a class with Angela (Lee Sunsaengnim), but there is really no better way to do it than by totally immersing yourself in the language and the culture. I'm incredibly grateful that Yale and the Light Fellowship understand this and have worked together to make this possible for over 100 students every year.

Funnily enough, there is actually a lot riding on this summer. Since starting to learn Korean, I have increasingly been thinking of the potential future that knowing this lanuguage could lead to. Since I have very little idea of what to do after graduation, opportunities like the Fulbright Fellowship and the year-long Light Fellowship seem like excellent options...so if I like it living in South Korea this summer, I'll arguably have a great deal more direction that I currently do, and much more of a concrete plan. It's scary to think about - I'm trying not to go in with too many ridiculous expectations, but I'll admit that this summer could actually make or break a lot of things. Once again, holy crap.

For the next 2 weeks, I suppose I'll be trying to relax and ready myself as much as I possibly can for what's to come. There's a ton that I need to do - when I think about all the crap I need to buy, I feel like going back to bed. I also need to study up for my placement test, which is in like, 6 days (I can't believe I just finished finals and need to start studying again). Truly, it never really ends. But I am ridiculously excited.

If you're interested, my schedule looks kind of like this:
May 27: Fly to South Korea (eek!)
June 1: Classes start at Sogang
August 14: Classes end
August 17: Fly home to NY

I'm sure I'll be updating with some regularity, and if you're reading this, I probably miss you. A lot.