It is a truth universally acknowledged that a travel blogger, in waiting too long for a first post must inevitably psych herself out. If there is a hard-and-fast rule of blogging, it is that first posts suck. You can't help it. It's the way things are.
As I sit here, typing one-handed while eating a tasty 500 won (that's $0.44) watermelon popsicle, I can't help but feel that I've been putting off my first post unnecessarily. Sure, time has passed and much has happened in my almost three weeks. Yes, it's hard to know where and how to begin. Of course, I am terrified I won't live up to my own authorial expectations. But first posts suck. There's a sort of comfort in knowing it before you begin. Survey says you get two visits on your first post who aren't you, and one is your mom. (Hey, Mom.)
I could not have been more ready to leave America at the moment when I did, and with all my delays and lowered expectations (more on that later, possibly, maybe), the sentimentality of what I was doing did not really hit me until I was fully on the plane. How Bilbo Baggins of me! I was doing it! Flying over Indiana, flying away from deli work and an emotionally grueling college career!
...and from everything I have ever known. How very Bilbo of me.
And how naive of me to not realize that his share of bittersweet misgivings - which as a child, and even as an adult, I viewed as a prudish lack of adventure of his part - would have to be borne by me for a while as well. I got everything I asked for - and everything that comes with such a change. And that, I suppose, has much to do with the late start of this blog as well.
On a related note, a special shout-out to the Chinese-born professor from Wisconsin who sat on a plane with me for fourteen hours straight. The most relevant advice about moving to Asia I received was from you. And some of the kindest things ever said as well, seeing as I came to them by someone who knew me for less than a day. I wish I could remember your name, but honestly, I couldn't even pronounce it. Thank you. For showing me how to eat the airline food, for getting me my correct order when I was too shy, for watching the Hunger Games with me, for being interested in my opinions on the adult education system in America, for convincing me to sleep. <3
It would be unseemly to go into any more detail for a first post. I have an apartment to show you, a neighborhood to help you explore, the thoughts of a first-time teacher to confess, a lot of crazy quotes from my students, an abundance of pictures, and more food stories than anyone needs. I will do my best to get it all out there quickly, so that we might get to more of a day-to-day updating system. Be expecting some chronologically unsound recounting in the next week or so. It is my summer vacation for the next three days.
Until then, welcome to my blog. My writing is not what it used to be, but thus shall I practice. :D
Victoria
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
J.R.R. Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien
